With this week’s award of a $450 million contract to a nationwide construction company, work can now begin on replacing the 65-year-old, swing-span bridge that crosses the Alligator River on U.S. Highway 64.
The concrete and steel span between Tyrrell and Dare counties is well beyond its intended lifespan, which is typically 50 years for bridges, tops, in terms of comforting federal transportation engineers. Coastal bridges in salt environments are often subject to some of the harshest conditions.
Sponsor Spotlight
Federal officials set a goal nearly two decades ago for new bridges to be built to standards such that they last a century.
On Wednesday, the North Carolina Board of Transportation approved the contract with Skanska USA, which has an office in Durham, to replace the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge with a modern, two-lane fixed-span bridge.
Workers are expected to begin driving bridge pilings in the next several weeks, weather permitting, and begin other activities such as clearing, at the site of the new bridge just north of the existing structure.
“Under terms of the contract, the new bridge will open to traffic in the fall of 2029, with demolition of the current bridge to begin in the spring of 2030,” Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday.
The existing bridge was completed in 1960 and is the main route to access the Outer Banks from the west, and a critical hurricane evacuation route. The aging swing span is maintained regularly but is prone to occasional mechanical failures that force motorists onto a 99-mile detour.
Sponsor Spotlight
“The new bridge will also improve river traffic, as more than 4,000 boats pass through the swing span each year,” officials said.
Some of the funding is through a $110 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.
