BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

Four inches a day.

That’s what Mayor Pro Tem Paul Woodson figures is the proposed rate of construction for a new East Innes Street bridge leading into the downtown.

Still incredulous that a new bridge will take two years to construct, Salisbury City Council and most downtown merchants agreed Tuesday that a bridge replacement plan causing the least traffic congestion would be best for the downtown.

East Bank Street residents, whose neighborhood will be used as a major detour route, aren’t sure that it’s the best for them.

‘‘There’s a human face on this as well,’’ said Walt Sizemore, who recently bought a house on Bank Street.

Council approved a two-year construction plan as its recommendation to the Department of Transportation. Even though the project is at least three years from starting, it weighed heavily on the minds of city officials, downtown merchants and East Bank Street residents Tuesday.

The option finally chosen will keep two lanes on the bridge open at all times during construction. Those two lanes will be used for westbound traffic headed into the downtown from the direction of Interstate 85.

Eastbound traffic leaving the downtown will be rerouted onto South Lee, East Bank and South Long streets. South Lee will be restriped to provide for two lanes of southbound traffic. East Bank Street will be changed into a one-way street headed east.

Council chose this option over five others. Some of the options called for closing the bridge completely and cutting the construction time in half – to a year. But city engineer Dan Mikkelson said traffic detours connected with such a measure would lead to seven hours of congestion daily and traffic backups of at least a mile.

He said it would lead to a total breakdown of the city’s traffic flow. Bob Wright, head of the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce, said blocking of the bridge to the downtown would send a powerful, negative message to would-be visitors and consumers.

‘‘You don’t want people to get used to not coming downtown,’’ Wright said.

Detours of both eastbound and westbound traffic – some 30,000 vehicles a day – also presented problems for westbound traffic, if people were forced to cross railroad tracks on East Council or East Kerr streets, for example.

Mikkleson noted that some 25 freight trains pass through Salisbury daily, along with six passenger trains. While the passenger trains would cause minimal delays at the crossings, the waits for some freight trains could last up to 5 minutes.

Council held a public hearing on the bridge question Tuesday before making its final decision, and Councilman Pete Kennedy said the comments changed his mind. He had thought the best option was closing the bridge completely so that the construction could occur as fast as possible.

But several merchants said they couldn’t take that risk.

Ben Ribelin, owner of Signature Fine Jewelry, said ‘‘the entire thing scares me to death.’’ But he and other downtown merchants fear that a 10, 15 or 20 percent decline in business would put them out of business. They would rather have promises of continued traffic flow through the downtown than hopes of a faster construction time.

‘‘How long will someone sit in line before they decide there’s a better way to get through Salisbury?’’ Ribelin asked. He added later, ‘‘I cannot understand two years on a project like this, but if it’s two years, so be it.’’

Ribelin’s wife, Patricia, asked a question that didn’t have an answer Tuesday: How long did it take to build the same bridge 50 years ago? The bridge was built in 1947.

Glenn Taylor of Taylor Tire at 211 E. Innes St. said ‘‘slow business is better than no business.’’ The downtown merchants need all the accessibility they can get, he added, favoring the plan that council adopted.

But several people still pushed for an option that would close the bridge and build it as quickly as possible.

‘‘I’m for doing this thing in a year, if there’s any way we can do it,’’ Johnny Safrit said.

If the bridge carries 30,000 vehicles a day, 25,000 are driven by local residents who will find better detour routes and are creative enough to deal with the inconvenience, Safrit said.

‘‘If I want to get downtown, to the jewelry store, or wherever, I’m going to get there,’’ he said. ‘‘There are other ways to do it (go an alternate route), before you get to the detours that are set up.’’

East Bank Street residents will be faced with seeing their neighborhood street become a major thoroughfare because of their bridge over the railroad in the 300 block.

‘‘I feel we need to get it over with as soon as possible,’’ said Ken Weaver of 425 E. Bank St. He expressed concern that some of the detoured eastbound traffic will not turn from East Bank Street onto South Long Street toward Innes, but instead will keep going on East Bank Street past his property.

Sizemore had the same concern. Also, he said there are four houses in his 300 block of East Bank Street with children.

‘‘There’s a lot of exposure (from traffic) to those kids,’’ he warned.

The high-arching bridge also leads to poor visibility and blind entrances for residents trying to leave their driveways, Sizemore said. He added that the high traffic volume will mean that he won’t be able to cross the street for two years to visit with his neighbors.

‘‘And I worry about my cat that might be mashed,’’ Sizemore said.

Ann Lyles of 409 E. Bank St. said the street has a lot of children and pedestrians in general. She warned about plans to detour truck traffic down South Long Street because of the number of children who use nearby Lincoln Park pool.

Lyles, who often sits on her porch, also noted a marked increase in traffic on Bank Street already because of all the at-grade crossings that have been closed south of the Bank Street bridge.

Woodson, who owns Vogue Cleaners within sight of the bridge, opposed closing the bridge completely, fearing that it would hurt businesses.

‘‘We don’t want to make our downtown too historic,’’ he said.

Mayor Susan Kluttz said she felt bad for the East Bank Street neighborhood and the downtown business owners who, like the council members, are not thrilled with any of the options.

Councilman Bill Burgin said he would have to trust what he was hearing from the downtown merchants Tuesday – that they could deal with the pain of two years of construction in hopes that it would minimize congestion.

‘‘Two years is a long time, and we might lose some businesses downtown,’’ Burgin said.

With reluctance, Burgin said, he would go with the two-year plan.