Replacing Bridge Over Tracks On East Innes Will Take Years

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

One, maybe two.

That's how many years construction crews will spend tearing up and replacing the East Innes Street railroad bridge, depending on the option Salisbury City Council chooses.

That's also the length of time traffic on East Innes Street could be disrupted, beginning in June 2002.

Some 27,500 cars travel on this section of East Innes daily.

"We're very concerned,' Mayor Pro Tem Paul Woodson said Tuesday. "... Traffic is humongous on that street."

Meeting with Salisbury City Council Tuesday, consultants working for the N.C. Department of Transportation shared three scenarios and how each would affect construction, street closures, lane closures and/or detours lasting one to two years.

The state representatives left no doubt that the bridge must be replaced. Consultant Eddie Wetherill said the 1947 bridge received an 18.5 rating (out of 100 points) at its last inspection.

A "50" rating is enough for a bridge to qualify for federal replacement dollars. The 18.5 score translates - in engineers' thinking - to a bridge that's in terribly bad shape.

"It's structurally inadequate," Wetherill said.

The coming of high-speed rail service and taller freight shipments are forcing the state to build the new bridge at least 1.5 feet higher.

A new bridge has to have clearance of at least 23 feet to accommodate a third rail line for a proposed high-speed passenger train between Charlotte and Raleigh, consultants said. The present bridge is 21.8 feet high.

Lowering the tracks is not an option, consultant Frank Price added, describing it as "a horrendously expensive proposition."

Federal dollars will pay for 80 percent of the bridge's replacement; the state will pay the rest. State officials are coming to the council early for its opinion of how the bridge project might work better.

State planner Tom Kendig promised that the Department of Transportation will hold public hearings on the bridge proposal, but Kendig told council members they face a tradeoff between doing the construction quickly or phasing it in over a longer period of time.

Woodson, who owns Vogue Cleaners on North Long Street not far from the bridge, spent much of the past weekend monitoring the amount of traffic on the bridge. Since Monday, he also has heard considerable comment from citizens and business owners concerned about the bridge's future closing for construction.

Woodson inspected the bridge himself.

"Have you been under that bridge?" Woodson asked the visiting consultants.

"Yes," they answered together.

"I was really surprised to go under there and not see any major cracks," Woodson said.

He added that the bridge seemed as though it were strong enough to sustain "a nuclear blast." But Wetherill said the bridge's deck and girders rated "very poor" during the state's 1996 inspection, and he talked of spots where rust had eaten through the structure.

Woodson noted that the bridge leads directly into all the downtown businesses. Randy Hemann, executive director of Downtown Salisbury Inc., and Bob Wright, head of the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce, sat in on the meeting without comment.

The chamber plans its new $2 million headquarters and business center just yards away from the bridge in the block bounded by East Innes, Depot and Lee streets.

The project also will affect the city's new Robertson Eastern Gateway Park, located at the bridge and next to the railroad tracks. Price noted that plans also show detoured traffic going through three different historic districts. In addition, construction would affect the historic Bernhardt House at the railroad tracks.

"I assure you," Woodson said, "it's going to affect us."

The fastest construction option - but maybe the least palatable - involves closing East Innes Street from Depot to Long streets for a whole year and building a new bridge over the railroad tracks all at once.

Traffic would be detoured onto Lee, Bank and Long streets.

Each of the other two options would take two years to complete. Both represent "staged construction," Price said.

Under one option, workers would close two lanes going the same direction, setting up two-way traffic on the remaining two lanes. Half of the bridge then would be built on the closed portion.

Once half of the bridge was complete, two-way traffic would be set up on the new portion, while the other two lanes close for construction. Each half would take a year, Price said.

Under the final option, workers would close half the bridge but establish one-way traffic patterns.

Designers would dedicate the two open lanes to westbound traffic heading toward the Square, while eastbound traffic would use South Lee, East Bank and South Long streets.

Lee and Bank would become one-way streets heading east.

City Manager David Treme said city officials obviously don't want to disrupt downtown businesses. By the same token, he said, the city doesn't want an unsafe bridge. He noted that citizens at past workshops and public hearings have often presented good ideas to tackle tough problems.

The state plans to begin its purchase of right of way in June 2000. No specific date for either a workshop or public hearing was set Tuesday.

Motorists on the eastern end of Salisbury could face a double whammy by 2002. Kendig acknowledged that the East Innes Street bridge replacement could overlap with the widening of Interstate 85 at the East Innes Street interchange.