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[Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>]

http://newsobserver.com/news/columnists/story/3339039p-2975034c.html

Road altered to preserve barbecue eatery 
 
[...]

In mid-2002 after much of the grading had been done, Bynum-area residents 
and small-business owners realized the new highway not only was wider than 
the old one but also about 6 feet higher.

 It's easy enough now for drivers to miss Allen & Son Pit Cooked 
Bar-B-Que, almost hidden behind its rusted sign down a short gravel 
driveway below U.S. 15-501.

 But plenty of customers find their way there, park out front and order 
barbecue to go. Some tear off the wrappers to eat their lunch while it's 
hot, standing there in the gravel parking lot.

 "You'd be surprised how many people come up to the take-out window and 
have no idea we have tables and chairs inside," says Rhonda Stubbs, who 
operates the restaurant with her husband.

 The embankment of the wider, elevated highway would have reached almost 
to the building itself, spoiling Allen & Son's take-out business. That 
concern and others were aired when DOT officials met with residents, 
business owners, Chatham County commissioners and state legislators.

 Then, instead of shrugging off the complaints, DOT engineers concluded 
that they could redesign the project without compromising highway safety.

 The contractor removed sewer pipes and other utility structures -- and 
the 5 feet of earth in which they were buried -- along more than one-half 
mile of the highway. The road was resurveyed, the utilities were 
reinstalled and grading was completed for a roadway elevation just 1 foot 
higher than the old one, instead of 6 feet.

[...]

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                             Paul Jones
 "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
                    http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/
  pjones AT ibiblio.org   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071
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