ARound Raleigh

Moving Hillsborough in the Right Direction


Forty years. That's how long it took to get a really unfortunate line item out of NCDOT's budget and, finally, off the radar for dozens of interest groups engaged in the drama of the proposed Hillsborough Bypass.

The bypass was conceived in 1969 as a way to reduce traffic on Churton Street in Hillsborough's historic downtown. The solution devised was an asphalt gash in the Orange County countryside that would send four lanes of traffic hurdling across the scenic Eno River near St. Mary's Road and through the 252 bucolic acres at Ayr Mount, a ca. 1815 plantation landscaped with nature walks and hiking trails.

The road also would have disturbed the site of the Occonneechee Speedway, the only track remaining from NASCAR's 1949 inaugural season and one of the important, unique attractions of Orange County, an enclave for some of the state's most creative, intellectual and historically minded people.

Underlying some of the local angst must have been the threat of losing millions in state transportation dollars. By 2009, the bypass had morphed into a $45 million project that promised an infusion of cash and a significant, if temporary, spike in business for town merchants and restaurateurs, gas station operators and others.

Despite other transportation needs the county may currently have, the money designated for the bypass is being lost without the project, which was only recently put to rest by an overwhelming coalition of opposition involving residents, environmentalists, historic preservationists and government entities, including the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The political stakes were high, but the outcome will prove to be right one for the future of Hillsborough and Orange County.

The small, temporary reduction in traffic counts downtown - estimated at below 20 percent of overall traffic and only for a few years' time - would have done little good in contrast to the great harm the bypass posed to Hillsborough's character and charm as a destination for those who value unique people and places.