Durham's City Council has approved the Phase E contract with Blythe Construction of Charlotte. We understand it will include a dual surface section from the Chatham County line to Scott-King Road. Durham has not released a specific schedule for the project but has previously indicated that construction would take ~13 months from the actual start of work. The contractor is expected to start work approximately June 1st. Public meetings to outline construction plans and the impacts on trail users during construction will be held on May 14th, 15th and 17th. To keep up with specific events, trail closure dates, and progress please check the Public Works Dept. web site periodically.

April 11 Update: Contract approved by NCDOT. See recent Herald-Sun article on the latest step toward construction

2/16 Update:The bid opening was delayed again- to Feb. 22. Apparently there was some concern about part of the instructions. The city made updates, but wanted the potential firms to have more time to review the changes.
The bid opening for Phase E construction scheduled for January 25th did not occur since there were only two bids rather than the three required by State rules. Durham will now re-advertise the project to try and elicit a third bid. We understand that the City does foresee opening this next round of bids as soon as February 15th but this might be a bit later. The pre-bid conference is now scheduled for February 7th. For more on the rebid see recent Herald-Sun article.
To keep up with the City's schedule and progress on Phase E, please see the Public Works Dept. web site.

Citizens in Apex who regularly cycle over to the ATT are now speaking out for Apex or possibly Wake County to look into a future off-road link. This is not a new idea but it's good to see trail users are again speaking out on this proposal. See a Jan. 24th letter to the editor on one user's views.

On January 26th U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin will be visiting Durham. As part of her activities to promote healthy activities, she will participate in a 30 minute walk on the American Tobacco Trail with members of the Carolina Godiva Track Club. If you would like to join and possibly meet Ms. Benjamin, walk participants will meet at the Southpoint Crossing shopping center at 6pm on the 26th.

Over the past few months both TRTC and Cary's Parks & Recreation Department have been busy on trying to develop solutions to the serious parking limitations facing trail users at the three crossings in Chatham. We're happy to report that over the next few months users will have access to two new parking areas in Chatham. At the New Hope Road crossing, Cary has recently widened and graded a portion of the utility access road located just east of the trail crossing. Here is a recent view of this interim area. After final surface materials and rolling have been completed in the next month or two, Cary plans to open this area for use as interim parking for trail users. As we have reported earlier, Cary plans for the ATT include a much larger, permanent parking area off of New Hope Church Road to be built in 2013. At Pittard-Sears Road, TRTC has received permission from NCDOT to develop a parking area on a parcel on the north side of Pittard-Sears Road (on the west side of the ATT). Preparing this parcel will require removal of some trees, grading of the section to be used for vehicle parking, and construction of a wide, asphalt apron. A short connector path to the ATT will be built at the north end of the lot. Warm weather users of the Chatham ATT will be glad to know that our plans for Pittard-Sears include putting in a water fountain! We are currently seeking contractor proposals for the major clearing and grading work and hope to break ground by March. This will be our largest project for the next few months so we'll also be holding workdays for our volunteers at this area. We'll be letting our volunteers know the specifics for these workdays in our weekly Emails to trtc-volunteers. During the Spring of 2012 we'll have a number of workdays on this key project so if you are not yet on our list to receive Emails before our workdays, please go to our Volunteers page for sign-up links. Go to our Directions Page if you need driving instructions to the Pittard-Sears crossing.

In late December Cary installed the long-awaited crossing signs and a few signs to remind users to call out "On your left" when overtaking others on the trail. Signs identifying the ATT and the road being crossed have been installed at New Hope Church Road, Pittard-Sears Road and O'Kelly Chapel Road. Click here to see the New Hope Church Rd. sign.