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WHAT’S GOING ON? Crew Installs Traffic Lights at N.C. 105, Poplar Grove Road, On By August 5 or 6

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Workers performing a part of the stoplight installation process. The traffic light should be operating normally after the first week in August. Photo by Ken Ketchie

By Jesse Wood

July 25, 2013. Mooresville-based Consolidated Power Inc. is currently installing a traffic light at the intersection of Poplar Grove Road and N.C. 105.

Chris Brown, N.C. Department of Transportation Division 11 traffic engineer, said the installation of the stoplights should be completed for an inspection that is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. If the inspection goes well, Brown said his department would put the lights on flash at the end of July.

“Generally, we leave it on flash for [about a] week to let motorists get used to it,” Brown said.

If all goes to plan, Brown said the lights will operate normally on Monday or Tuesday, Aug. 5 or 6.

“That’s what we are shooting for anyway,” Brown said, adding that “snags and weather” may pose delays.

With the usage of Poplar Grove Road to skirt highway traffic and the new 900-bedroom Capstone Cottages of Boone development, which has been planned all along to open for the fall semester, the N.C. Department of Transportation agreed to have the traffic lights installed at the request of local officials.

There will be no light at Poplar Grove Road South, which is the access road to the Cottages of Boone, because the NCDOT didn’t want to lump together too many lights, Brown said. The N.C. 105 Bypass intersection is nearby as well.  

Along with the stoplights, crosswalks will be present. Greg Miller, streets superintendent with the Town of Boone, said the town is adding curb cuts (ramps) for the disabled that will connect to the crosswalks and a short section of sidewalk.

“Eventually, there will be a sidewalk that comes all the way up 105, but that’ll be a while,” Miller said.