View Durham Freeway Pedestrian Bridge in a larger map

Third-shift commuters and other late-night denizens of the Durham Freeway, take note: a demolition project will shut down the freeway in both directions at night between 11 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.

It starts Tuesday, May 26 (weather permitting), and the demolition of the abandoned Alston Avenue pedestrian bridge will take about two weeks..

Click this map for the detour route. It uses the Alston and Briggs avenue exits, connected by Pettigrew.

Here are details about Durham's plan to replace the rusted, abandoned, ugly old bridge with a pretty new one that will glow blue at night.

And here's the city announcement about construction and traffic plans.

The rusty, disused pedestrian bridge that has for decades spanned the Durham Freeway near Alston Avenue starts coming down next week.

For the occasion, freeway traffic will be re-routed by way of Alston and Briggs avenues from 11 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. starting Tuesday, May 26 and continuing for about two weeks.

The bridge's removal makes way for a new, safer and more aesthetically pleasing structure (above, in a designer's rendering) re-connecting a neighborhood the Freeway divided more than 35 years ago.

According to a city announcement, the whole process should be complete within 300 days of the start of new construction, or by the end of 2010. The state DOT is covering most of the $2.2 million cost, but funding delays have repeatedly delayed the project since the state and city agreed to it in 2003.

The present bridge was put up in 1973 after the Freeway opened between central Durham and Interstate 40 at the Research Triangle Park. It was closed in 1995 after it turned into a hangout for drug dealing and other criminal activity.