Ballantyne bridge plans face stumbling block

Several road improvements planned for the Ballantyne area are about to start, but the biggest one was put on hold over a land dispute.  That plan would build a new bride over 485 to connect community house road and Endhaven lane.

This spring, Bissell companies plan to add turn lanes on Ballantyne commons at Johnston and community house. They also plan to change the traffic flow on John J. Delaney, but there are two problems that just surfaced. First, soil testing for environmental concerns will delay the new fly-over ramp to 485 by a few months. The second has to do with the owner of this property who now says he doesn't want to give up part of his land to build the road.

After Channel 9 began making phones, owner Paul trotter told me he is willing to give up his land. If he gets a written agreement that the road will be built. He says the builders of the Toringdon office development, right next to his land, also promised to build a road, but never did.  He wants to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Bissell president Ned Curran says that land deal is a key part of their plan in Ballantyne and he's now working out the details.

"I think over the next three or four years people here are facing the greatest concentration of road projects perhaps in the country, said Ned Curran.