View Alligator River drawbridge detour in a larger map

If you’re planning a drive to the Outer Banks, you might want to get going soon – before they close the drawbridge into Dare County.4/2/13 update: The U.S. 64 bridge is now closed until April 14.

The U.S. 64 bridge across the Alligator River will be shut down for 12 days, starting Tuesday, April 2, for repairs to a cranky old drawbridge that pivots open for tugboats, fishing vessels and yachts traveling down the Intracoastal Waterway.

There are no quick alternate routes. Beachgoers should prepare for a longer slog that will add at least 30 miles to the journey.

The state Department of Transportation plans in a few years to rebuild the entire 2.8-mile bridge across the Alligator River as part of a $277 million project to widen 16 miles of U.S. 64. But engineers say they dare not wait that long to replace worn-out components that frequently cause trouble for the drawbridge section. ... [MORE]

The N.C. Department of Transportation will close South Columbia Street for only three months this summer – good news for Chapel Hill's transit partners.
The 0.8-mile widening project started in December. The southbound lane of South Columbia Street would have closed April 1, routing traffic past UNC Hospitals on Manning Drive to N.C. 54 for six months.
Besides disrupting traffic, Chapel Hill Transit officials predicted it could cost a minimum of $850,000 to $1.5 million to reroute and adjust bus schedules. If they added more buses and drivers to maintain existing service levels, the cost could have been $1.25 million to nearly $1.93 million, officials said.
UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote Dec. 11 to NCDOT Secretary Eugene Conti Jr. to ask if the state could help relieve the financial burden.
Conti responded Jan. 3 that the work had been rescheduled for roughly mid-May to mid-August.
“I certainly understand your concerns, and I have requested Division Engineer Mike Mills to investigate the proposed construction schedule as listed in the current contract to determine if this could be revised to address the amount of time that the transit buses would be affected,” Conti wrote.
The transit partners – Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC – will meet at 11 a.m. Jan. 15 in the Chapel Hill Transit Operations Training Room, 6900 Millhouse Road.

N.C. 12 is open for regular traffic on Pea and Hatteras islands for the first time since Hurricane Sandy covered miles of the Outer Banks road with tons of sand in late October, and washed out a half-mile section of the road just north of Rodanthe.

Sandy destroyed dunes and sandbags that NCDOT rebuilds every couple of years along the most vulnerable stretch at Rodanthe - and that left the road open to more damage when a couple of nor'easters swept through in Sandy's wake. Looking south in this fresh DOT photo, you can see that the dunes haven't been rebuilt yet. That ocean is mighty close to the road.

NCDOT says it will continue work stacking sandbags and piling up more artificial dunes -- until the next storm wipes it out again.

View Hopson Road / Church Street / NC Railroad project in a larger map

The state Department of Transportation says it has awarded a $10.9 million contract for a project near Research Triangle Park that will close two dangerous rail crossings, straighten tracks to allow faster train speeds, and build a bridge to lift the tracks over Hopson Road.

The Fred Smith Co. of Raleigh won the contract to:

* Close the Church Street rail crossing and nearby N.C. 54 intersection. The north end of Church Street will be realigned with Keystone Park Drive, and the north end of Keystone Park drive will be extended to form a new intersection with Hopson Road. ... [MORE]

View Glenwood Avenue upgrade in a larger map

NCDOT road design engineers will hold public meetings this week to solicit feedback on their plans for two big West Raleigh projects scheduled in the coming decade, to widen parts of Glenwood Avenue and I-440. [Monday 12/3 update: see today's I-440 story with reader comments.]

- A widening and overhaul for Glenwood Avenue between T.W. Alexander Drive and Duraleigh Road. DOT will start work in 2017 building an expressway interchange at Glenwood and Brier Creek Parkway.  Work starts in 2020 on widening Glenwood between the 540 Outer Loop and Duraleigh Road, with changes to intersections and other improvements also in the works. Learn more and offer your ideas at a public meeting Thursday. Other improvements between Alexander Drive and 540 are farther in the future. [Tuesday 12/4 update: see today's Road Worrier with reader comments.] ... [MORE]

NCDOT has announced weight and other limits for 4-wheel-drive vehicles that will be allowed to drive north from Rodanthe through Pea Island to the mainland, and it has reduced the emergency ferry schedule that provides the other mainland connection for Hatteras Island. [5pm update: The 4WD access will be closed Thursday from 9am to 4pm.]

