UPDATE: Chapel Hill Police shared a release at 10:40 a.m. saying Raleigh Road has reopened to all traffic.

One of Chapel Hill’s more well-traveled roads was anything but on Wednesday morning, as a downed tree led to a closure and traffic delays.

The Chapel Hill Police Department shared an alert with the community shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday saying a tree had fallen and was leaning across Raleigh Road — which heads west-bound to UNC’s campus and east-bound to Fordham Boulevard and Interstate 40.

Police closed Raleigh Road from Greenwood Road to Country Club Road to divert traffic away from the tree, which is to be removed.

The result, however, was significant traffic delays for people in the corridor. Police urged drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians to avoid the area entirely, leading to back-ups along NC Highway 54, Fordham Boulevard and other surrounding roads. Chapel Hill Transit also issued an alert to its passengers about the road closure, saying its FCX, S, N, and A routes would be detoured and likely delayed while Raleigh Road was blocked off.

According to Duke Energy’s Outage Map, there was no power outage reported due to the fallen tree.

 

Photo via the Chapel Hill Police Department.

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