Dec. 4. Cornelius will share the cost to prepare an application for a federal grant regarding a new Exit 27 with Atrium Health Lake Norman.
Local government and business officials have been advocating an exit near the Westmoreland Road crossover to help relieve traffic. With the new hospital on Hwy. 21 scheduled to open next year, traffic in the area will become even more congested.
Town Board backing
According to Deputy Town Manager Wayne Herron, the estimated cost of the grant application is $69,500 with the town paying one half, or $34,750. The expenditure was unanimously approved by the Town Board Monday night.
The NCDOT, which previously estimated the cost of the new exit to be in excess of $100 million, has not yet designated the project for funding due to the amount.
A report from the Ferguson Consulting Group in Mooresville suggested that the NCDOT estimate was too high, and that a RAISE federal planning grant might provide a better funding pathway to get the project off the ground.
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program is a competitive grant program that provides federal funding for surface transportation infrastructure projects
Details
• A cost-sharing agreement with Atrium will be established for the RAISE grant application preparation, with the town and Atrium sharing the cost.
• The town will also enter into an agreement with Kimley-Horne consultants of Charlotte for the actual grant application preparation.
• The town’s General Fund balance will be used to pay for for the Town’s share of the planning project application.
Herron told the commissioners that Atrium did not hesitate to split the grant preparation cost.
Quotable
“In my opinion, that makes this an excellent grant opportunity for the town,” Herron said.
Why isn’t Atrium paying for the whole grant application?
Most of the area for the grant is on Atrium’s property.
They certainly didn’t add any infrastructure improvements to Statesville Road.
I want to see pictures of the cars that will be run off the road by an ambulance when they open.
Why isn’t Atrium paying for the whole grant application?
answer – why pay ALL when you can pay half?
So I guess our lovely town commissioners will want to raise our tax for this and they are already TOO HIGH.
Not to mention that you are putting an exit on top of homes, and where is the crime study for projects like this????
Between a hospital and all the riff raff, Cornelius will not be the little safe town any longer.
Westmoreland flyover is the only way to avoid the 77 congestion. The hospital and Westmoreland development will overload that byway as an option. No good time to go down to Target area these days. Goodbye old Cornelius.
I consider myself lucky to be at exit 28, where the traffic is less than exit 36.
I don’t understand the thinking that things should always stay the same, without any changes.
When your loved one needs to be rushed immediately to the nearest hospital you will be singing the praises of the quick response and short drive time to the nearest new hospital.
I would rather stay on the positive side of life than the negative. Oh well, some people are only happy when they complain and whine.
They need to take away the tolls and just have no tolls and have the highway opened up beside Gilead rd exit 23 all the way to mooresville where the tolls starts- which will give semi trucks and all vehicles enough room to maneuver and there won’t be traffic and congestion and the traffic will move along just right but keep the tolls near uptown. The traffic is getting ridiculous and the tolls are just pointless and stupid- vehicles are coming outta the ramp going into the highway 77 and cars starts stopping and traffic starts and same with the tolls- cars enter into the tolls then they exit the tolls into normal highway and traffic starts- whoever created this is STUPID. IM NOT HAPPY WITH NORTH CAROLINA- BAD ROADS,BAD RAMPS, FULL OF TRAFFIC, BAD TRAFFIC LIGHTS- ONE TRAFFIC LIGHT IS GREEN THE OTHER RED AND CARS ARE ALREADY BLOCKING THE FREEKIN ROAD. SOON THIS WILL BE BROOKLYN NEW YORK- FULL OF FREEKIN TRAFFIC.
I’m down at exit 36 and it’s terrible every day. I guess you’re gonna know what I’m talking about soon enough. Good luck with that.
The traffic on Westmorland is already
bumper to bumper in the mornings with parents taking their children to the Elementary school and those going to work and in the afternoons with parents returning home from work and picking up their kids. Due to the new homes being built at Alexander Farms and small shops and apartments that are going to go up traffic will be horrendous!
Westmorland and US21-Statesville Road will also need to be widened! Traffic on West Catawba needs to be widened also because traffic is always backlogged in the afternoon!
We the people living in these areas are tired of the congestion and the home and car break-ins. We need more Police patrolling our streets!
Completely agree! Why take an already overloaded road and add to the chaos? It seems like we approve projects first and do traffic planning second. The backups on Statesville and Westmoreland are already awful. How about we let the projects be completed and see how the traffic is and then make decisions? Alexander Farms is already a mess with stalled development and Lidl pulling out. Slow down on the growth stuff already. We don’t even recognize our town anymore.