CARY, NC – Work begins today on the construction of the long-awaited widening of the southernmost section of Walnut Street. Approved by Cary voters in the 1999 Cary Community Bonds Referendum, this $5.3 million project begins about 1500 feet south of Dillard Drive and continues to Holly Springs Road. This .8-mile project is a six lane median-divided roadway and includes realigning and signalizing the Walnut Street / Tryon Road intersection. An official groundbreaking was held on the morning of September 11. Citizens should see work beginning along this roadway during the next couple of weeks, and the project should be completed during the fall of 2002.

Walnut Street is a major thoroughfare that runs from the southeast edge of town to downtown Cary, with traffic counts of 20,000-30,000 vehicles per day.

"Completion of this project should significantly improve traffic flow and ease congestion," said Town of Cary Engineering Services Manager and project director Joe Moore. "The project is extremely important to citizens living, working, and doing business in the eastern parts of Cary."

Another Walnut improvement project is also underway by the Town. While a construction schedule has not yet been finalized, design has begun on the widening of the section north of Dillard Drive, which will include an additional northbound lane from Dillard to the bridge at US 1 & 64 and another southbound lane from the bridge to Piney Plains Road.

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