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.
The work involves more than the I-85 bridge itself. Also part of the contract are:
* Replacing the parallel bridges that cross over the North Carolina Railroad tracks located north of the river;
* Replacing the parallel bridges over the Duke Power Industrial Rail Spur located south of river;
* Replacing the bridge that carries U.S. 29/70 North over the river;
* Reconstructing the interchange of I-85 at N.C. 150;
* Removing the interchange of I-85 at Clark Road;
* Widening about three miles of I-85 from four lanes to eight lanes; and
* Building noise walls.
NCDOT hopes to award a related contract later this year, to double the width of a four-lane stretch of I-85 mostly north of the bridge. That will depend on whether the General Assembly agrees this summer with Gov. Bev Perdue's proposal to pay for it by creating a new N.C. Mobility Fund.
Perdue wants to inaugurate the 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. Over the next two or three years she wants to build it up to $300 million a year, partly by collecting more taxes on new car sales.
The Yadkin I-85 project would soak up everything in the Mobility Fund for a couple of years, and then state officials would find other places to spend the money in the future.
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
this won't be pretty........
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 21:29 — mayberry_lady1just imagining the traffic snarls and stalls.........oh, boy, oh, boy. Time to look for an alternate route. Folks around this area are still waiting for the loop around Charlotte to be finished....it's only several years late.
Will there be a ferry?
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 19:57 — whollarBecause the parallel Hwy 29 river crossing (the alternate route when I-85 is closed) was recently closed because of safety reasons, does DOT foresee southbound traffic backing up to Virginia and northbound traffic backing up to South Carolina or Georgia?
this should of been done
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 19:33 — johnfxthis should of been done years ago.. I-85 NEEDS to be 3 lanes the entire route through NC.. the quicker it is done the cheaper it will cost...