March 2, 2008 - According to the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT), the plan to four-lane N.C. 211 from N.C. 87 to Midway Road is barely off the drawing board, and plenty could change. But that didn’t restrain locals from submitting their concerns to the traffic engineers at an informational workshop on the project Tuesday.
Residents with homes and businesses along the 6.6 miles of corridor to be widened were worried their properties would fall into DOT’s redrawn rights-of-way and they would have to rebuild elsewhere.
On a four-lane road, the right-of-way stretches 75 feet each side of the center line.
Buddy Barnes, owner of Wildwood Landscaping, said his property is currently about 12 feet from the right-of-way stretching across N.C. 211, which is currently a two-lane highway.
“If DOT has to extend their right-of-way, my business will have to be bulldozed and I’ll have to rebuild it,” said Barnes. “I’m going to get nailed. My property is an acre right now. But if it gets cut back to half an acre from this new right-of-way, it won’t be worth squat.”
Barnes added that he supports the need for an improved N.C. 211, but said it would be a “hardship” on many other property owners in a similar situation.
Jay McInnis, DOT’s project engineer for the widening, facilitated the workshop, and said that currently, the road averages 11,000 to 18,000 car trips per day. It is the major vein linking Southport to U.S. 17 at Supply, and handles heavy volumes of Oak Island and Caswell Beach traffic coming in off Long Beach Road.
Widening the road to four lanes, divided by a 30-foot median, would loosen some of the congestion, he said.
At DOT offices, this project is called R-5021, and is on their Transportation Improvement Program for Brunswick County, listing projects of priority for supporting travel aligned with heavy regional growth. By Ben Brown

Read Local feedback not all positive on DOT’s four-lane proposal