Forum

Ira Lee Taylor is a 94-year-old veteran of World War II who served during D-Day. He’s lived in the same house he and his wife helped build in 1948. And now, he looks to lose his home to the high-speed rail project coming through Harrisburg. 

Taylor’s home is among nearly a dozen on Stallings Road that will be demolished to make room for a bridge overpass as part of the Piedmont Improvement Program, which has the N.C. Department of Transportation modernizing the entire North Carolina Railroad Company rail corridor from Charlotte to Raleigh. 

“I’m just against it,” Taylor said. “Because it affects my property. It takes my house.”

Now, Taylor is not sure what will happen to him. He may be able to relocate his house on another part of his property. Or he may have to move in with family in South Carolina. Or go to a nursing home. He just doesn’t know what he’s going to do.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” Taylor said. “I don’t have any options but to get out of here.” 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

While Taylor sees his home affected by the railroad, officials say there are benefits of the program. 

For starters, the project is part of a stimulus package. It is part of a broader rail modernization program, funded with $545 million in federal recovery funds being spent to boost the economy. Officials said with the railroad project there will be plenty of construction to put people to work.

Also, the high-speed rail will offer an alternative to traffic clogging up the highways, said Paul Morris, deputy secretary of transit for the N.C. Department of Transportation.

“North Carolina is one of the nation’s fastest growing states, and that puts tremendous pressure on our infrastructure, especially highways,” Morris said. “One solution is enhanced passenger rail, and North Carolinians have responded well to our program. Nearly one million passengers used North Carolina trains last year.”

THE PLAN

The project’s aim is to modernize the whole North Carolina Railroad Company rail corridor from Charlotte to Raleigh. This will allow for reduced travel times and more trains, officials said.

But it will also affect Harrisburg, with homes on Stallings Road being demolished for improvements created by the project.

Currently, Harrisburg has six railroad crossings, at ground level, which pits car traffic against train traffic. There are rail guards to keep traffic out, but sometimes drivers try to sneak around the cross bars to beat the train, officials said.

Plus, the roads are rough to cross and conditions have led to at least one wreck. Josh Watkins, the planning director for the Town of Harrisburg, said that a few years ago, a brick truck got stuck on the train tracks and it was struck by a train.

The N.C. DOT plan aims to prevent wrecks like that by closing the ground level crossings and in their place put up three bridges crossing over the train tracks.

Currently, emergency services trucks responding to scene would have to wait for a train to pass before they could cross the tracks. With the bridges in place, that will no longer be an issue.

“The bad thing is, if you are funneling the traffic from six roads down to three, it may not be the train holding the truck up,” Watkins said. “It may be the traffic itself.”

DEADLINE

For Watkins and the others tied to the railroad project, the clock is ticking. 

In order to qualify for federal funding, the project must be finished by 2017. As part of the stimulus package, participants had a total of 10 years to complete any projects that qualified for the funding.

It is a reimbursement program, so the state is putting up the money first, in order to get paid back. Not only does the project have to be completed, but all of the accounts associated to the project must be closed out by 2017.

“If they don’t meet that deadline, then the state is stuck with that bill,” Watkins said. 

The $545 million project is already moving forward with officials planning to start as early as this March with purchasing property needed for the right-of-way requirements for the project. By March 2013 contractors will be moving dirt and going forward on the actual construction.

“They are constrained by time and budget,” Watkins said. “They are constrained, and we have to understand that to a certain degree, but at the end of the day they are going to build their project and go back to Raleigh and we’re going to be stuck with what’s left.”

UPHEAVAL

Taylor is just one of the residents opposing the idea of what will be left. Especially when he doesn’t see the benefits.

“I thought it was a crazy idea for them to be thinking about that,” Taylor said. “This is the old part of Harrisburg. And that doggone railroad is not that important.”

Taylor may not see the significance of the railroad, but he does see how it will affect him. Not only does he look to lose his home, but he is worried about his son, Lee, whom he lives with. Lee is a diabetic who is in such bad health that ambulances have had to visit the home several times, Taylor said.

Taylor does have an insurance policy he could use to pay for a nursing home if he chose to do so. But he still wonders what would happen to Lee.

“I’m more concerned about him,” Taylor said. “He wouldn’t probably last two weeks if I wasn’t around. He’d go into a diabetic coma and wouldn’t come out of it. There wouldn’t be anybody to bring him out of it.”

ACCOMADATING EVERYONE

While residents like Taylor feel no one is listening to them, officials held several public hearings and notified residents prior to moving forward on the project, Morris said. 

“It is unavoidable that this modernization will have impact on some citizens,” Morris said. “Just as would a road widening to accommodate growth and relieve congestion”

Morris also cited the project will help with safety concerns in Harrisburg.

“At-grade road-railroad crossings have inherent safety risks, even with crossing gates, clanging bells and other safety precautions,” Morris said. “In Harrisburg, the recovery funding allows us to accelerate this safety initiative by eliminating unsafe crossings and building new bridges over the track that, without the funding, would not happen for years, if ever.”

CHEAPER TRAVEL

While some people say there is no need for high-speed rail  — that not enough people will even bother to ride the train —officials say the rail corridor is not just for passenger trains. The trains can also be used by businesses and retail stores to haul freight.

“Rails have become more popular in the last 10 years as gas prices go up,” Watkins said. “It’s cheaper to put it on a train. They are looking at moving more freight at a more rapid rate.”

And Watkins is well aware of the complaints that have been lodged about the high-speed rail project coming through Harrisburg. Watkins and his staff have been in constant contact with the North Carolina Department of Transportation regarding the railroad.

