MARCH 11, 2010 ISSUE
Question Around the Office
Why and When Was the Speed Limit Changed on Boone’s Wilson Ridge Road?
A reader emailed us this week and asked, “Can you try and find out when they changed the speed limit to 35 mph on Wilson Ridge Road and why? I can’t hardly make it up the hill from the Deerfield side at that slow a speed!”
We asked Dean Ledbetter, traffic engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) 11th Highway Division, why and when the speed limit was changed.
“The process [to change the speed limit] was a result of an investigation [NCDOT] did because of reports of runoff road crashes on that road’s curves,” explained Ledbetter. “[Wilson Ridge Road] has also been flagged from a statewide level as a high accident location.”
To make the road safer, Ledbetter drafted an ordinance to reduce the speed limit on Wilson Ridge Road to 35 mph, effective December 25, 2009. Although the ordinance was approved in December 2009, signs denoting the speed limit reduction were not installed until January.
Ledbetter said the curvature of Wilson Ridge Road limits the speed at which motorists can travel, and that 35 mph is much safer, considering.
In the coming months, said Ledbetter, NCDOT will install overhead streetlights and warning signs along portions of the road to increase safety, “and we hope to eventually do some widening and improve some of the banks on the curves,” he added.
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