WILMINGTON —- Starting this weekend, closures will shut down the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and South Front Street, as well as slow traffic on Martin Luther King Parkway near the Isabel Holmes Bridges.
All the closures are to accommodate repair and maintenance work by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).
South Front Street
A section of U.S. 421 Truck Route (South Front Street) will be closed between Wright and Marstellar streets this weekend for rail repairs. Both the north and southbound lanes will be impassable to motor vehicles.
The project is needed to repair damage to the rubber seals lining the tracks in the area — it will also fill and repave potholes around the train tracks.
The lane closures will begin on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 5 a.m. and should end by Sunday, Oct. 28 at 11 p.m.
There will be a detour option by way of South Third Street (U.S. 421). The NCDOT urges caution when approaching the work zone and while traveling on the detour route.
Cape Fear Memorial Bridge
The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge will be closed for the first of two weekends. The closures will allow rehabilitation work on the bridge with the aim of reducing future maintenance work.
During the closures, traffic will be detoured to the Isabel Holmes Bridge.
The closures will Friday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. through Monday, Oct. 29 at 5 a.m. and – two weeks later – Friday, Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. through Monday, Nov. 12 at 5 a.m.
Martin Luther King Parkway
A section of U.S. 74 (Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway) in Wilmington will have intermittent lane closures in both directions starting next week. The closures near the Isabelle Holmes Bridge over the Northeast Cape Fear River will allow crews to safely replace expansion joints on the bridge.
The closures will commence on Monday, Oct. 29, and will remain in place until Tuesday, Nov. 20. To ensure the work doesn’t interfere with rush hour traffic, they will only be in effect between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays.
There will be no closures on weekends – meaning there should be no overlap with detour traffic from the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge closing.
There will not be a detour route for the MLK roadwork, as there will always be one lane open. The NCDOT encourages motorists to look for alternate routes to avoid possible traffic congestion and to lower danger to the crews working alongside traffic.
Drivers need to slow down and pay extra attention when approaching the lane closures, according to the NCDOT.
For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on Twitter.
