Blog Post from Alta Planning

We've been active on some trail safety projects and continued our efforts to provide up to date ATT maps and amenities such as our fountain at Pittard Sears and Porta Jon at Scott King. We hope you appreciate these efforts. Give us a wave when you see our volunteers doing maintenance on the ATT. Please take a few minutes to see what we have done this year and our plans for 2017 in this 2016 MESSAGE

We have recently learned that North Carolina Rail-Trails will be dissolving by early March 2017. It is unclear if any of the content from their website will be available online after that time. TRTC has assisted them in developing web content over the years and we have offered to keep these newsletters online since some portion of our site's users have also been interested in rail-trail news beyond the Triangle area. To access this page please click here

Much colder weather is in the forecast so we shut off and drained the fountain on December 2nd. These newer fountains use lots of plastic parts that are proprietary, quite expensive and easily damaged by a hard freeze. We'll re-open it for the new season in late March. Although the fountains at New Hope Church Road are also closed for the winter, the restrooms there remain open and water from the sinks is still available.

During 2016 TRTC has continued efforts to improve the safety at the very busy crossing at O'Kelly Chapel Road. In mid-May our funding resulted in the installation of 3 new signs at each side of the crossing to better alert trail users of actions required as they approach this road. (see image) The Town of Cary funded identical signs for the crossing at New Hope Church Road. In August our long-term advocacy with NC DOT resulted in a lowering of the enforceable speed limit from 50 to 45 mph. As a result of this change and the added pedestrian signs installed in 2015, there are indications that through traffic may have slowed somewhat and more motorists are slowing or stopping as they pass through this crossing. DOT has also indicated they will be installing center line rumble strips at this crossing later this Fall.
We are still working with the Chatham County Commissioners to obtain funding for the installation of user-activated signal lights at O'Kelly. These would be large (~12" in diameter), amber lights similar to those used at school crossings which would flash only when activated by a trail user. Over the past year the Commissioners have indicated support for this improvement and are expected to decide on Bike/Ped projects to be funded at their December meeting.

As an Eagle Scout Project, Matthew Darby of Troop 402 in Durham, took the lead in planning, fund raising, building and installing an informational kiosk just south of Stagecoach Road on the Eagle Spur hiking trail. The kiosk includes a lockable case for information and over the next few weeks we'll be collecting and developing several pieces on the corridor's history, rules for hunting in this area, maps and other items of interest to trail users. TRTC has maintained this trail for over 15 years and provided a portion of the funding for this very nice amenity for trail users.