City-DOT meeting postponed until March 5

A delegation from Havelock is scheduled to travel to Greenville to urge that the East Main Street median project be put on hold.

Mayor Jimmy Sanders and commissioners Danny Walsh and George Liner are scheduled to meet with Neil Lassiter Jr., district engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The meeting was originally scheduled for today but has been postponed until March 5.

City leaders have consistently opposed the project, which would eliminate the center turn lane and instead create a median with crossovers. City leaders have said the project would divide the city in two, create more traffic congestion and be an inconvenience to local drivers. They also have said a proposed U.S. 70 bypass in 2015 eliminates the need for the median.

The N.C. Board of Transportation in December failed to fund the project, which is expected to cost $1.1 million. It put funding the project into the hands of Lyndo Tippett, then transportation secretary.

However, new Gov. Bev Perdue wants to put project decisions into the laps of DOT managers like Lassiter, who has been historically supportive of the median in Havelock.

DOT has said the median will increase traffic flow on East Main Street, making it easier for motorists to get through the city.

However, city leaders point out that the highway once had a median, and DOT removed it in 1979 saying the center turn lane would improve traffic flow.

Proposed changes to the East Main Street-Cunningham Boulevard intersection in front of Annunciation Church may also be discussed. The project, designed to allow safer entrance and exit to the church and school, has been tied to the median plan.

DOT has said the city may have to pay for the project, but city leaders want the state to pay for it.