WILMINGTON — A woman’s vehicle was struck with an unknown object on Wednesday while traveling to Wilmington on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.
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Kristina Rebecca was driving to Navassa around 8:30 a.m. to pick up a friend and her child, and as she drove under the scaffolding of the bridge, what looked like a piece of metal crashed into her windshield.
“My friend and I were in a deep conversation and it just immediately dropped,” Rebecca said. “I thought it was going to break the window because I saw how far it was like breaking into it and like the damage that it left, but it did not make it through that final layer or whatnot — it was very close.”
Photos of the damage show a baseball-sized dent in the windshield, though Rebecca said everything happened too quickly to tell what the object was.
“It was just the fact that I had my friend’s child in the backseat that I was like, I have to remain calm in this situation,” Rebecca said. “But it came out of nowhere and scared all three of us.”
The mother had noticed when she was crossing the bridge Tuesday night one side was closed. She said she saw two men working on the structure; one appeared to be sawing and welding while the other was inspecting with a flashlight.
North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesperson Lauren Haviland confirmed there were two workers on the bridge Tuesday night doing general maintenance.
“There is someone at this bridge nearly every day doing something, such as maintenance, repairs, greasing, cleaning, delivering supplies or inspections,” she added.
NCDOT, owners of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and responsible for its upkeep, inspects the structure once every two years. The latest routine inspection was done in December 2021. The next one is scheduled for this winter.
The two-year-old inspection indicated numerous issues of corrosion and loss on the bridge’s superstructure — the main portion that bears the bulk of the weight from vehicles.
The 2021 report, obtained by Port City Daily, showed instances of exposed rebar, corrosion, loss of gusset plate thickness — connecting beams to columns — cracks in brace plates, sheared and missing bolts and broken posts.
It also indicated 61,000 cars travel over the bridge daily.
Electrical system, machinery and underwater inspections are also done regularly. Other investigations are performed on an as-needed basis, Haviland told PCD.
The more than 50-year-old bridge is nearing the end of its usable lifespan, according to NCDOT, and both local and state officials have been urging the department to find funds to replace it. The project did not score high enough in the state’s data-driven formula for allocations in its 10-year plan.
The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has said it will be resubmitted for consideration again this fall. In 2020, NCDOT estimated four options for replacing the bridge, ranging anywhere from $350 million to nearly $900 million. The city is also exploring ways to incorporate the Wilmington Rail Realignment into a new structure, to combine two major projects into one.
This is not the first time debris has fallen while vehicles crossed the bridge. In 2021, local Paula Lee told Port City Daily a “long metal object” fell and landed on her car, leaving behind an approximately 4-inch shattered impression directly in line with the steering wheel. Lee said it bounced off her car, and luckily, no one was hurt, but she described the experience as something out of a “Final Destination” movie.
At the time of the incident, she posted it to social media and additional commenters began sharing similar experiences. In December 2020, Catherine Bright said her windshield was cracked by a flying bolt as she was exiting on the eastern bank of the river, while Kelly Judd said in 2012, an object that looked like a socket or large wrench fell and dented his truck. It was at a time when maintenance was being done on the bridge overnight.
Haviland said NCDOT does not have any reports of objects falling off bridges within its bridge maintenance office. However she referenced the 2021 incident and said the piece to have allegedly hit the vehicle was not identified as part of the bridge.
“NCDOT staff will respond to any reported issue that involves a state-maintained road or structure,” Haviland said. “If a vehicle is damaged and the owner believes it’s NCDOT’s fault, there is a property damage claim process.”
Rebecca said she has been in touch with NCDOT; a representative told her the department would send someone to investigate the incident and directed her to the online claim application. Initial estimates for a new windshield, she said, would put her $400 in the hole if she paid out-of-pocket.
Not only does the incident inconvenience Rebecca financially, but she also said Wednesday was the first day of her vacation. She is now coordinating whether to purchase a rental car or get her mother to drive out of the way to pick her up to travel to their destination in Wisconsin.
“It’s just a great start to a vacation,” Rebecca said.
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