Thursday, November 4, 2010

latest statement from NC Parks re: parking and paving

Paul contacted Charles Peek for additional information about the proposed plans for parking and paving at Umstead as informal conversations with a PAC member and a ranger had provided somewhat contradictory information. Please see below for Mr Peek's response via e-mail. We are pleased to see that paving the gravel surface road leading to the Sycamore Day Use area is not withing the scope of this project. What is unclear is whether paving is still under consideration for the future. As we have previously stated, paving would significantly worsen the current significant safety issues involving cars traveling too fast, and runners/bikers/etc. not following basic safety rules. To quote one of the rangers, "paving was a stupid idea."


Mr. Fisher,

Your idea to share information about the project on our website is indeed a good one. It would be to the benefit of the park and the community for everyone to have a clear idea of how traffic patterns at William B. Umstead State Park will be altered by our plans to add parking and access areas. Unfortunately, we are not quite to that point, yet. The effort to improve traffic flow at both the visitor center and the Sycamore Day Use Area is a joint project of DPR and the DOT. Details of the project are still undergoing revision and it’s yet to be decided which portions of the project will be undertaken by DOT and which may be bid to contractors.

To recap, the major components of the project are:
To improve and widen the gravel-surface road to the Sycamore Day Use area (This road would not be paved in the scope of this project.);
To improve the Sycamore parking area with better organization for passenger vehicles and horse trailers and with a new gravel surface;
To construct a section of multi-use trail to link the Sycamore parking area to the multi-use trail network;
And, to create a new parking area on an unused roadbed behind the visitor center. This one-way spur is expected to accommodate up to 58 vehicles.

The state parks system is committed to this project, although it’s obvious that state budget constraints and other current priorities may slow our progress a bit more than we’d like. But, we will make plans to display progress on the project on our website when construction is imminent. As always, thanks for your interest in the park.
chp
Charlie Peek
Public Information Officer
N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation
919.715-8709
Mobile 919.218.4622