NCDOT Wants to Permanently Close Busy West Raleigh Rail Crossing Near Meredith

A railroad crossing near Meredith College that carries about 7,500 vehicles a day is on the chopping block. The North Carolina Department of Transportation is proposing to permanently close the Beryl Road crossing along Hillsborough Street in West Raleigh, citing a history of accidents and near misses at the angled intersection where the tracks curve close to a busy traffic signal.

The crossing, located near the Waffle House on Hillsborough Street, has drawn scrutiny since May 2024, when two cars were struck by Amtrak's Piedmont train at Beryl Road and Hillsborough Street. As reported by The News & Observer, the two drivers involved jumped out of their vehicles before impact, and no injuries were reported in the crash. NCDOT engineer Brian Gackstetter told the paper the crossing has a history of accidents and near misses because of its angle and its proximity to the Hillsborough Street signal, which causes vehicles to stack across the tracks while waiting for the light to change.

Under the proposal, NCDOT would eliminate the Hillsborough Street traffic light at the Beryl crossing entirely and divert traffic to the nearby Royal Street crossing instead. The agency plans to extend Beryl Road about 500 feet to connect with Royal Street, add a new traffic light at Royal and Hillsborough, and build a new left-turn lane for westbound Hillsborough Street traffic, according to the same News & Observer report. The Meredith College entrance traffic light nearby would remain unchanged.

A Years-Long State Project With a New Price Tag

NCDOT has formally designated the effort as State Transportation Improvement Program Project P-5736, which covers closing railroad crossing #630647L, extending Beryl Road, and constructing a new 12-foot multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists, according to NCDOT's public input portal. The project is currently estimated to cost $10.8 million, a steep jump from the roughly $3.2 million to $3.5 million projected in earlier state transportation improvement documents dating back to 2021.

Beryl Road serves as the most direct route from Hillsborough Street to the Method community and the JC Raulston Arboretum, so the closure would reshape a well-used connector, not just a minor side street. NCDOT does not expect to begin acquiring the property needed for the extension until summer 2030, with construction slated to start about two years later, in 2032. That timeline means a utility contractor and an auto repair shop currently on the affected parcels would eventually need to relocate.

Part of a Bigger Push to Erase Crossings Statewide

The Beryl Road proposal is not happening in isolation. NCDOT is working to close railroad crossings throughout the Triangle as part of a broader safety and rail-speed campaign, and Raleigh has already folded the Beryl Road closure and extension into its 2030 Comprehensive Plan under Action AP-AB 31 and Action AP-AB 34, which also designates surrounding parcels for future medium-density residential use, according to the city's planning document.

The crossing sits along the CSX S-Line corridor, where NCDOT and federal agencies are investing more than $1 billion in grade separations to prepare the route for higher-speed passenger rail between Raleigh and Richmond, Virginia, per Progressive Railroading. That corridor already carries substantial passenger traffic: Amtrak's NC By Train service expanded in recent years to 10 daily round trips between Raleigh and Charlotte via the Piedmont and Carolinian lines, according to a 2023 Amtrak announcement.

Less than a mile from Beryl Road, crews are already building the Blue Ridge Road underpass, which will carry Blue Ridge Road beneath Hillsborough Street, Beryl Road, and the railroad tracks. Hoodline has been tracking that project, and as of April, NCDOT contractors had already excavated 100,000 cubic yards of dirt for the multi-bridge grade separation. It's one of several similar efforts underway in Wake County: NCDOT began construction in February on a $22.7 million bridge over the tracks at New Hope Church Road, following comparable grade-separation work that started at Durant Road in 2024, per an NCDOT press release.

These projects trace back to a larger policy push. NCDOT's $520 million Piedmont Improvement Program has already closed more than 40 surface crossings and built 13 roadway overpasses or underpasses between Raleigh and Charlotte. The agency also coordinates crossing safety statewide through its BeRailSafe program, which runs educational outreach and crossing enforcement blitzes with local law enforcement across North Carolina's nearly 3,300 miles of railroad tracks, according to the Central Pines Regional Planning Organization.

How West Raleigh Residents Can Weigh In

NCDOT will present the Beryl Road closure plan in person at a public meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Method Road Community Center. Residents unable to attend can submit comments online through NCDOT's public input site or by calling a dedicated hotline at 984-205-6615 using project code 10125. The public comment period runs through September 27.

For drivers already navigating years of detours and lane shifts from the nearby Blue Ridge Road dig, the Beryl Road proposal adds another long-range change to track. NCDOT has closed Beryl Road temporarily before, including a multi-day shutdown for railroad bridge upgrades last November and an overnight closure the previous August for I-440 beltline work, both covered by Hoodline at the time. This latest proposal, however, would not be temporary — it would end vehicle access across the tracks at Beryl Road for good.