GoTriangle throws in the towel on light rail

GoTriangle

The GoTriangle Board of Trustees voted unanimously to halt a planned light-rail system for the Research Triangle of North Carolina, surrendering to opposition from Duke University.

Durham and Orange counties “have used this approved light-rail alignment as a basis for land-use, economic development and affordable housing plans to best accommodate the more than 7,000 people the counties are adding each year,”GoTriangle CEO Jeff Mann said in a statement following the decision. “Unfortunately, this project has recently faced a number of significant challenges, most notably Duke University’s refusal to sign necessary agreements with GoTriangle.”

Last month Duke University announced it would not allow a portion of a proposed 17.7-mile light-rail line to pass through its campus. The decision, coming just days before a deadline related to federal financing, proved a death blow to the project.

The collapse of the project, after roughly a decade of work by transit activists, is bad news for contractors and subcontractors who stood to make considerable money for what promised to be complex construction work. In August 2017, GoTriangle chose Omaha-based HDR to lead final design and project management of the system. HDR Transit was slated to design all of the bridges and lead engineering and architecture for infrastructure along the entire alignment, which includes 18 stations, a parking garage and a maintenance facility. In addition, HDR is leading track design, traffic management, utility relocation, site planning and roadway design. HDR also performed environmental studies and geotechnical engineering in earlier phases of this project.

In an email to a student-run newspaper Wednesday, a spokesperson for Duke said the university wished to “recognize and salute the enormous amount of work that many people, in particular our past and present elected officials, put into the light rail project.”