SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — Pressure is riding on the completion of repairing the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in a timely fashion, else the contractor could face penalties.
READ MORE: CF Memorial Bridge full lane closures to start late January
The North Carolina Department of Transportation hired Southern Road and Bridge for $7.1 million to replace the bridge’s riding deck and associated stringers. It was just announced this week, work will begin Jan. 28 to close two lanes of traffic at a time first going into Wilmington, then leaving Wilmington, making motorists take detours for five months, causing acute traffic congestion.
In order to avoid peak tourist season and hurricane season, NCDOT has incentivized the company to finish the project early: $300,000 to complete the job before Memorial Day — preferably by May 23 — or $200,000 by June 28, with a $500,000 maximum bonus.
The contract also included a penalizing provision. If Southern Road and Bridge does not finish by June 28, it will cost the contractor $6,000 per day, paid back to NCDOT, which is funding the repairs.
The provision was brought up by new city council member and Wilmington assistant district attorney David Joyner at Thursday’s roundtable discussion with local leaders and staff from City of Wilmington, Brunswick and New Hanover counties, as well as NCDOT, emergency management, law enforcement, transportation planning agencies, and others. They were meeting to brainstorm communication strategies and learn more about the project.
NCDOT Division 3 Engineer Chad Kimes responded the provision was included in the contract as “liquidated damages,” making up for intangible losses to NCDOT.
“We have a lot of incentives with this project and those can be very effective,” NCDOT spokesperson Lauren Haviland told PCD. “Damages are part of typical contracts but incentives are more rare.”
Kimes confirmed the penalty amounts are higher for this one “due to the impacts it will cause” if the work is delayed. The amount of liquidated damages within each NCDOT contract depends on the type of project and its impact on the region if it weren’t expedited, according to Haviland.
Haviland couldn’t give an average on what these penalties usually look like, as they vary so widely.
“Sometimes it could be by the hour,” she said, “sometimes it could be by 15 minutes.”
She used the example of a project in Havelock where crews had to wrap work by 7 a.m. each day or be penalized.
Starting next month in Wilmington, Southern Road and Bridge will be replacing the entire riding deck and support stringers of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Temporary lane closures will begin Jan. 11 and occur overnight as crews prepare their work platform and set up a concrete barricade on the roadway for safety. Full closures of eastbound traffic will begin Jan. 28 and open by the first of April; westbound traffic will be shut down starting April 9, after Azalea Festival, and open by May.
Kimes again assured leaders the schedule is very stringent; if the contractor loses a day due to weather, it will be added to the end of the timeline. However, he also said bridge work can be done in the rain, so there aren’t many factors that will prevent daily labor.
Once crews have a firsthand look at the stringers and what the construction will entail — NCDOT already provided a fairly detailed survey via radar and technology — crew will be better equipped to assess repair approach.
To make repairs, one direction of traffic will be closed at a time on the bridge, re-routing motorists over the Isabel Holmes Bridge. Nearly 70,000 vehicles travel over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge daily, including around 500 commercial trucks — all will have to be detoured during the repair.
No clear plans were revealed Thursday for specific traffic mitigation. Still being considered are joint communication teams, traffic signal adjustments, ride-sharing programs, alternative employee schedules, and working with the N.C. Ports to consider nighttime truck traffic or diverting more containers to rail.
Mayor Bill Saffo assured leaders a more specific plan of action will be dispersed by mid-January.
“This will have a serious ripple effect on the roadways throughout the city of WiIlmington and surrounding areas,” Saffo said. “As coastal communities we have to be highly prepared and highly resilient.”
Emergency management partners are modeling hurricane response methodology to tackle communications involving the traffic delays. This includes working closely with Duke Energy, Wave Transit, State Highway Patrol, New Hanover County Schools, and others for a regional approach to reduce additional congestion.
County and city emergency personnel will set up its incident command center on the ninth floor of Skyline Center, the city’s new headquarters. With views of the bridge and access to citywide cameras, staff can provide real-time updates on traffic, delays and incidents.
“It’s going to be a pretty dynamic situation, pretty similar to hurricanes and evacuations,” New Hanover County emergency management director Stephen Still said.
NCDOT staff was invited to co-locate in the same space as NHC and city officials for the duration of the project.
“We will have delays as of day one,” Still said.
If needed, emergency management will activate its call center — with a number to be released once it’s up and running — as a way to divert the 911 line from being overrun with calls regarding traffic or accidents.
Still also intends to set up a joint information center.
“Communication is our best tool, our first line of defense,” he said, though added “some tactics are still unfolding.”
Kimes said NCDOT is looking at every intersection that will be impacted by increased traffic to adjust signal timings, increase turn lanes or widen roadways temporarily as need be. Intersections of specific concern are Shipyard Boulevard and South College Road, as well as Oleander Drive and South College Road — “already a mess,” New Hanover County commissioner Rob Zapple pointed out.
Container trucks headed to the Port of Wilmington are being diverted to College, further exacerbating backups in these areas.
New Hanover County Commissioner Chair Bill Rivenbark suggested working with N.C. Ports to see about routing some truck traffic to nighttime or even diverting more container travel to rail.
Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, who said he’s heard from residents from as far as Columbus and Bladen counties with concerns about the pending traffic, reminded the public to “keep cool heads.”
“Road rage is real,” he said.
Councilmember Kevin Spears was the first to address the most pressing issue for the public: “How much time will this add to someone’s commute?”
Officials do not have the answer to that question and likely won’t until the repairs begin next month.
Brunswick County commissioner Frank Williams, who works in communications and marketing full-time, encouraged all municipalities to not release any information unless it’s been highly vetted.
“Don’t jump the gun,” he said. “The worst thing we could do is put out information saying, ‘Here’s what we think may happen,’ when NCDOT is still working to pull together facts.”
He also recommended a joint communications team be involved at the strategy table so information is seamless among parties.
“A lot of times people don’t call the communicators until they’ve made the decision — include them in the process,” Williams said.
Cities, counties and supporting organizations, such as the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, intend to release up-to-date information on their websites, social media, through press releases to media outlets and invite NCDOT representatives to meetings.
Wilmington councilmember Luke Waddell called the construction “one of the most significant disruptions” the region has ever seen, with fellow council member Charlie Rivenbark touting it to PCD after the meeting as a “shitshow.”
Saffo added, in his 20 years in office, the city has not faced this amount of increased traffic for such an extended amount of time.
Still, he’s confident the area will be able to tackle the impending delays and issues presented by the construction.
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