[In the Works] What’s ahead for Sedwick Road, Grandale Drive, and other Parkwood routes

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A speeding driver blew through a stop sign at Grandale Drive and Sedwick Road, almost striking Parkwood resident Mary Myers earlier this year.

The woman behind the wheel appeared not to realize the intersection was a four-way stop.

"She pulled off the road and sat with her head in her hands," Myers wrote in an email to Sean Egan, Durham's transportation director.

The Pelham Road resident asked officials to consider the addition of blinking lights around stop signs at that intersection to make them more obvious.

That request came up short, though, as the city's engineering team replied that - after reviewing operating conditions at the location - "we have determined that any potential traffic safety interventions are not recommended at this time."

But it may come as some small relief that two long-discussed changes around Parkwood are now on paper: Durham has drafted a new striping and safety plan for Sedwick Road, and the N.C. Department of Transportation has decided to install a traffic signal at Grandale Drive and Barbee Road.

Neither project, however, comes with a simple, settled construction schedule.

Sedwick and Grandale are state-maintained roads. Durham can study them, develop designs, pay for some planning, and recommend changes, but NCDOT must approve work within the state right of way. Meanwhile, some of the construction residents are seeing now is part of a separate city sewer project, not the Sedwick safety redesign.

Here’s how the pieces fit together.