A Super Sod truck heads back north on South Street, passing cars in the school drop-off line, after turning around Friday.
Why was an 18-wheeler turning around in the driveway of Davidson Elementary School during peak drop-off time Friday? The incident backed up dozens of cars and buses queued to deliver students around 8:50 a.m.
The truck was one of at least two carrying lawn turf that used South Street Friday morning to reach the Antiquity Cornelius development just across the town line. That’s in violation of an agreement between Cornelius, Davidson and Antiquity’s developer that promises South Street won’t be used as a construction entrance for the mixed-use development.
Police officers who were working the school crossing on South Street stopped the second truck, from a company called Super Sod, and informed the driver he couldn’t continue. So the truck turned around near the first parking lot entrance, backing up traffic on South Street past Spring Street.
Sign at the end of South Street.
A sign at the town line, farther down South Street, tells truck drivers “No Construction Traffic: $50 fine for violators.” But the sign is obscured by kudzu vines. And Davidson police officers at the scene said Friday they cannot issue tickets for violations, because there’s no sign at the north end of South Street to warn truck drivers not to proceed.
Davidson Planning Director Kris Krider told DavidsonNews.net the restriction remains in place barring Antiquity construction traffic from South Street.
“It is probably an excellent time for Mr. Roy (developer Joe Roy) to remind his contractor and subs of this important requirement,” Mr. Krider said. “I am glad the police department was present and I hope the company got the message, sign or no sign.”
Mr. Roy has asked his project manager to look into the situation.
Antiquity is a mixed-use development that eventually could have 1,000 homes or more, as well as a collection of offices and shops. It stretches from Zion Avenue in Cornelius up what once was known as Field Street to the Davidson town line near the elementary school.
The developer is in the midst of building a main entrance to the project in Cornelius. That work will include extending Catawba Avenue east across the railroad tracks into the development, creating a new four-way intersection in dowtown Cornelius.
South Street previously was a dead-end, until Antiquity’s developer built an attractive wooden bridge to connect South Street to the development. When the development was in the planning stages several years ago, Cornelius agreed to the restriction on construction traffic in exchange for being allowed to open the street.
Incidents like Friday’s have been few over the past several years.
RELATED COVERAGE
March 26, 2009, “Intersection work to begin soon in downtown Cornelius”
This raises another issue that several of us “baseball moms” have been pondering. Does anyone know if thought has been given to adding another speed bump on South St. near the Antiquity bridge/in front of DES? So many people are using that as a cut-through and with baseball season in full swing now, I’m afraid some child (or adult!) is going to get hit. Who would have responsibility for that?
I agree that people should drive very slowly past the ball fields. However, parents NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Too many kids cut between the cars to the playground at the elementary school.
No matter how slow I go, I am still often surprised by a kid jumping out as I pass by.
This isn’t a park where the parking lot is in one place and kids can safely run and roam between the fields and playgrounds.
No one lets their preschooler cross the street alone but too many parents are complacent with their schoolagers. Witness the actions of the tweens on the green on Fridays cutting across Main Street as well as those crossing South Street during games.
Absolutely agree that parents are responsible!
I didn’t word my comment well at the end – I was wondering what town department would you talk to about a speed hump?
Speed humps, stop signs and other traffic calming technically fall under the public works department , though the planning department also has been involved in recent years. You also might approach a town board member about it.
South Streeet/ Walnut Street residents began pushing for more traffic calming on South Street several years ago, as the town prepared to open South Street into the new Antiquity development in Cornelius. Residents wanted the street to be safe once it was handling additional traffic.
It’s a complicated story, which we covered on DavidsonNews.net, but the upshot was that the town developed a ranking system for new traffic calming devices, assigning points based on a list of factors. South Street was deemed not to qualify for additional traffic calming.
Here’s another article from our archives that recaps the history a bit and talks about the traffic calming that was added.
http://davidsonnews.net/2007/07/20/with-south-street-opening-soon-residents-raise-old-concerns/
Marc Frye, the project manager for the Antiquity development, responded this afternoon to questions from Davidson officials and the developer, Joe T. Roy IV. Mr. Frye called the sod trucks’ attempts to use South Street a mistake.
“All vendors are informed of the South Street restrictions when contracted. Nothing has changed concerning the restrictions.
“With the tremendous number of deliveries we get at the site daily and the turnover of delivery drivers every now and then someone will make a mistake. When this happens, which from my observations is rarely, the company is notified. I’m not aware of any situations where it has happened more than once by the same company.”