Residents, officials discuss plan to beautify Business 40

Business 40 through Winston-Salem may not be the memorable drive that the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Champs Elysees is, but a group of people have been discussing how to make it a road with a sense of place.

College students, residents of downtown neighborhoods and those who support the arts have been discussing how to spend as much as $2 million that the N.C. Department of Transportation would allot for beautification in its Business 40 improvements project.

Construction would not begin until 2015, but it is not too early to begin talking about what could happen, said Eric Elliot, a member of the public-art and design committee of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

"We don't have a showcase boulevard to say, ‘Here's your entry.' We've got Peters Creek Parkway, which isn't exactly a boulevard," Elliott said. "Business 40 is a major thoroughfare already. What can we do to make the road itself something that you'd want to go by and see?"

Elliott has set up a Web site that provides information about other highway projects across the country. Many of the projects involved unusual bridge designs, and there have been discussions about how to make the 11 bridges in the new Business 40 corridor more attractive.

If the community can collaborate to pull off something spectacular for Business 40, Elliott said, he and others would like that to serve as the catalyst for a public art program that would take on other projects around the city.

"We say we're the City of the Arts," he said. "That should be self-evident on the streets."

Pat Ivey, a division engineer with the state Department of Transportation in Winston-Salem, said that the idea of doing something different on Business 40 is not as far-fetched as some people might think.

In Salisbury, the bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad on Innes Street, which leads into the historic downtown, has an unusual design and a decorative treatment on the retaining walls. The DOT and the town worked on that project, he said.

In Kernersville, the town is replacing a bridge over Business 40 and was willing to pay for decorative railings.

So far, most of the community input that the DOT has sought has involved asking people whether they want the road closed for two years or whether they want to keep one lane open for six years, he said.

In the coming months, the DOT will be looking at road design.

"DOT is more than willing to work with anybody," Ivey said. "But people need to understand that all of these upgrades and the beautiful corridor that everyone envisions for this is going to come at a cost."

The $1 million to $2 million that is available for beautification of road projects comes from the 1 percent to 2 percent that any DOT urban project is required to set aside for beautification, he said. Usually that money is used for landscaping, such as the wildflower displays that people see along North Carolina highways.

The beautification money comes from the federal government, Ivey said, and there are strict rules for what can be done. But that hasn't stopped other cities from taking on bridge projects.

"I think people are wanting their highway projects to look like more than a cookie-cutter design," Ivey said, "particularly in urban areas when you go through historic areas. You put a modern concrete bridge in a historic area and it's really out of character."

Elliott said that some people have talked about hiring a designer or artist to design an unusual bridge.

Ivey said that the DOT does not typically hire someone to come in and design fabulous bridges. The department has its own designers and private engineering firms under contract.

Thorns Craven, the chairman of the public art and design committee with the Arts Council, said that people should not assume that good design is horrendously expensive.

The original construction of Interstate 40 resulted in the destruction of historic properties and the separation of neighborhoods, he said. People have to start thinking about how highways can enhance neighborhoods.

"Let's deal with all of those things," Craven said, "and do it not in a utilitarian way, but in a way that says, ‘This is an interesting place.'"

■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.

■ To access Eric Elliott's blog, go to www.winstonsalempublicart.blogspot.com.