By Jack Miller
Big changes are in the works for the Monroe Road corridor. A series of Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT) projects are underway to create a continuous pedestrian and bike-friendly stretch of the corridor from Wendover Road to the Embrace sculpture, near Edge City Brewery. These improvements will make Monroe Road safer, more accessible and more welcoming for everyone who walks, bikes or uses transit.
The first segment of that corridor project has been in place for several years – bike lanes along Monroe Road in front of the Meridian Place development and a wide multi-use path (“MUP” in city website lingo) along the front of Aldi and the rest of MoRA Point.
The next phase is almost complete. Many of you may have seen the installation of an 8- to 12-foot-wide multi-use path from Ross Moore Ave/Eaton Road (near Oakhurst Baptist Church), through the Sharon-Amity intersection, to McMullen Way (the site of the Monroe Road recycling center and county park currently under construction).
Monroe Road (yellow) between Ross Moore Ave/Eaton Rd and McMullen Way. (Sharon-Amity intersection is midway).
Wider sidewalk installed along Monroe Road near Sharon-Amity (across from Sharon Memorial Park cemetery).
New pedestrian hybrid beacon crosswalk and bus shelter near Ashmore Drive on Monroe Road
This McMullen-to-Eaton-Road multi-use path will connect to a larger project, known as the Monroe Road Streetscape, which is scheduled to begin construction this summer.
The Monroe Road Streetscape project will create a 12-foot multi-use path along both sides of Monroe Road from Wendover Road to Ross Moore Ave/Eaton Road (near Oakhurst Baptist Church), add a pedestrian beacon at Time Out Youth, and install several mid-block pedestrian crossings to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety.
Monroe Road (yellow) between McAlway Road and Ross Moore Ave./Eaton Road.
All the multi-use paths being built will be separated from car traffic by an 8-foot planting strip in most places. Anyone who has walked along Monroe Road knows how harrowing it can be to have cars zipping by with no buffer between you and the road. The new planting strips won’t just improve safety – they’ll also add shade and greenery along a corridor that has long lacked pedestrian-friendly design.
Once these projects – along with the long-running Rama/Monroe/Idlewild intersection project (which has been in the works for about 10 years and is currently experiencing delays due to utility relocation issues) are completed, cyclists and pedestrians will have roughly two-and-a-half miles of uninterrupted corridor along Monroe Road designed for their safety and comfort.
MoRA volunteers continue to stay in close contact with CDOT about additional projects that might get underway using the recently-approved transit tax revenue, ideally expanding connections to existing infrastructure.
If you have ideas about projects MoRA should advocate for in our area, please let us know!
Monroe Road Advocates (MoRA) is grassroots group of volunteers from Monroe Road neighborhoods, businesses, nonprofits, and schools. We’re connecting community in the corridor from Lupie’s/7th Street to NC-51.
