Pete Hollis Gateway Plan - City of Greenville

Pete Hollis Gateway Plan
Transportation
Vehicular Circulation
The Pete Hollis Gateway study area is framed by two major north-south state
highways, which at their southernmost points merge into Buncombe Street. Pete
Hollis Boulevard, a 7-lane highway, is the westernmost and ultimately passes
beyond the northern city limits into adjacent rural communities. Bordering the
study area to the east is the 5-lane highway Rutherford Street. Rutherford Street
is a major access roadway to and from the Cherrydale retail area, Furman
University, the City of Travelers Rest, and the mountains of North Carolina.
Roads
In 2005, the state highway department completed a roadway improvement
project along Pete Hollis Boulevard. This project was part of the Greenville Area
Transportation Study (GRATS), now the Greenville Pickens Transportation Study
Area (GPATS), which “identified the need for easier accessibility to and from
western Greenville County and the City of Greenville”. In 1991, a traffic impact
analysis report indicated that average daily traffic volumes were between 15,500
and 27,400. GRATS improvements to the highway included: roadway widening,
lane re-striping, street re-alignments, adjacent street closures, lighting,
landscaped medians, and sidewalks.
The majority of the east-west streets within the study area are 2-lane and
residential in nature. The 4-lane Stone Avenue is the exception and it continues
outside the study boundary to the west with residential uses and neighborhood
commercial uses to the east. These east-west streets create pedestrian and
vehicular access across the major highways described above. Most of the
residential streets are tree lined with adequate sidewalks, but could use improved
lighting and pedestrian crossings, see Figure 1 on Page 34.
Traffic Counts
Tables 4-6 document traffic counts generated for Pete Hollis Boulevard,
Buncombe Street, and Metropolitan Drive from November 15 through November
22, 2005. Additional traffic counts for Stone Avenue and Rutherford Street are
expected from Traffic Engineering 3/14/06.
Volume I: Vision and Concept Plan 33