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.

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

The state Department of Transportation says it will continue for the next several years an unusual traffic lane change put in place last September as an experiment on westbound Interstate 40 at the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass:

To make the morning rush hour run more smoothly, DOT closed one of three lanes on I-40 and one of two lanes on U.S. 70 as it merges with I-40. The lane slimming was called temporary in September, but DOT will install lane markings to make it semi-permanent on Wednesday.  Traffic studies indicate that the morning drive runs a bit smoother and faster with two lanes than it did with three lanes. ... [MORE]

If you're driving I-40 in the next few months and see a bus rolling along the shoulder, it's probably not in trouble.

It's in an experiment. ...

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.

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

In September, NCDOT tried an unusual approach to ameliorate a problem created when it opened the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass: to help rush hour traffic move more smoothly on westbound Interstate 40, engineers reduced the road from three lanes to two lanes.

The idea was to eliminate the delays around a bottleneck that often formed when the three-lane stretch (about 2 miles long) ended and drivers in the two outer lanes were forced to merge into one lane.

So how's it working? Has this counterintuitive change improved your morning commute? Is it better to keep I-40 two lanes wide than to add a third lane temporarily?

Please let me hear from you, by phone (919-829-4527) or email. Be sure to include your name and your daytime phone number.  Thanks.

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

Three lanes bad, two lanes better? 

NCDOT says its traffic engineers will launch an experiment, starting Sunday, to see if they can make westbound I-40 run more smoothly at rush hour by slimming it from three lanes to two lanes near the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass. What do you think? [9/14 update: see today's story.]

Westbound I-40 swells from two to three lanes as it approaches the U.S. 70 interchange (Exit 309) in southeastern Wake County. During the morning rush, lots of drivers move into that new outside lane and speed ahead.  But this third lane disappears after about two miles, causing a regular rush-hour bottleneck when drivers struggle to merge back into the original two lanes.

So the question to be tested is: Would the morning traffic flow more smoothly without that temporary third lane? ... [MORE]

View Construction Delays: Triangle Expressway in a larger map

More traffic delays are scheduled in coming days and nights on I-40 and Davis Drive as road crews close lanes to accommodate construction of the state's first modern toll road, the Triangle Parkway through RTP, NCDOT says.

 * Nightly lane closings are planned on I-40 between Airport Boulevard and N.C. 55 from Sunday, Aug. 21, through Friday, Sept. 2, between 9pm and 6am.  Some traffic stoppages are planned between midnight and 5 a.m. for as much as an hour at a time.

* Daytime lane closings, between 9am and 4pm, are planned on Davis Drive between Development Drive and Hopson Road next week, from Monday Aug. 22 through Friday Aug. 26.

These plans come on top of DOT's announcements that the NC 147 spur from I-40 south to Alexander Drive will be closed permanently (see today's story with reader comments) starting Sept. 6, and that northbound lanes on NC 147 north from I-40 to Alexander Drive will be closed at night through Sept. 1.

View Triangle Expressway in a larger map

Nighttime road work will close some lanes on I-40 between Airport Boulevard and N.C. 55 next week, Sunday night through Friday night, NCDOT says.

The traffic squeeze will take place between 9pm and 6am, weather permitting.  Two lanes will be kept open in each direction.

Road crews will install overhead signs for the Triangle Expressway toll road, scheduled to open for traffic through Research Triangle Park in December. 

View I-40 / I-540 interchange in a larger map

A 540 Outer Loop exit ramp at Interstate 40 will be closed at night to allow construction of a sign for the Triangle Expressway toll road, for three nights starting late Wednesday night (early Thursday morning).

The state Department of Transportation said the work will close the exit from northbound NC 540 to westbound I-40 between midnight and 6 a.m. early Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Motorists will be detoured to the Aviation Parkway exit of I-540 North (Exit 2), then back onto I-540 South and to the ramp for I-40 West.

View I-85 & I-40 crashes 6/30/2011 in a larger map

Federal regulators are examining safety practices at a Tennessee trucking company whose driver was jailed after a fiery crash June 30 that killed three people and shut down Interstate 40 in Durham for several hours.

And state traffic engineers say they’ll study the crash site for any improvements that could make the road safer for other drivers.

Ronald Eugene Graybeal, 50, a driver for Hawley Transport Services of Greeneville, Tenn., was charged with driving while impaired and three counts of felony death by vehicle. Troopers found marijuana, methadone and drug paraphernalia in his truck.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has begun a compliance review for Hawley, which has 10 tractor-trailers and employs 10 drivers. ... [MORE]