View Watkins Road bridge replacement in a larger map

A bridge replacement project will close a one-mile section of Watkins Road in northeast Raleigh for five months, starting Monday, the state Department of Transportation says.

Dane Construction Co. of Mooresville has an $802,370 contract to replace the Watkins Road bridge over Powell Creek.  The bridge, built in 1951, is considered functionally obsolete and structurally deficient.

Watkins Road will be closed to through traffic between Mitchell Mill Road and Watkins Town Road.  Traffic will be detoured via Mitchell Mill, Forestville, Old Watkins and Watkins Town roads.  The work is to be completed by Sept. 12.

The American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 has – you guessed it – hit a snag again.

Wednesday was bid-opening day for the long-awaited, oft-delayed final segment of the popular greenway. But, according to city contract manager Byron Brady, there weren't enough bids to open.

State law requires at least three. There were only two. So now the $7.8-million job is being re-advertised for bids with opening date now set for Feb. 15.

The bridge, near Southpoint Mall, and a 4.2-mile trail segment, has been on the city's to-do list for more than a decade.

New twist but the same old story: the American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 delayed again.

This time, the culprit is a wage dispute between the NCDOT and the U.S. Department of Labor. City Manager Tom Bonfield notified City Council members Thursday that the dispute won't be settled until after Jan. 1.

The dispute involves estimates the Labor Department uses to set wage rates for projects that use federal money, such as the long-awaited pedestrian/cyclist bridge near Southpoint Mall.

Durham had to put the project out for a second round of bidding after first-round bids came in $2 million over the available funding. After some months of budget juggling, city administrators came up with enough to cover the shortfall and advertised for bids again.

Second-round bids were to be opened Dec. 15. Now, Bonfield said, that's been pushed back until Jan. 25.