U.S. 401 in Garner to widen to six lanes, left turns removed

More than a mile of U.S. 401 in Garner is set to be rebuilt into a six-lane, median-divided roadway, and the change will reshape how drivers reach homes, shops and parking lots along one of the town’s busiest commercial corridors. North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said Conti Civil LLC won a nearly $26 million contract for the work, which will run from south of Old Stage Road to south of Mechanical Boulevard.

The project is designed to do more than add pavement. NCDOT said the corridor will get turn lanes at intersections as needed, Reduced Conflict Intersections and synchronized traffic signals. The agency said synchronized streets remove left-hand turns from side streets to reduce crash risk and traffic delays. Sidewalks and high-visibility crosswalks will also be added through a cost-sharing agreement with the Town of Garner.

For daily commuters, that means a different driving pattern along U.S. 401, also known as Fayetteville Road. Drivers who now turn directly from side streets will face new access arrangements, and businesses along the corridor, including the area near the Walmart in Garner, could see slower trips in and out while work is underway. NCDOT has said the project will include access changes to private property and parking lots, though it hoped no buildings would need to be demolished.

The safety case for the redesign has been building for years. NCDOT’s 2018 presentation to Garner Town Council said there were 366 crashes in the five-year period ending in 2016 and that the department was planning for 40% growth by 2040. ABC11 reported that more than 200 injuries occurred during that period and that the superstreet design was believed to cut the crash rate in half. The same presentation showed 2040 no-build delay levels of 139.3 seconds and 142.7 seconds, compared with 73.6 seconds and 67.8 seconds under the build scenario.

NCDOT has long framed the project as a response to growth on the corridor. Its fact sheet projected 48,000 vehicles per day by 2020, with 2040 traffic reaching 60,000 vehicles per day north of Old Stage Road and 45,000 south of it. The project was first laid out publicly at an Aug. 16, 2018 meeting at Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church, and NCDOT’s 2026 letting documents identify the job as Contract No. C204512, WBS 48000.3.1, under TIP project U-5302.

Construction timing has not yet been announced in the notes, but NCDOT said it will begin weekly email updates once work starts. For Garner, the payoff is still ahead, while the traffic pain will arrive first on the road itself.