It's been something of a puzzlement as to why there wasn't a barrier to divide traffic going in either direction on the Bel Air Bypass even before the November 2008 collision that took the life of a mother and her 8-year-old son.
It would have made a lot of sense to have put a barrier in place years ago when the Hickory Bypass was tacked onto the northern end of the Bel Air Bypass. At that time, and even after the 2008 tragedy, word from the state was there wasn't enough room for such a barrier.
Of course, now such a barrier is being put in place, and the only thing lost along the road will be full lane width paved shoulders that had been there since at least the time the Hickory Bypass was built.
Unfortunately, there was a much greater loss that finally prompted building the median barrier.