“Not necessarily to fight it,” he said. “We think it’s going to be beneficial to the state of North Carolina as well as the southeastern United States. ... And if you’re going to do this, don’t cut our town in half and then walk away. It’s not fighting the project so much as fighting to get more balance to the benefits/detriments ratio. Right now we’re kind of heavy on the detriments. That’s what we’re fighting. We’re fighting to get what Harrisburg needs to keep growing.”

Morris said the N.C. DOT is listening to everyone when it comes to the project.

“In making these changes, N.C. DOT has made an exhaustive effort to engage and listen to the community,” he said. “We have notified the public through media releases, sent direct mailings to affected property owners and held citizen informational workshops, small groups meetings and public hearings. And of course, worked closely with the town staff.”

Watkins added that because of the land needed for the project there were only so many options everyone had to work with.

“We have talked a little bit about that and we have talked about alternatives. This was the best alternative we had,” Watkins said. “This was the best alternative that we have and that’s what we are going to go with. And there are some unfortunate side effects to that.”

CROSSROADS

Rick Higgins, of Stallings Road, has mixed feelings about the high-speed rail project. On the one hand, his home is right in the way of the bridge construction. On the other, he sees how valuable the project can be to North Carolina.

He lives in the same home his grandfather bought in 1923. In fact, it is the very home Higgins’ father was born in. And Higgins has strong ties to the railroad through Harrisburg.

“The reason my family came here was because my grandfather ran the depot in Harrisburg,” Higgins said. “That’s why he came here in 1923. That’s when everything came in by rail. So my family are railroad people. And I’ve been in different places of the world to know that we’re going to have to have high-speed rail. We’re going to have to improve the transportation.”

Higgins even had a job with the railroad. When he was in high school, he used to pick up and deliver the mail to the post office that came in by train. 

Anyone who visits Higgins’ home can tell he has strong ties to the train industry. His kitchen has an electric train that runs along the cabinets. He has a train clock, train hat and train telephone.

“It’s kind of ironic, because of the railroad,” Higgins said. 

Higgins does own enough property to move his home away from the road and at least save it from being demolished. But he would be beside a bridge and right next to a congested road. 

For him, it looks to be his best option.

“This is where I spent my childhood,” he said. “It’s home. It’s always been home. I always thought this is where I would live.”

Higgins remembers being a child and visiting the home on weekends to see his grandparents. He also remembers the pecan trees his grandfather picked, which are now more than 50 feet tall. Higgins often goes out to pick up pecans in his yard.

And in his backyard, there are about 1,000 pine trees that Higgins planted by hand. Higgins has spent his life making the place on Stallings Road a home. And he is part of a neighborhood, a community. He is well aware of Ira Lee Taylor’s concerns, as well as other older residents in the neighborhood.

“What are they going to do?” Higgins said. “In that part of their life to have their entire home and everything just bulldozed … it’s pretty rough on them.”

Higgins may support the high-speed rail, but he is against his neighborhood being demolished. Especially when he says the rail could have come through the Stallings Park area, which runs alongside the Harrisburg Elementary School.

But Watkins, the town’s planning director, said that was never really an option. The family who donated the property for Stallings Park, specifically ordered it to be used as a park. And a federal rule states once a park is established it must remain a park.

The park opened in 2007, but the railroad project only recently became a reality. There have been rumblings of high-speed rail since the 1990s, Watkins said. But it wasn’t until the federal stimulus package was available that the project moved forward with funding. The town learned the project was officially going forward back in 2010, Watkins said.

“This is a stimulus project, they have their funding,” Watkins said. “This is happening.”

GOODBYE, STALLINGS ROAD

Higgins is fine with the project moving forward —just not losing his home. But in the end he understands. 

“I know people have to sacrifice and I believe in high-speed rail,” Higgins said. “I think it’s going to have to happen. There’s going to be more and more traffic. Fuel is going to keep going up. I’ve been to Europe and I know you can catch a train just about any time of day and travel. And I don’t think a lot of people around here see that.”

But Higgins still hates the fact that the old Stallings Road neighborhood looks to be destroyed as a result.

“This is home, this is where it’s always been and I hate to see all this change it,” he said. “I’d like for them to find another way.”

THE REALITY

Unfortunately, officials say, there really isn’t any other way.

Because of how the railroad tracks need to bank for the high-speed rail, as well as other construction constraints, the Stallings Road area is the only viable place to develop, Watkins said. 

“I hate to say it, but it’s progress,” Watkins said. “At times there will be areas that have to take the brunt of it. It’s not a, ‘Well, we’re going to lay it on Stallings Road, because we want to.’ It was the best alternative we had. It was just about the only place we could do it.”

Watkins knows that in the end it’s not a perfect setup. In addition to the six roads going down to three and funneling traffic, construction will also shut down the Shamrock Road area, which is used by businesses to access N.C. 49. The construction will impact the already established businesses there. The current plan seems to be the best one they can bring to the table for Harrisburg.

“There are over 12,000 people here in town,” Watkins said. “And that’s not to say they matter more, but we have to take into account the whole. How is this going to be for the whole of Harrisburg? There are over 12,000 people in Harrisburg now that we have to consider what’s the best thing for the whole. And hopefully that’s what we’ve done.”

CLOSED CROSSINGS

There are six ground level crossings in Harrisburg that will be closed: Millbrook Road, Caldwell Road, Robinson Church Road, Hickory Ridge Road, Shamrock Road and Pharr Mill Road. 

The Pharr Mill Road interchange will be relocated with a bridge built to line up the road. Caldwell Road will be provided a bridge overpass and Hickory Ridge Road will be closed and replaced with a Roberta Road extension.