EPA has objected to the toll road. Click here to see why EPA and other government agencies object.
The executive director of the turnpike authority agrees that the Garden Parkway isn't as strong of a toll project as the Raleigh outerbelt and the Monroe Connector/Bypass. The Raleigh outer belt is running into financial problems, in part because the Greenville Toll Road has been a financial failure and is heading towards bankruptcy. Click here to read more about both.
David Hartgen, UNCC's professor emeritus of traffic studies, concluded in his 2007 report for the John Locke Foundation that "the Garden Parkway, while ‘nice to have,’ is justified primarily by increased access and development, not by congestion relief." This means that the Toll Road to No Where does nothing but generate sprawl. He writes elsewhere that what congestion there is is concentrated on I-85, and not only is "the GP is a huge waste, focusing limited dollars on just one project," it may in fact create local congestion, not relieve it.
Hartgen's report concludes that "I-85, not the Garden Parkway, is the region's future lifeline, tying it to jobs in Charlotte and points east." He feels widening I-85 just past Belmont Abbey would be an important congestion reliever that has not been seriously considered, and he also urges consideration of a west-bound HOT lane.
It looks like Mr. Hartgen was correct. As you will see from the latest Preliminary Daily Traffic Volumes document released by the Turnpike Authority, the Garden Parkway will not relieve traffic at I-85, even if it is connected to I-85. To see this, compare No Project to Project to I-85 boxes, and in face, makes traffic on I-85 worse. What is surprising is that by having the Garden Parkway dead end into US 321, this also makes traffic on I-85 worse than if there is no project. What conclusion can we draw other than that the stated goal of relieving congestion on I-85 is not achieved by any combination of the Garden Parkway project, and that in fact building the Garden Parkway means that I-85 will have to be widened anyway, which is an alternative that the draft EIS rejected without any real analysis.
The other interesting fact is that by having the Garden Parkway dead end into US 321, this increases traffic on US 321, but, according to this same document, most of the traffic is gone by the time it goes on 1/2 mile up to Stagecoach Rd. So, that leaves the question, where does it go?