Ahead of I-26 Connector designs, Asheville hears Patton concepts: Road diet, roundabouts

ASHEVILLE - The city is developing a plan for the Patton Avenue corridor, from the Jeff Bowen Bridge to the easternmost terminus at Pack Square, and preliminary concepts imagine a new gateway to downtown to transition the road from a suburban highway to a more urban form.

Civil engineering firm McAdams presented early proposals at a May 29 public open house, which include a four-to- three lane road diet; a roundabout at the intersection of Patton and Clingman avenues; and a Hilliard Avenue extension, tying the street directly into Patton Avenue to create another outlet for drivers.

It's a reimagining 100 years in the making, said Urban Planner Vaidila Satvika. He pointed to the Nolen Plan from the 1920s that envisioned a "Patton Square" at the Clingman and Patton avenues intersection.

There are "incredible possibilities" for the corridor, he added, but as Asheville awaits final Interstate-26 Connector designs, key variables remain unknown.

Downtown's 'western gateway'

In the banquet hall of Harrah's Cherokee Center May 29, the concept was laid out along several adjoining tables. People scrawled input with sharpies directly on the plan — circled problem areas, denoted questions and encouragements. Others feathered sticky notes across the design. Things like: "Prioritize the pedestrian, prioritize the future."

The impending I-26 Connector is poised to be among the most consequential in Asheville's history, and with it comes an unprecedented opportunity to reshape downtown's western "gateway," which could mean a new vision for Patton Avenue, a road central to the city's identity.

The $1.3 billion N.C. Department of Transportation project will design a median-divided freeway, accessible only by interchanges, that will connect I-26 in southwest Asheville to U.S. 19/23/70 throughout northwest Asheville.

Of its five sections, one will create a new crossing of the French Broad River, removing a "significant amount of traffic" from the Bowen Bridge and converting the current interchange on Patton Avenue between the bridge and downtown into a new intersection with traffic signals.

From an aerial view, it would untangle a vital entrance to downtown, creating a local roadway connecting drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and others between downtown, West Asheville and the now cut-off Hillcrest neighborhood.

The design-build contract for this portion of the project was awarded to Archer-Wright Joint Venture in May. Over the next six months, NCDOT and Archer-Wright will work on designs to optimize the construction plan and reduce the cost for the project.

The roadways to the west of Clingman Avenue, and the land surrounding the snarl of highways and interchanges, is NCDOT right of way. The city controls the corridor eastward into downtown. Its $220,000 contract with McAdams, primarily funded with federal dollars, is intended to create a long-term vision for the corridor.

How will the city's concept tie into NCDOT plans?

Satvika said NCDOT's work to refine the designs over the next several months may present an opportunity, and he hopes the city and McAdams can engage with the department to attempt to further align their plans.

The city pushed back on initial proposals from NCDOT, he said, with the hope of achieving something more "downtown-like." Chris Joyell, director of healthy communities for MountainTrue, shared this concern.

Joyell, former executive director of Asheville Design Center, who has been advocating around the project since the early aughts, told the Citizen Times June 3 that he is excited about McAdams' plans for the corridor.

“My biggest reservation really is around the black box that is that area between Clingman Avenue and the Bowen Bridge right now, and trying to figure out what (NCDOT) is going to do with that newly reclaimed area,” he said.

Joyell and others call for a design that will tie neatly into city plans — like reducing the planned the speed limit of NCDOT's section of Patton Avenue from 35 mph to 25 mph, and committing to concepts of "a compact urban corridor."

"That's what we've been asking for since 2006," Joyell said. As proposed, he couldn't help but see a "lack of harmony" between the two plans.

“The question is, once you come off that bridge, what’s waiting for you?" Joyell said. "Is it a sun-bleached area that no one wants to navigate on a summer day or is it something more compact and pleasant to walk?"

What's proposed?

• Roundabouts for Patton/Clingman and Hilliard/Clingman avenues. Conceptual plans show a traffic circle at the intersection of Hilliard and West Haywood Street, near the parcel slated for 41 deeply-affordable apartments.

• A road diet for Patton Avenue on its half-mile stretch from Clingman Avenue to Pritchard Park. Currently two lanes of traffic travel in either direction, the conversion would reduce the road to two through-lanes and a center turning lane/median. It would add bike lanes on each side of the road. The project would tie into the incoming College Street and Patton Avenue bike lanes, approved by council in a divided October vote.

• A Hilliard Avenue extension connecting the street into Patton Avenue, intended to give drivers another way to exit before Clingman Avenue.

The project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to "reshape our city," Joyell said.

“Our downtown only has one direction that it can grow in, and if it’s going to grow westward, then we want to be able to see infrastructure that matches the kind of growth that we want. And I think what the city is proposing, what McAdams is proposing, that’s exactly the kind of downtown that we would like to see."

Now what?

Will Letchworth???, with McAdams, stressed that these are early concepts. Feedback from the May meeting, and conversations with corridor business owners, would help to further refine the plan, he said.

He hoped to have a final plan ready for adoption by August. There is no funding currently set aside for the project.

Learn more

Find out more and view maps at ashevillenc.gov/projects/downtown-patton-avenue-corridor-feasibility-study/.

Feedback can also be sent to [email protected].

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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville Patton Avenue corridor study: Roundabouts, road diet