Neighborhood could be impacted by new bridge over Raleigh's Beltline near Midtown

Right now, the city is drawing up plans for a new bridge across the Beltline. The bridge would offer two lanes for cars with a bike and pedestrian path for Big Branch Greenway. There are three proposed locations for that crossing – but some neighborhoods could be affected.

All three of the proposed routes for the bridge would bring traffic to Barrett Drive from the new development on the other side of the interstate.

Cynthia Currin, who owns four office condos in Barrett Square, describes the area as "a wonderful neighborhood of businesses" tucked away in a little pocket.

Now, Currin's location puts her building in the path of a proposed bridge over the interstate.

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"The bridge would come right through here, through Barrett Square office condos," she says.

It would dump all the bridge traffic onto Barrett Drive where the office condos are today.

An alternative proposed route would build a bridge to a roundabout for traffic to go to Barrett Drive or Wake Towne Drive.

The third option would build a straight road with intersections to both drives, built over a tree-covered lot just inside the Beltline.

Right now, Wake Towne Drive comes to a dead end at that tree lot, and Barrett Drive borders it on the other.

The bridge would connect all the new development rising along St. Albans Drive to the other side of the interstate.

The project was the top priority in the 2020 Walkable Midtown Plan that Larry Helfant and the neighborhood citizen's advisory council helped put together.

"We're not going to stop development. It's continuing in every open lot around here. There's so much going on before the city spends the money on the roadways," says Helfant.

Currin hopes the city chooses one of the two routes that doesn't destroy what's already here.

"It's a much better choice, not only to save these businesses and existing buildings but also because the design of traffic there," she says.

Matt: The cost to build the bridge is estimated at $18.5 million on the low end. Right now, the city does not have any funding set aside for it. MT, WRAL News,