This Charlotte-area intersection saw 63 wrecks in 4 1/2 years. Why has no one fixed it?
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This Charlotte-area intersection saw 63 wrecks in 4 1/2 years. Why has no one fixed it?
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in an occasional series of articles about dangerous Charlotte-area intersections and why they haven’t been fixed. Know of one? Send an email to Joe Marusak at jmarusak@charlotteobserver .com.
David Allison finally had it with the potholes, traffic jams and injury wrecks on the Union County road he has lived near since 2004.
Potter Road at Pleasant Plains Road in Stallings has had 63 crashes, 11 injuries and $429,000 in property damage over the past 4 1/2 years, according to data he obtained from the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Allison took to the internet to demand that Stallings and NCDOT finally address the dangerous conditions that residents have complained about “forever,” he told The Charlotte Observer last week.
Turn lanes and a new drainage system promised in 2013 have yet to be installed.
The 70-year-old Allison is a retired utilities inspector for the city of Charlotte.
In May, he began holding a sign at the intersection pleading for help for the overburdened two-lane road.
The intersection lies along the final mile-long stretch of Potter Road that leads into the town of Matthews.
Besides meeting with town and NCDOT officials, Allison also paid for drone photography of the traffic mess and created a “Fix Potter Road” Facebook page and website to drum up grassroots support.
“I’m tired of people complaining and doing nothing, so this is all my time and money,” he told the Observer.
He and other residents received a bit of good news this past weekend: The draft state budget approved by the N.C. House now includes $1.6 million for the intersection, according to the project’s page on the Stallings town website. That would leave about $500,000 for the town to pony up.
The state budget could take “awhile” to be finalized, however, town officials said on the page. And “the details of this funding, such as what restrictions might come with it, are not yet clear,” they wrote.
Fed-up residents and drivers
On his Fix Potter Road Facebook page, Allison says: “I am a long-time resident of Stallings and, like thousands of others, I have grown impatient with the delays, excuses and lack of action by our elected officials and NC DOT toward improving the Potter Road and Pleasant Plains Road intersection.”
Over 900 people have joined his cause online.
Responding on Facebook, resident Victoria Efird said she feels like the intersection is “one of the most dangerous in Union County.”
Wrote Charlottean Carol Gamber on Facebook: “For the last 7 years my nickname for the intersection has been ‘The Intersection of Death’ because you take your life into your own hands whenever a left turn is needed.”
Where is the work?
The town has promised since 2013 to address the woeful intersection, according to a project timeline on the Stallings website. A year later, town officials signed a funding agreement with NCDOT.
The project calls for left-turn lanes at the intersection and drainage and other improvements.
Poor drainage caused by the original design of Potter Road creates potholes and standing pools of water, NCDOT Deputy Division Engineer Jeff Littlefield told the Observer in a phone interview on Aug. 11.
Allison and other residents said they are fed up with the lack of progress to improve the intersection, which is 15 miles east of uptown Charlotte.
Population soars
Housing communities and retail developments cropped up over the years and continue to be built in the Potter Road area, making traffic intolerable, residents said.
Developments include the Harris Teeter-anchored Shops at Austin Village; the Ambriant at Austin Village retirement community; the Harper’s Run 108-unit townhome community by MI Homes; the Walden Austin Village active older adult community; and the CallonWood housing community, Allison said.
Stallings’ population grew 16.5% from 2010 to 2020, to 16,112, according to 2020 Census data released on Thursday, the (Raleigh) News & Observer reported.
Union County soared by 18.4% overall since 2010 to 238,267, according to the N&O. The county ranked eighth most populous in the state in 2020, compared with 10th in 2010, the newspaper reported.
COVID factor
The COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame for delays in improving Potter Road at its worst intersection, Littlefield said.
In April 2020, NCDOT put the project and many others across the state on hold “due to anticipated COVID related funding shortfall,” according to the project timeline on the Stallings website.
In March, the design consultant for the project reported that anticipated costs had “escalated significantly due to current market conditions, right-of-way costs, and other factors,” town officials said on the timeline site.
The added costs “would essentially deplete the majority of the Town’s available fund balance reserves,” officials wrote on the site.
In June, the town learned that the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization approved the town’s request for help covering its budget shortfall for the project.
The approval was part of an overall $11 million the organization OK’d for transportation projects in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Union counties, according to an announcement by the organization at the time.
The town is responsible for paying nearly $2.1 million for the project, Stallings Town Manager Alex Sewell said last week.
Temporary fixes
Littlefield said the state hasn’t established a timeline for the project but has made temporary fixes near the intersection.
Since June, DOT crews twice patched gaping potholes and made other shoulder improvements to Potter Road, most recently two weeks ago, he said.
“We have been working with the town pretty feverishly” to fix the intersection, Littlefield said.
By the end of September, NCDOT also plans to have added two left-turn arrow signals to the traffic lights at the intersection, he said.
Northbound Potter Road drivers will see an arrow allowing them to turn left onto Pleasant Plains Road, and so will eastbound Pleasant Plains Road drivers turning left onto Potter Road, Littlefield and DOT spokeswoman Jennifer Thompson said.
Latest plan ’solves little’
Having the new signal arrows, however, “solves very little,” Allison said.
Littlefield, who has met with Allison at the intersection, acknowledged that the arrows won’t cure the Potter Road mess.
He said NCDOT has worked closely with the town for years to address Potter Road issues and will do so as long as it takes.
In a post Wednesday on his Fix Potter Road Facebook page, Allison updated progress on the arrows and urged residents to actively join in the cause for a better road.
“Another day, another line of traffic!” he posted. “Got a call from NCDOT this morning and the forms to install the turn arrow are in transit for approval. Beware according to DOT stats Wednesday is the most likely day for a crash at this intersection ... Information is power!
“Also if anyone has the ability to run for office in Stallings the filing deadline is Friday.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 6:00 AM.