Meanwhile, NCDOT engineers are trying to figure out how they will repair and reopen the regular link, N.C. 12, that was overwashed and undermined by Hurricane Sandy a month ago. (See today's story with reader comments.) One option being considered is a temporary steel bridge just north of Rodanthe, like one erected last fall after Hurricane Irene, farther north on Pea Island.

One way to keep up with these developments is to check out a new NCDOT blog called Rebuilding NC12 (nc12repairs.blogspot.com).  ... [MORE]

Rough weather has delayed repairs to storm-damaged N.C. 12, and the state Department of Transportation says the road will not be reopened before Thanksgiving for traffic to Hatteras Island.

“Unfortunately NCDOT crews have been at the mercy of the weather, and we are not where we want to be in terms of reopening N.C. 12,” said Jerry Jennings, who oversees DOT operations in Dare and 13 other northeastern counties.  “With recent weather conditions and another forecasted Nor’easter on the way, we will be unable to fully reopen N.C. 12 by Thanksgiving, but are working with the Ferry Division to accommodate the demands of holiday travelers.”

DOT has allowed four-wheel-drive vehicles to travel during daylight hours along the damaged roadway -- through sand, standing water and broken pavement -- on Pea Island and the northern end of Hatteras Island. But storm overwash closed that access several times this week. More stormy weather is in the forecast, and DOT said four-wheel-drive access might be limited to low-tide times.

Emergency ferry service continues between Stumpy Point on the mainland and Rodanthe on Hatteras Island, and DOT has expanded the schedule for its regular ferry from Swan Quarter to Ocracoke. New Dare County webcams show how many vehicles are waiting to board the ferries at Stumpy Point and Rodanthe.

DOT engineer Pablo Hernandez shot this photo, and others, around 8am today  to show why the N.C. 12 corridor on Pea Island is again closed for the 4WD vehicles that had begun driving through here last weekend. (Time stamp that says it was shot 5:44pm yesterday is in error, Hernandez says.)

On Oct. 28, Hurricane Sandy wiped out the tall, man-made dune and sandbags that NCDOT rebuilds every year or two in an effort to protect this most vulnerable stretch of the Outer Banks highway, just north of Rodanthe.

With this week's rough seas, there's nothing between the Atlantic and the asphalt. And in the background, the northernmost dozen or so Mirlo Beach houses are in the surf, too.

N.C. 12 was closed south of Oregon Inlet until mid-afternoon Sunday after an early-morning construction accident killed a state Department of Transportation employee working to clean up tons of sand that have covered parts of the Outer Banks highway since Hurricane Sandy closed the road two weeks ago, DOT said.

The accident occurred sometime between 1 a.m. and 1:45 a.m., DOT spokeswoman Lisa Schell said. [4 p.m. update: DOT identified the worker as Michael Brad Stevenson, 37, of Hertford, who had been a DOT employee for 15 years. He was driving a dump truck, and a second dump truck driver also was injured. The accident occurred on Pea Island just south of Oregon Inlet.]

“When the accident occurred, the road was closed to four-wheel-drive traffic,” Schell said. “There was no traffic on that road other than the DOT crews.” ... [MORE]

The state Department of Transportation has awarded two contracts to repair Hurricane Sandy's damage to N.C. 12, the Outer Banks highway, in Dare County.

An $893,297 contract with RPC Contracting will rebuild pavement, repair sandbags and rebuild a dune in Kitty Hawk, and repair N.C. 12 pavement near the temporary bridge built on Pea Island after damage caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011.  A $186,293 contract with Carolina Bridge Co. will repair tension cables on Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet.

DOT also said it was working to provide access for four-wheel-drive vehicles in the sand along the N.C. 12 path, so that some vehicles will be able to travel between Hatteras Island and the mainland before final repairs to the road are completed. ... [MORE]