701 bridge project heading toward completion

ELIZABETHTOWN – Anyone living in Bladen County has most likely been watching the slow and methodical construction of the 701 bridge project over the Cape Fear River.

Taking a look back, the work has come a long way. Safety, reliability, along with esthetics have been well thought out and Bladen County will have a beautiful roadway over an iconic river that should stand the test of time and the severity of North Carolina weather patterns.

The river has seen much traffic, first with Native American and early settlers forging the currents with canoes and wooden ships. It has hoisted steamers, turpentine barges, leisure boats, pontoons and will undoubtedly continue to provide passage from inland to the ocean.

Very soon, all traveling on the river and over river will hit a dusky point of the day when the guardians of the bridge will proclaim, “Let there be light.”

In April, 2022 the North Carolina Department of Transportation said that “A significant milestone in the construction of the new U.S. 701 bridge in Bladen County will occur in May when 42 girders are set into place over the Cape Fear River. The placement of the concrete-reinforced girders, which average 150 feet long, will require the existing two-lane bridge to close to traffic in both directions at scheduled times throughout much of May.”

It seems like only yesterday, but the project should come to fruition soon as final hurdle which included installation of lights along the west side of the bridge have now been installed.

Looking back, Bladen County remembers the initial closures. “The contractor will allow ambulances and law enforcement vehicles to cross the bridge, even with the girders resting on the bridge,” said the NCDOT. “Because fire trucks are too large, Elizabethtown town officials will plan to park a fire truck on the northern end for mutual aid during the closures twice each weekday. ‘We understand these closures will cause temporary inconveniences to the public, but they are necessary to safely and efficiently complete this phase of construction of the new bridge,” said Ken Clark, the NCDOT district engineer for Bladen and Columbus counties. “We also have been diligently working with our local partners and emergency responders to minimize the disruptions.’ Construction of the $23.3 million bridge project began in the summer of 2020 with the demolition of one bridge. The 1,218-foot bridge will have four lanes and is scheduled to be completed and fully opened to traffic by late spring 2024.”

That plan, of course was altered as the addition of bridge lights were proposed, planned and now installed.

In August of 2022 the Bladen Journal reported, “If you are seeing green steel, that’s a good thing — it means that concrete is on the way.” That was the message Blythe Jordan, resident engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, told members of the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce in reference to the U.S. 701 bridge work.

He told about 25 members that one of the questions he’s always asked is what caused the bridge to fail.

“Debris,” he said. “All the storms that took down trees along the river … they settled and actually eroded a 30-foot channel, and those two hurricanes almost back-to-back really did a number.”

Jordan said NCDOT first looked into repairing the U.S. 701 bridge — at a cost of about $15 million.

“Then we looked into the cost of replacing the bridge, and it came in at about $29 million.” he said.

That bridge, once completed, will be four lanes wide, two each way and span 1,218 feet.

But Jordan said NCDOT knows that the Cape Fear River isn’t always friendly.

“It can be pretty nasty,” he said. “But during this project, it’s been pretty cooperative. We experienced the smoothest setting of girders I’ve ever done, even while closing 701 twice a day.”

As of now, the switch of traffic to the new bridge will be May 2023, with the demolition of the old bridge in June 2023. Jordan said the project is scheduled for completion in May 2024.

The original U.S. 701 bridge was closed in November 2019.

Jordan told the Chamber group that NCDOT is responsible for 79,000 miles of road in North Carolina, which is the third largest among the 50 states. He added that, in Bladen County, there are 823 miles of paved roads and 50 miles of unpaved roads that NCDOT is responsible for.

“I’m proud of the work we do here in Bladen County,” he said. “When people complain about the roads or bridges, tell them to take a ride and look in other areas.”

The next major scheduled project in Bladen County will be a replacement of the Henry Creek bridge in 2028.

Jordan said the state is having “a lot of success with roundabouts” and that Bladen County could see more of them coming.”

Last year at this time, WECT quoted Andrew Barksdale with NCDOT as saying, ““This project is delayed, based on when it began in 2020, due, mostly, to the fact that the town of Elizabethtown wanted street lights added to this bridge. We agreed last fall to add this to the scope of work, which required a redesign for the bridge walls and to allow conduit, and to order street lights, of which there is a backlog of several months to manufacture. Also, the final phase of the bridge deck work has slowed, too,”

There have been bicycle racers over the bridge during construction, thousands of vehicles, construction equipment, cranes, emergency vehicles, gawker’s, walkers and even some mockers, but very soon, it will be completed as the newest jewel in the crown of Bladen County.