Need to Know: Cemeteries, Road Projects and Bike Lanes in Progress
We made a request to our readers to ask us the questions about Charlotte that have been burning in their minds. Here are the results.
Back in the spring, we made a call to our readers through social media and our email newsletter (sign up here), among other channels, asking what questions about the Queen City they were itching to find the answers to.
In June, we released the first in our Need to Know series that aims to answer any and all questions our readers have sent to us, and we’re following that up today with our second installment, this time reaching back more than 50 years to answer one question about the construction of I-77 and what it did to Pinewood Cemetery.
Have you got something you Need to Know about the Charlotte area? Send an email to info@qcnerve.com so we can dig up an answer for you.
From Gerry K.
Question: I’d like to better understand why bike lane projects take so long. I’m not talking about how to get more projects approved. I’m referring to existing approved and funded projects that suddenly seem to go dormant or take forever to complete.
Answer: We reached out to the Charlotte Department of Transportation to get some insight into this question and two specific examples of bike lane projects that have long been planned for Charlotte, asking where they stand today.
“Bike lanes are a part of the overall Capital Investment Plan, which improves infrastructure such as storm drainage, sewer, water mains, sidewalks, driveways, medians, asphalt and pavement markings,” answered a CDOT representative, explaining the many different aspects that go into a streetscape project.
Below are CDOT’s answers to each of the two examples that Gerry inquired about:
- Kilborne Ave. streetscape. It’s been in construction for a while, but seems to have halted. I’ve heard that this project is on hold and even city planners don’t know if/when it will resume.
Answer from CDOT: “The contractor has completed a majority of this project and the remaining work includes a final lift of asphalt, pavement markings and landscaping. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.”
- Bike lanes on Parkwood Avenue from North Davidson past Optimist Hall over to Caswell. I heard that there is a problem with the vendor but this may just be a rumor.
Answer from CDOT: “The bike lanes mentioned are part of the Parkwood Avenue Streetscape. From early in the process, the project team coordinated with private developers to build the project in a way that saves money and prevents redundancies. The infrastructure work to support traffic and pedestrian signals has been underway over the past several weeks [as of early June]. Traffic control is being managed to allow for safe passage through the area. Final paving and restriping must be done before the bike lanes can be safely utilized. We anticipate completion of this project in early 2025.”
From Unidentified
Question: Whatever happened to the Circumferential Parkway that was to connect Sardis Road North to Pavilion Boulevard? They built a small section at Albemarle Road years ago.
Answer: This project falls under the purview of the NC Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). According to an interactive map of STIP projects provided by NCDOT, the Circumferential Parkway project is not slated for construction until 2029.
From Spooky CLT
Question: Is it true that when I-77 was built, it split up Elmwood Cemetery? There are currently cemeteries on both sides of the highway but I can’t find anywhere in writing that they moved graves for construction.
Answer: The Historic Elmwood Pinewood Cemetery is currently located just outside of Uptown, bordered to the north by the AvidXchange Music Factory, to the east by Fourth Ward, the south by East 6th Street and the west by I-77.
Once separated by a fence, the Pinewood Cemetery was historically reserved for Charlotte’s Black residents, while Elmwood held the remains of white people, including Confederate soldiers.
It was not actually the Elmwood Cemetery that was split by I-77 but Pinewood, which has been split into three separated sites today: Historic Elmwood Pinewood Cemetery remains in the location listed above while North Pinewood Cemetery and West Pinewood Cemetery are both located on the other side of I-77, on different parts of North Summit Avenue next to Johnson C. Smith University.
With the help of everyone’s favorite local historian Tom Hanchett, we accessed a Charlotte Observer article from March 21, 1968, that addresses the removal and relocation of graves due to the construction of I-77.
The article, written by staff writer Porter Munn, is titled “CITY WILL MOVE BODIES: Freeway To Displace 87 Pinewood Graves.” It reads as follows: “The I-77 freeway will dispace [sic] 87 graves in West Pinewood Cemetery on the bank of Irwin Creek, Highway officials announced Wednesday.
“The bodies will be moved to York Memorial Cemetery on York Road (N.C. 49). West Pinewood is off North Summit Avenue and extends eastward to the creek bank where Andrill Terrace dead-ends. It is one of three city-owned cemeteries for Negroes.
Read more: Lawsuit Makes Disturbing Claims About York Memorial Cemetery
“The freeway will be constructed on the west bank of the creek through Charlotte. The highway department has awarded a contract for a new bridge on West Fifth Street over the creek and the freeway.
“One ramp of the Fifth Street interchange will require the land now occupied by the 87 graves. Another ramp on the east side of the creek will take a section of Richard Field, the athletic area for Irwin Avenue Junior High School.
“The school board has voted to resist condemnation of the school property by the Highway Commission. Freeway construction will require relocation of the creek channel in the cemetery area to provide enough land for the highway.
“The contract for the Fifth Street bridge provided for grading the I-77 roadbed under the structure, but did not provide for building the ramps connecting the bridge and the freeway. The ramps will be included. in a later contract for construction of the freeway.”
