ELIZABETHTOWN — “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 on Tuesday morning in reference to the U.S. 701 bridge work.
Jordan was the guest speaker for the Chamber’s monthly breakfast member meeting at the Cape Fear Farmers Market.
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.
In other news …
— 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.
“Let’s be honest, there is nothing safer than a four-way stop, but we’re seeing a lot more accidents at four-way stops — possibly because of texting and driving,” Jordan said. “But four-way stops don’t move traffic fast enough.”
— Also discussed was the widening of Hwy. 87 through Bladen County, which at one time was on the NCDOT scheduled, but has since been pushed back.
“I appreciate all you are doing in this county, but you are doing Bladen County a disservice by not expanding 87 here,” said County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson. “We will never be able to grow without it.”
Jordan said the best thing this area residents can do is to talk with their elected officials, especially state and federal, to get them to push for an expansion of Hwy. 87.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or cvincent@www.bladenjournal.com.