Early risers can expect lanes closed on I-40 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Overnight work – from midnight to 5 a.m. – is expected to close both directions of Interstate 40 East at Airport Boulevard on Thursday and Friday mornings. Traffic will be detoured to exit at Airport Boulevard and then get right back onto I-40.
I-40 East was closed at Airport Boulevard (Exit 284) in Raleigh Tuesday morning, and commuters sat for hours in traffic.
Construction crews trying to install girders for the new Airport Boulevard bridge over I-40 closed the road for overnight work. When they failed to finish as scheduled by 5 a.m., the delays built quickly.
"Basically, the contractors just didn’t finish up on time," said Kim Deaner, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. "They ran into an issue, and it wouldn’t have been safe to reopen I-40 until they finished what they were working on."
Tuesday's delays saw thousands of drivers stuck in traffic; thousands more took to side streets to get to work.
"It was at a standstill," Kate Brodie said. "My Uber driver was yelling at other drivers because everyone was trying to veer into one lane."
Brittney Gary was late for work despite a detour using Miami Boulevard and Page Road.
"It got me a little behind, about 20 or 30 minutes," she said.
NCDOT says the Texas-based contractor, Zachry, will be fined $60,000, or $5,000 for every 15 minutes they were late to open those lanes.
Tuesday morning's backup was compounded when there was a crash further east on I-40, just before the Wade Avenue split.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. In May, another contractor was fined $25,000 for causing major delays on I-440 because the road was not cleared by the agreed upon time.
