By Andy Foshee
Pittsboro, NC – A day or two ago there was a post with links to check out a new North Chatham Park Way bypass. The maps were a little confusing, but once you get the idea they basically have ‘North’ pointed almost straight down they start to make sense.
Folks are saying that it’ll hurt business and/or be nice because it will route trucks away from the circle in downtown Pittsboro. I don’t think it will do either.
First, when we got the 64 bypass that goes by Lowe’s and our cardiac specials – sorry, ‘fast food franchises’ – I seem to recall some interviews with downtown business owners that said they saw an INCREASE in business because their customers felt safer driving, parking, and walking in the downtown area. Cool! That’s progression I can get behind.
Secondly, if you look where the new road will go, it probably won’t impact downtown Pittsboro in any appreciable way. That new connector that just went in by Pittsboro Christian Village? That road connects to the new overpass between the Haw River and 15/501. That new overpass is where the road we’re all talking about will go. The other end is near the water treatment plant just North of town on 15/501, across from Russell Chapel Church Road.
So this isn’t a bypass at all, because it doesn’t bypass anything at all. Any trucks coming from the south or wanting to head south will still have to go through downtown Pittsboro.
If it isn’t a bypass, then what is it? Simply put, it’s a new road with several intersections that goes right through Chatham Park – it will be their “main street”.
It will certainly be an aid to folks living in the neighborhoods along 15/501 if they want to head towards south Wake County. But again they are already either taking back roads or only going south as far as the existing 64 bypass. Their routes didn’t take them into Pittsboro.
I’m not saying this is good, nor am I saying it’s bad – just trying to set the record straight. Of course I might have misread the maps and if so I need to be corrected. If I’m right, however, then lets see this for what it is – a road that will allow an increase in traffic for Chatham Park.
It is not a bypass for Pittsboro at all.