Fortify construction changes traffic pattern on Hammond Road

For the next several months, drivers on Hammond Road north will access Interstate 40 East by turning left onto a ramp at a traffic light.

The old traffic pattern – which allowed drivers to access I-40 East via an on-ramp on the right side of Hammond Road – will be blocked so that crews from Granite Construction can prepare the bridge for lane shifts coming to I-40 in 2015.

Drivers on southbound Hammond Road won't notice any difference in the traffic pattern, officials said.

The bridge work at Hammond Road is also happening at several other bridges along I-40, between U.S. Highway 1 in Cary and I-440 in southeast Raleigh.

Crews will mill down rumble strips on bridge shoulders in order for them to become travel lanes once work begins in earnest on the I-40 portion of the Fortify project, which is a rebuild of an 11.5-mile stretch of I-40 and I-440 between Cary and the U.S. 64/264 interchange in southeast Raleigh.

Crews are paving portions of I-440 West and will likely begin paving I-440 East in June. Major work on I-40 is not scheduled to begin until next year.