Study: 12 Planned Developments Could Drive Union Road Traffic to Capacity; City Told to Plan Widening

The Gastonia City Council on Nov. 6 heard a detailed presentation on the Southeast Gastonia Area Transportation Study — known as CGATS — which found that planned development in the Union Road / Union New Hope Road corridor could sharply increase traffic and require multi‑phase road widening and intersection work.

Consultant Brady Finkely of Kimley‑Horn told the council the corridor is now a largely rural two‑lane road serving schools and small neighborhoods but that 12 proposed or approved developments would add about 3,700 residential units plus commercial space. “Ninety percent of the growth for 30 years could be attributed to the 12 specific developments here,” Finkely said, summarizing model runs that compared regional baseline growth to the developments’ traffic impacts.

The study used two approaches — a planning‑level daily volume projection and a detailed peak‑hour traffic analysis — which produced consistent outcomes. Under a 2055 regional baseline (without the 12 projects) the corridor remained largely within existing two‑lane capacity; adding the 12 projects produced doubling to quadrupling of daily volumes in places. The consultant said west‑end volumes could rise from…