July 11 - 17, 2019
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Noise study will predict loudest areas around PTI airport An FAA analysis will forecast noise levels in 2020 and 2025, possibly shifting noise contour maps and spurring steps to reduce noise over residential areas by CHRIS BURRITT NW GREENSBORO – Planners are getting ready to redraw the maps of aircraft noise around Piedmont Triad International (PTI) Airport. Over the next year, officials of the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport
authority and municipalities including Oak Ridge and Summerfield will prepare an analysis projecting aircraft noise in 2020 and 2025. It will identify whether the loudest noise is projected to shift to new areas in the decade since the previous study, according to Kevin Baker, executive director of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. The analysis will allow planners to develop new noise contour maps that show areas around PTI where aircraft noise reaches 60 decibels over 24 hours, a measurement known as the Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL). The maps will also show areas where the DNL
IN THIS ISSUE News in brief........................................ 2 Your Questions .................................... 4 Barefoot Modern Band....................... 6 ‘Aren’t you precious?’ ........................ 8 Pets & Critters ...................................... 9 Respect the opossum .......................10 Pet Adoptions.....................................12 Calendar Events ................................13 Business Notes ...................................18 Crime/Incident Report ......................19 13 years, never missed a day ..........21 NWHS football reboot ....................... 22 Nighthawk soccer team sets goal.. 23 Grins and Gripes............................... 24 Classifieds ......................................... 26 NWO on the Go! ............................... 32
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Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO
An estimated 135 people attended an open house last month sponsored by the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority to learn about plans by the Federal Aviation Administration to update its study of aircraft noise around the airport. In this photo, Cardinal resident Bob Beasley (left) talks to Oak Ridge Town Councilman George McClellan and Kevin Baker (far right), executive director of the airport authority.
Roundabout would turn NC. 68/150 into ‘parking deck’ An NCDOT analysis predicts rush-hour traffic would eventually back up for a mile at the town’s major intersection by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE – Imagine waiting to exit a parking deck after attending a sold-out event. One by one, drivers in front of you pay their fees and wait for the gate arm to rise so they can leave. Finally, it’s your turn to depart. That’s what driving through the intersection of N.C. 68 and 150 would be like two decades from now if the state highway planners were to replace traffic signals there with a roundabout. An analysis by the North Carolina Department of
Transportation (NCDOT) goes on to predict that courteous driving would disappear as peak-morning traffic would back up for a mile traveling south on N.C. 68 and east on N.C. 150 approaching the traffic circle. Drivers would become “aggressive,” taking shortcuts on side streets and through parking lots of businesses, Dr. Joe Hummer, the state’s traffic management engineer, wrote in the report presented to Oak Ridge officials last month. “Oak Ridge would be like a parking deck,” NCDOT project engineer Brian Ketner said in an interview earlier this week. If planners were to proceed with a roundabout at the town’s busiest intersection, it would be overwhelmed by traffic when it opened, he said. The prospect of traffic circle gridlock helps explain why NCDOT is recommending instead the replacement of traffic
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