Wilmington Bypass Sections Open, Making Some Beach-Going Easier

One stretch of the road

allows visitors to Brunswick County beaches and the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area to avoid the winding, slow-moving Wilmington city roads.

The other segment allows better access to areas of N.C. 17 north of Wilmington.

The section serving Brunswick County runs about five miles from N.C. 133 (Castle Hayne Road) to U.S. 421 and includes the Dan Cameron Bridge over the Cape Fear River.

A stretch of this area from I-40 to N.C. 133 opened a year ago, but it still meant that motorists had to navigate their way through miles of two-lane roads on N.C. 133 in Wilmington to reach U.S. 421.

The other section, known as the John Jay Burney Jr. Freeway, runs about five miles between I-40 and U.S. 17 north of Wilmington at

Porter's Neck, just south of Scotts Hill

.

Both sections also allow travelers on N.C. 17 to avoid going through Wilmington, although they will need to travel on a stretch of U.S. 421 for now.

The two sections cost about $138 million to build.