Wilmington Bypass project to be completed 2 years early
Wilmington Star News reports that the Wilmington Bypass is to be completed 2 years early. This is great news for Brunswick and New Hanover Counties. The project is expected to create more efficient transportation, attract new businesses and increase jobs. Stevens Fine Homes' communities, Grayson Park and South Brook at Mallory Creek, are looking forward to the positive changes the project will bring to their locations.
Wilmington Bypass should be complete 2 years early
Perdue announced plans to speed up urban loop projects in six cities at the Piedmont Triad Regional Transportation Summit in Greensboro.
According to the plan released by the governor's office, the final stretch of the bypass – from U.S. 74/76 east of Malmo in Brunswick County to U.S. 421 in New Hanover – is now expected to be paved and open to traffic in 2016. A previous time line, announced by Perdue in March, called for grading and bridges to be complete in 2016, with paving finished by 2018. About a year ago, the N.C. Department of Transportation's schedule called for the bypass to be drivable by 2020.
The other unfinished section of the bypass – from U.S. 17 to U.S. 74/76 in Brunswick County – is under construction and is expected to be ready for cars in 2013.
The governor's office said similar projects in Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville and Winston-Salem would also be accelerated using federal GARVEE bonds, which allow the N.C. Department of Transportation to borrow against future federal funding. Perdue said the infrastructure projects would put people back to work.
"Investing in our state's infrastructure is about jobs," she said in a prepared statement. "Not only will it create jobs, but it also will build an efficient transportation network that will attract new businesses and bring more jobs to our state in the future."
Wilmington City Councilwoman Laura Padgett, vice chairwoman of the region's Transportation Advisory Committee, called Wednesday's development "great news for the whole region."
When the remaining legs are finished, the bypass will stretch from U.S. 17 in northern New Hanover County to U.S. 17 in Brunswick County.
The acceleration of bypass construction has been endorsed by municipalities throughout Brunswick and New Hanover counties. The highway has been the top priority for regional transportation planners for more than a decade.
- Patrick Gannon
Source: Star News
- Posted: September 9, 2011