I-540 Connector To Change Falls Of Neuse Traffic

When I-540 finally opens to Falls of Neuse Road, commuters will exit a multi-lane interstate to a two-lane winding road. Even without all those extra cars from 540, Falls of Neuse is already packed for afternoon commuters.

The traffic from the 540/Falls of Neuse intersection flows right past Bill and Dixie Poteat's house.

"I just can't imagine it being double or triple the traffic there is now, I just can't imagine how that's going to be," Bill Poteat says.

While their grandson Will rocks back and forth on the old rope swing, it Is the Poteats who say they're swinging in the middle. In the middle of a huge new interstate, and a connector road that's already overstuffed.

It's unreal, it's just so crowded. They just sit there for a long time just waiting to move a few inches or feet," Dixie Poteat says.

By July 2002, transportation engineers say that the intersection of Raven Ridge and Falls of Neuse will be a five lane divided highway back to 540. That should help with the traffic flow, but north of the intersection, back up to Falls Dam and the Wakefield area, nothing is funded or approved. There will still be a two-lane bottleneck.

No one knows yet exactly how things will work out on overloaded Falls of Neuse at I-540. But some drivers, and some people who live in the changing neighborhood, say they've already figured it out.

"I just feel like crying. If it would do any good, I'd just bawl."

Department of transportation crews will shut down Six Forks road between Durant Road and Baileywick Road over the weekend for some 540 related work. The road will be closed from 7 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Monday.