Officials with the North Carolina Department of Transportation will close the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge tonight, and the bridge will remain closed all weekend.
At 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, the bridge will close until 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 15.
North Carolina Department of Transportation Spokeswoman Tammy Stewart said the scope of the work to prompt the weekend-long closure includes replacing 32 of the bridge’s 64 cables. Once work begins on the cables, the bridge must remain closed until the work is completed, Stewart said.
Thirty-two cables were replaced the last weekend in September, but DOT officials failed to notify the media and many public agencies of the scheduled closure leading to confusion, frustration and traffic backups as far south as the U.S. 17 and Maco Road interchange in Leland.
On average, more than 52,000 drivers cross the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge from Brunswick County into Wilmington every day.
“We fully expect there to be tie-ups and backups in the traffic itself,” Leland Police Sgt. Joseph Pierce said.
“We’ll do the best we can, creating more of a presence out there to help slow [drivers] down. There’s no real other recourse we can take as far as a precaution,” Pierce said.
Pierce hopes a police presence will deter people from speeding, driving recklessly and even driving on shoulders and medians in an attempt to avoid waiting in traffic.
Pierce offers the standard warnings for drivers: Be patient, allow extra time for commuting and plan ahead.
“The most crucial thing is one more car in front of you is not going to hinder your traffic. If everybody can just cooperate and get through it, we’ll get through it,” Pierce said.
Inbound traffic will be rerouted to cross the Isabel Holmes Bridge—an area Pierce warns is also prone to traffic backups.
“Patience is the biggest thing—being patient and understanding. You’ll get there eventually,” Pierce said.
Don Bennett, Wilmington’s traffic engineer, said city officials have been coordinating efforts with DOT to determine traffic signal timing patterns to address the changes in traffic patterns.
“Green times can be adjusted to adapt to the changing traffic patterns. Additionally, we anticipate having a staff person in the traffic management center on Saturday to make changes on the fly. Like any other game plan, you start with what you anticipate and make adjustments as the game changes,” Bennett said.
Bennett said Wilmington’s traffic officials have met with DOT officials twice since the last weekend bridge closure, and will meet again on Friday.
“NCDOT has some contingency plans in place and we are prepared to react should those contingencies be called into action,” Bennett said.
Reach Caroline Curran at [email protected] or (910) 772-6336. Follow her on Twitter at @Cgcurran.
