Anti-Eno Drive activists: Honor compromise

DURHAM -- With a hard-won compromise on Eno Drive in hand, longtime opponents of the controversial road project turned their attentions Wednesday to making sure the compromise is honored by the state Department of Transportation.

Leaders from Durham, Orange and Chatham counties who serve on the region’s Transportation Advisory Committee released a draft list of road projects planned for the next seven years. The plan, called the Transportation Improvement Program or TIP, is updated every two years.

The TAC recently completed the area’s 2025 long-range transportation plan, which still needs final federal and local approval. Formulating the TIP is the next, more refined step in the transportation planning process.

The final TIP will be negotiated between local officials and DOT. Activists want to make sure the state honors a deal they struck with Mayor Bill Bell and others that certain roads, including the popular East End Connector, would be built before the most controversial northern section of the latest Eno Drive route, also called the Revised Northern Durham Parkway.

"There is a lack of trust between many people in Durham and the NCDOT," said Caleb Southern, an organizer of a loose coalition of neighborhood associations and other groups against Eno Drive. "The people of Durham are not going to go away."

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, members elected Carrboro Alderman Alex Zaffron and Durham City Councilman John Best Jr., who was absent, as new chairman and vice chairman of the TAC.

"We ask you to remain unwavering in your commitment" to the compromise, said Don Moffitt, president of the Eno River Association.

Anne M. Peele of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the Revised Northern Durham Parkway, saying better access to Treyburn Corporate Park and other areas to the north would create jobs.

The compromise calls for several projects to move forward before construction can begin on the section of Eno Drive slated for north of Interstate 85, running from Glenn School Road along Old Oxford Road and eventually along Snow Hill Road ending at Roxboro Road.

But DOT does not necessarily have to honor the order, even though local elected representatives would negotiate hard for it, they have said.

According to the compromise:

-- The East End Connector would be built first. It would connect U.S. 70 with the Durham Freeway. Eno Drive opponents argue that the connector would provide the needed loop-like effect intended by Eno Drive and allow traffic to move unobstructed from the northeast around Durham and southeast toward Raleigh or west toward Orange County and other points.

-- U.S. 70 to the Wake County line would be upgraded to a faster-moving limited access freeway. The upgrade would also help negate the need for a loop, Southern said.

-- Interstate 85 would be widened from U.S. 70 to Red Mill Road and then the section of the Eno Drive involving Old Oxford Road would be built.

-- The northeast section of Eno Drive would be built, running from U.S. 70 at the Wake County line near the airport north along a new route to Glenn School Road at I-85. Only then would the northern section of the drive be built.

Most at the meeting suggested removing the road from the TIP until a future revision so DOT would not be tempted to move ahead on it.

"If DOT does not agree to the order of the projects then remove Eno Drive completely," said Larry Holt, a long-time opponent of the project.