State transportation leaders are inviting the public to review and comment on a proposal to widen the entire two miles of Fisher Road in western Cumberland County.

The open house will take place on Oct. 24 from 5p.m. to 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of John Griffin Middle School. People may drop in at any time to review preliminary design maps, ask engineers questions and submit comments.

The N.C. Department of Transportation is planning to widen the road between Strickland Bridge Road and Bingham Drive to four lanes with a raised median. In anticipation of traffic growth, the project will ease congestion and lessen the risk of crashes.  Most of this congested road, which is home to two schools, currently has two lanes.

Proposed project highlights include:

• Construction of a multilane roundabout at Fisher & McKinnon Farm roads to improve traffic flow and safety.
• New sidewalk and multi-use path to accommodate school children, bicyclists and other pedestrians.

As part of this widening proposal, the department plans to construct reduced conflict intersections at several subdivisions that conjoin with Fisher Road. When built, drivers exiting the subdivisions will be redirected into turning right; if they wish to go in the other direction, they may use a dedicated lane a short distance away to safely turn around.

This design, however, will allow drivers on Fisher Road to turn left at some of the side roads that connect to the subdivisions.

Those who cannot attend the meeting can contact the project team via fisherrd-widening-cumberland@publicinput.com or 984-205-6615; enter project code No. 10723. Alternatively, people may go to this NCDOT public input site to submit comments and see other information about the proposed project

Comments received by Nov. 8 will be considered toward the final design.

NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who wish to participate in this meeting. Anyone requiring special services should contact Lauren Putnam at lnputnam1@ncdot.gov or 919-707-6072 to make arrangements.

People who do not speak English, or have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English, may receive interpretive services upon request prior to the meeting by calling 1-800-481-6494.