Bridge over Durham Freeway to be replaced
A city contractor will next week begin the demolition and replacement of the old Alston Avenue pedestrian bridge over the Durham Freeway.
Posted — UpdatedBeginning May 26, S.T. Wooten Corp., will close part of the freeway, also known as N.C. Highway 147, from 11 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. each night for about two weeks. Traffic will be rerouted onto Briggs and Alston avenues while crews finish the bridge demolition.
After the new bridge span is delivered, crews will again close N.C. 147 during the same overnight hours and will use the same detour routes while the bridge is set into place. No dates for those closures have been set.
The state Department of Transportation is paying for 80 percent of the $2.2 million project, with the city picking up the rest of the cost.
The old pedestrian bridge has been closed since 1995 because of its age and poor visibility.
Katie Kalb, director of the city’s Department of Public Works, said the bridge replacement would link residential and commercial areas divided by N.C. 147 and would link those areas to the future Alston Avenue Triangle Transit Rail Station and a future trail system.
"It’s taken six years to get to this point, but we know this project is important to our citizens and to the future economic prosperity of these neighborhoods – and frankly, the community as a whole,” Kalb said in a statement.
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