The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that its contractor had completed a test pile project in the Alligator River between Tyrrell and Dare counties earlier this month, work that will inform the design of a planned new bridge.
Eleven large concrete test piles were driven into the riverbed at various depths, officials said. The posts, which support the bridge structure, will help engineers learn about soil layers and depths and soil consistency in the riverbed as they design a replacement for the 64-year-old Lindsay C. Warren Bridge that is part of U.S. Highway 64.
Sponsor Spotlight
“The soil samples and field data we collected during the test pile project will help us make revisions that determine the final construction design of the bridge structure,” said N.C. Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Pablo Hernandez.
Actual bridge construction is slated to begin later this year or early 2025.
New York-based Skanska USA was the contractor for the test pile project, which began in the spring.
NCDOT had announced in April that as many as 18 test piles would be driven.
Officials said in the latest announcement that the test piles would be removed once the bridge construction project is underway.
Sponsor Spotlight
The new Alligator River bridge is to replace the existing swing-span bridge with a two-lane, fixed-span, high-rise bridge on a new location just north of the current bridge. The new bridge will include two 12-foot travel lanes with 8-foot shoulders.
