Construction crews hope to complete the bridge interchange and southern ramps by early to mid-2024 with the entire project completed by late fall.
GREENSBORO – We’re finally starting to see the finish line for the completion of the new bridge at U.S. 29/Reedy Fork Parkway. Construction crews hope to complete the bridge and southern ramps by early to mid-2024, said Bryan Key, a senior project manager at the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Of course, there are a lot of factors [that] could delay that schedule such as weather and materials availability,” Key said in an email.
Crews hope to finish the project by late fall. The existing bridge will also be removed before the northern ramps are completed. Plans call for creating a diverging diamond interchange and a path down the middle of the bridge that bicyclists and pedestrians can use. A diverging diamond refers to crisscrossing traffic at either end of the interchange, meaning vehicles making left turns onto on-ramps don’t have to stop.
The first diverging diamond interchange in the U.S. opened in 2009 at an intersection of I-44 in Springfield, Missouri. North Carolina has more than a dozen diverging diamond interchanges in areas including Mebane, Kernersville, Winston-Salem, Raleigh and Charlotte.
Plans for the new bridge have been in the works for nearly two decades. “The existing bridge over [U.S.] 29 is structurally deficient and in need of being replaced,” The Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning wrote in a newsletter in November 2006. “As a result of the structural deficiency of the existing [U.S.] 29 bridge, maintenance is a constant issue.”
The estimated project cost is more than $70.5 million. It’s higher than originally planned but construction costs have escalated greatly in the last few years, Key said.