City Council approves Hillsborough Street design

Raleigh, N.C. — The City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to approve the design of improvements to Hillsborough Street, including roundabouts.

The topic is not new. The city has been talking about improving Hillsborough Street for years. The question has been how to best do it.

Hillsborough Street is a corridor of history, having been around as long as Raleigh has been the state capital. But city planners have said it is time for Hillsborough to be updated.

Proponents want the main thoroughfare through North Carolina State University to be more walkable. The idea is to encourage people to mill around and spend money in local businesses, and to make that happen, planners say the city needs to slow things down.

The plan approved Tuesday involves the section of road between Oberlin Road and Gardner Street. That section would have more parking and a raised median to help students cross the street safely.

The city is also planning two traffic circles. One would go at Pullen Road, and a smaller roundabout would be just north of Hillsborough Street, on Oberlin Road at Groveland Avenue.

Burying power lines and improving the way the street looks also is part of the plan.

In 2005, voters approved Hillsborough roundabouts as part of a $60 million bond referendum for road improvements. Construction could begin next year.

17 Comments

WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

VIEW ALL 17 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments

This is a street in Raleigh. Why not call it something else? The Triangle has too much repetition of city/town names for streets. Way too confusing and I've been here for 15 years!

Tired Of Excuses
October 3, 2007 6:44 p.m.

Just another way the city is wasting tax payers money. Change the streets and then close them down like they do downtown for the bike feast. Isnt it great-- they open the streets for traffic and then they close then back down. Raleigh has a wonderful mayor and city council. It is always about spending more money. Wonder how much money it cost the bike people for Raleigh to close up the streets for the weekend. Having a bike feast downtown is certainly a wonderful opportunity for people to take their kids and enjoy the weekend. Pehaps they wanna go down to Mrytle Beach during the summer when they having their bike weeks.

superman
October 3, 2007 2:54 p.m.

Franklin Street is different than Hillsborough in one very important way: The retail/business area of Franklin Street does not actually open up to campus until you get to McCallister's Deli, so you have both sides of a street for commercial, as opposed to a single side that entirely faces the campus. Thus more of a retail development that stands alone from campus can be created in CH rather than the college dominated services on Hillsborough. This is why you have TOTH, Old Navy, etc on Franklin and a series of rundown restaraunts, bowling alleys and c-stores on hillborough. Franklin is a destination area, and could conceivably stand alone as such without the college patrons, due to the layout. Hillsborough is not so lucky.

pleshy
October 3, 2007 11:39 a.m.

The traffic circle across from the design school seems to be working well, though most of the traffic is thru traffic on Pullen.

flashlight
October 3, 2007 9:27 a.m.

"Get rid of the UGLY Industrial Street" I am amazed that people think Hillsborough street is fine, "it is a Disgusting Street", nothing has changed in years. This is NC State's street, it's a joke compared to Franklin. State should be embarrassed to be associated with this street (and State has a design school, do they design anything?). Close it from the beltline to downtown (get rid of those ugly brick sidewalks) and re-do the streets, lighting and sidewalks.

atc2
October 3, 2007 8:58 a.m.