View I-85 Yadkin River Bridge in a larger map

The work has taken longer than expected, but construction on a long-sought replacement for the harrowing Interstate 85 bridge near Salisbury will mark a milestone this weekend when the current two-lane northbound traffic is moved from the narrow old bridge to a new four-lane bridge.

Gov. Bev Perdue traveled to the site of the half-mile-long I-85 Yadkin River bridges project Thursday to announce the traffic shift, set to take place early Saturday morning.  That's almost two months later than the state Department of Transportation had expected to make the change, according to DOT officials and a timeline posted at the project website.

DOT had predicted that both northbound and southbound drivers would be off the old bridge -- two lanes in each direction -- by May 21.  When that happens, now scheduled for July, northbound and southbound drivers will share the new four-lane northbound bridge temporarily.

The twin four-lane bridge for southbound traffic now is expected to open in early 2013, instead of early November as scheduled earlier.

The narrow bridge, built in 1955, carries 70,000 cars and trucks every day on the main interstate highway between Richmond and Atlanta. Its replacement will give travelers a faster and less frightening trip over the Yadkin River.  DOT is spending more than $200 million to replace the bridge and add new lanes to a nearby stretch of I-85.

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View I-85 S and I-40 W crashes 6/30/2011 in a larger map

[6:30pm update:] In the wake of separate, major crashes, both interstate routes west and south from the Raleigh-Durham area to the western half of the state are still jammed this evening as a holiday travel weekend gets going.

A pair of crashes stopped traffic on I-85 near Hillsborough this morning, initially in both directions. One person was killed.

The northbound lanes reopened by noon, but one southbound I-85 lane was expected to remain closed at Hillsborough until late this evening, NCDOT said. Traffic was backed up for miles. Detour info below.

Then around 3 p.m. a crash and fire shut down I-40 westbound near U.S. 15-501 between Durham and Chapel Hill, killing three people. NCDOT expected all lanes to stay closed into the evening. U.S. 15-501 was blocked, too. Detour info below.

The best detour for many drivers might be U.S. 64 west from Raleigh and Cary to Pittsboro. ... [MORE]

The state highway department alerts Durham motorists to anticipate inconvenience at two work zones this weekend.

Lanes will be closed on N.C. 751 (Cameron Boulevard) between the Erwin Road traffic circle and Duke University road Saturday and Sunday, as needed and if temperatures allow the contractor to work toward finishing a resurfacing job before deadline next Thursday. Anyone heading for the Duke basketball game Saturday are advised to go another way.

In both directions on Interstatre 85, lanes will be intermittently closed during daylight hours between Cole Mill Road and the Orange County line while crews install pavement reflectors.

The state Senate quietly blew off one of the big items in Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed budget for 2010-11: $94.6 million for a new Mobility Fund that would help fix the I-85 Yadkin River bridge-and-bottleneck now and fix other unspecified transportation problems later.

Perdue had proposed to divert $22 million this year, and more in future years, from the dwindling yearly transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. And she wanted to produce another $74.6 million a year in new money by hiking some DMV fees -- mostly by increasing everybody's car registration fee from $28 to $35.

None of this was included in the budget moving through the state Senate this week.

Some transportation and urban advocates had cheered the idea, arguing that any increase in transportation spending was welcome.

But the Mobility Fund was vaguely explained from the start, and the ideas for how to spend it varied widely from one side of the capital to the other. ... [MORE]

View I-85 Yadkin River Bridge in a larger map

Construction will start in October on an eight-lane bridge to replace the antique, four-lane structure that carries Interstate 85 across the Yadkin River at Salisbury.

Sixty thousand cars and trucks cross the narrow, 55-year-old bridge every day. It's one of the most congested, nerve-wracking stretches of I-85 between Richmond and Atlanta.

Gene Conti, the state transportation secretary, signed the $136 million bridge contract today with Flatiron Constructors and the Lane Construction Corp. The job is to be finished in 2013. ... [MORE]

View I-85 Yadkin River Bridge in a larger map

In her proposed budget for FY 2010-2011, Gov. Bev Perdue proposes to establish the N.C. Mobility Fund with $74.6 million in DMV fee hikes and $22 million that would have been diverted from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund.

The N.C. Mobility Fund will be used "to address critical congestion bottlenecks and to improve our logistics capabilities," Perdue said in a letter to the General Assembly.

First dibs on the money, if the legislature agrees, would be to help pay for a $330 million replacement for the antique bridge that carries Interstate 85 over the Yadkin River near Salisbury. ... [MORE]

View I-85 Yadkin River Bridge in a larger map

The U.S. Department of Transportation today awarded North Carolina just $10 million of the $300 million it requested last year in federal stimulus funds to widen Interstate 85 near Salisbury, and to replace the obsolescent four-lane bridge over the Yadkin River.

So the state Department of Transportation will face an indefinite delay on a $150 million project to widen six miles of I-85, mostly north of Salisbury.

But DOT will use a fall-back plan to get started this summer with construction on a new eight-lane, $180 million Yadkin River bridge. ... [MORE]

The scary old I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River near Salisbury is woefully overdue for a $350 million replacement. Agreed. But who wants to pay for it?

North Carolina wants President Obama to pay for it.

I-85 is the main road between Richmond and Atlanta. Only a fraction of the 70,000 cars and trucks that ratle across the narrow bridge every day are local. But under the General Assembly's "equity" formula for distributing highway dollars, the Yadkin bridge is just another local project. ... [MORE]

View Greensboro Urban Loop in a larger map

Maybe you want to take the family to splash around this weekend at Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, the water park on the south side of Greensboro. It sits right next to the Greensboro Urban Loop near its interchange with northbound Business 85 and southbound I-85.

You can see Emerald Pointe as you drive by. But you can't get there from the Loop, if you're driving west from the Triangle.

There is no off ramp to northbound Business 85 for westbound Loop drivers.

This missing exit is just one of the myriad mysteries of Greensboro's Urban Loop, where NCDOT has changed the signs again to reroute I-40 back onto its old path through the city's crowded Death Valley corridor (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments). (Why did DOT make the switch? For money.)

It's hard to navigate Death Valley and the Loop and their various interstates. The signs are lacking or confusing. And don't ask Google or Mapquest to help you -- they're both wrong on how they label the interstate routes around and through Greensboro ... [MORE] .

I get lost when I'm trying to find my way home after Sunday dinner with Mom.

It should be easy: Follow I-40 from her place near Greensboro to my place near Chapel Hill.

But it’s hard. I blame DOT and the fiendish maze it calls the Greensboro Urban Loop.

Now DOT is switching signs again – rerouting I-40 and “Business” I-40, posting new exit numbers, putting up new sign colors, even changing the mile markers. Can't they leave dumb enough alone?

Is it just me, or are there other folks who long for the old days of Death Valley -- where all roads through Greensboro led to a narrow, smoky, dangerous corridor?

If you have problems traveling I-85 and I-40 through or around Greensboro – or if you have solutions – I’d like to hear from you.

Please e-mail me or call me at 919-829-4527. Don’t forget to include your name and workday phone number.