Aldermen request to lower speed on Main Street

Published 4:22 pm Tuesday, September 5, 2017

The Columbia Board of Aldermen on Aug. 7 adopted unanimously a resolution requesting the N.C. Department of Transportation to reduce the speed limit to 25 mph on eastern Main Street.

The board is asking for the change from Road Street eastward to the street’s end in front of Columbia Middle School.

The existing speed limits on Main Street are 35 mph from the schools to Road Street, 25 to Broad and 20 to the waterfront.

The change would make it 25 from the schools to Broad and 20 from there to the waterfront.

Sarah Fox, with the School Safety Committee, prompted the aldermen’s action after addressing the board in July.

The resolution reads: “Whereas, approximately 30% of the students that attend the Columbia Middle and High schools walk or bike to and from school; and whereas, the current speed limits along the approximately one-mile-long Main Street changes three times, including a 35 MPH limit in front of the two schools; and whereas, the Tyrrell County Board of

Education and the Town of Columbia Board of Aldermen are interested in improving the safety of students and other pedestrians; now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Aldermen of the Town of Columbia requests that the North

Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) reduce the Main Street speed limit to 25 MPH, beginning at the intersection of Main Street and US-64/Scuppernong Drive, west to the intersection with North Road Street, that this limit be posted along this section of the roadway, and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Division 1 DOT Engineer and to the Tyrrell County Board of Education.”

Eleven months ago the aldermen asked NCDOT to move the School Zone markings in the eastbound lanes on Scuppernong Drive 425 feet farther west beyond the Kohloss Street intersection. Nothing has been done.