Drivers can now reach the Southern Pines-Pinecrest Plaza and Aberdeen shopping district on U.S. 15-501 from Airport Road and avoiding the Pinehurst Traffic Circle.
Instead, they can now take the 1.3-mile two-lane paved Knoll Road, which runs from Midland Road across from the entrance of Longleaf. Knoll winds around the northwestern boundary of the gated Mid South Golf Club. It ends at a small, three-legged roundabout on Pinecrest School Road behind the shopping center.
Drivers entering the roundabout from all three directions are warned by signs posted ahead to slow to 10 mph to go around the roundabout. Just like the Pinehurst Traffic Circle, cars go to the right.
The roundabout handles traffic to and from the high school along the Pinecrest School Road. It also disperses traffic to and from Morganton Road at the other end behind Pinecrest Plaza, where a traffic signal was installed about a year ago.
Traffic from the school and from Morganton Road can take a new “leg” of the roundabout that is Knoll Road to reach Midland Road, avoiding traffic on U.S. 15-501 and the Traffic Circle.
Midland Road also now has a left turn lane for traffic heading toward Pinehurst to allow vehicles to turn onto Knoll without stopping traffic continuing north on Midland.
The work completing Knoll Road, which has been on the drawing boards for almost 20 years, began in July and ended last Saturday, when the road was officially opened its entire length to traffic, said Southern Pines Public Works Director Bobby Teague.
The town contracted with S.T. Wooten of Sanford for the $550,000 project completing Knoll Road and the roundabout. The N.C. Department of Transportation is reimbursing the town for $250,000, and Mid-South Club will also help pay for part of the project, he said.
Drivers were already using the road, going around the signs that blockaded the road before it was paved.
Now that the signs are gone and the route is completed, traffic will pick up as people discover the more efficient way to get from Midland to U.S. 15-501, easing traffic congestion along Midland, the Traffic Circle and other corridors in the area, Teague said.
“About 95 percent of the kids from the high school coming out of the parking lot to the roundabout are using it right,” Teague said Monday, after observing school traffic around 3 p.m. “Some are obviously not paying attention to see whether another driver is on their left because they aren’t used to having much traffic when they started using it before it was all completed.”
He said people sometimes also tend to drive too fast going around the roundabout, cutting across and running off the pavement a little. It comes from school kids not looking to their left to see if anybody is coming around the circle.
Little islands at each of the three entrances warn drivers approaching the roundabout to yield to traffic already in it and to stay on the right.
Teague said they built the roundabout to keep traffic moving at the three-road intersection, instead of having stop-and-go traffic that would lead to congestion.
The speed limit is 25 mph on the Pinecrest School Road, although advisory signs caution drivers to slow to 10 mph on the roundabout.
The speed limit on the newly completed Knoll Road between Midland and Pinecrest School Road is 35 mph.
The portion of the road between the roundabout and Morganton Road will be renamed Knoll Road and the part from the Pinecrest student parking lot and stadium area on the other side of the roundabout will retain its present name of Pinecrest School Road.
