Kelway Drive's Speed Tables Were a Neighborhood Vote Before They Became a Work Order

The City of Raleigh's drawing for Kelway Drive shows the stretch from Wakefield Plantation Drive to Wakefield Pines Drive. It has five spots marked "Speed Table" and two labeled "Bike Lane Buffer Devices." The file is named a ballot design, and the name fits. Before a contractor was hired, the layout went to a vote of the people who live along the street and around it.

That changes what this winter's road work means for Wakefield. Kelway, Falls River Avenue and Wide River Drive are each getting a design that went before their own neighbors. On Falls River Avenue, the neighborhood portion of that vote missed its required minimum by 1.46%, and Council moved the project forward anyway.

What the City Expects to Build on Kelway

On Aug. 18, 2026, Raleigh City Council awarded the FY25 Traffic Calming Projects construction contract to Browe Construction Company for $1,400,596. The city's project page says construction is expected to start in November 2026. The work includes speed humps, speed cushions, speed tables, concrete islands, signs and pavement markings.

Twelve streets around Raleigh are in this fall's group. Kelway Drive is listed from Wakefield Plantation Drive to Wakefield Pines Drive, with a Fall 2026 start and a "Pre-construction" stage. The work planned for Kelway is all speed tables, five of them along the corridor.

The choice of device ties back to Kelway's speed limit. On the city's page explaining the types of traffic calming treatments, speed tables are described as tools that "help reduce speeds on streets with higher speed limits, such as 30 mph roadways," and their longer design gives "a smoother ride for drivers compared to traditional speed humps." In 2022, ABC11 reported that Raleigh approved lowering Kelway's limit from 35 mph to 30 mph, effective March 8 of that year. A 30 mph street is exactly the case the city describes for speed tables.

Across Falls of Neuse, the Same Contract Calls for Speed Cushions

Two streets in Falls River, just across Falls of Neuse Road, are in the same construction package. Their designs use a different device.

A speed cushion is a speed hump split into sections with gaps between them. Here is how the city describes it:

"Speed cushions slow drivers down much like speed humps, but their wheel-gap design lets many emergency vehicles pass with little to no delay. People riding bikes can usually cross them with little impact."

The same page lists the tradeoffs. Cushions cost a little more than speed humps and take a little longer to install. Some emergency vehicles may still be slowed slightly. Standard speed humps are called "one of the most effective ways to slow down traffic." They also come with a less comfortable ride, possible small delays for emergency vehicles, and more vehicle noise as drivers slow down and speed back up. Neither Wakefield nor Falls River is getting standard humps in this package.

Emergency access is also built into the program's rules. Raleigh's Neighborhood Traffic Management Program policy, revised June 2, 2026, limits treatments on Raleigh Fire Department priority routes based on how many trips those routes carry. A route with up to 300 annual trips can get a mix of treatments. Between 301 and 450, the policy calls mostly for horizontal features, with vertical features placed strategically. At 451 or more, only horizontal treatments are allowed. Horizontal treatments shift or narrow the road. Tables, humps and cushions are vertical treatments that lift it. So a street's place in the fire department's network affects which tools are even available before neighbors vote on a layout.

How a Street Gets on This List

The Wakefield and Falls River projects went through the city's 2024 Traffic Calming Project Group. Raleigh's final designs page says 15 neighborhoods across the city either voted yes or had Council approve their street. Council authorized 14 of those streets for construction on March 4, 2025, and added one more on April 1, 2025. Kelway Drive and Wide River Drive are both on that list.

The process runs in this order:

1. A resident asks. The city takes requests through a Transportation Improvement Request, and the street must have a posted limit of 25 or 30 mph.
2. Staff study the street. The city looks at speeds, how many drivers are speeding, speed-related crashes, nearby places that draw pedestrians, the street's design and the surrounding land use.
3. Projects are ranked. Eligible streets are ranked for Council approval.
4. Neighbors vote on a drawing. A proposed layout like the Kelway map goes to two groups: the properties along the segment, and the properties within roughly two blocks of it.
5. Council authorizes construction. After that, the project goes into a bid package like the one Browe Construction won in August.

Falls River Avenue shows how close those votes can get. Among properties along the street, the design passed comfortably with 88.89% approval. The surrounding-neighborhood vote fell 1.46% short of its required minimum. Council stepped in. The city's page says the decision was "based on the overall street's need and closeness of the Final Ballot results." Council used its own authority to move the project into the 2024 group.

So the five cushions planned for Falls River Avenue had strong support from the people who live on it and slightly less from the surrounding blocks. That split is a normal part of the process. The neighbors on a street and the people who drive through it every day can weigh the same design differently, and that is why the ballot has two groups.

The Wider Picture Around Kelway This Winter

Kelway isn't the only Wakefield road on the city's work lists this year. Raleigh's 2026 annual street resurfacing list includes Wakefield Plantation Drive, the road at Kelway's western end. That stretch also leads to the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation, whose clubhouse is at 2201 Wakefield Plantation Drive. Drivers on the regular loop between the club, Kelway and Wakefield Pines Drive will see both programs on that route.

The bike lane labels on the Kelway drawing connect to an earlier plan. The Wakefield Small Area Study, adopted in 2022, called for separated bike lanes along Kelway Drive. The 2026 traffic calming design includes bike lane buffer devices at two points on the corridor. Kelway doesn't appear on the city's current list of bike projects, so the buffers are part of the traffic calming package rather than a separate bikeway project.

Taken together, the 2022 speed limit cut, the 2022 study and this contract show Kelway being handled as a neighborhood street, step by step. The five tables are the most physical change yet. Anyone who wants to see where each one goes can open the Kelway Drive design map and read it against their own driveway, and the city's construction page lists the stage of every street in the package.

If you live along Kelway Drive or in Falls River and are wondering how changes like these show up when a home on that street sells, the team at Key Realty Team is glad to talk it through. We follow the details on Wakefield's streets because those details matter to our neighbors. Unlock Your Real Estate Dreams.