Crews will begin work this winter to improve motorist safety along Stokes Ferry Road near Salisbury. Replacing the 66-year-old bridge over Church Creek and improving the intersection at Oddie Road are included in a $2.2 million contract awarded last month to Dane Construction of Mooresville.
Church Creek Bridge Replacement
The bridge over Church Creek was built in 1946 and has a sufficiency rating of four out of 100. That does not mean the bridge is unsafe. It means that it was not built to modern design standards and no longer meets the needs of today’s drivers.
The bridge is narrow and has posted weight limits of 22 tons for vehicles and 28 tons for large trucks. Replacing the bridge will improve motorist safety, make travel more efficient and extend the lifespan of the area’s transportation network.
While construction is under way, the existing bridge will remain open to serve as a detour route for traffic traveling through the work zone. Once construction is complete and the new bridge is open to traffic, crews will tear down the old bridge.
Oddie Road Intersection Improvements
Less than.5 miles from the Church Creek bridge, Stokes Ferry Road intersects with Oddie Road.
NCDOT monitored traffic at this intersection from 2004 to 2009, and found a strong pattern of rear-end crashes involving vehicles waiting to turn left from Stokes Ferry Road onto Oddie Road. During the study period, there were 10 crashes, resulting in one fatality and five injuries.
To reduce the potential for these kinds of accidents, NCDOT will:
• Add a left turn lane on Stokes Ferry Road to give vehicles a safe place to wait to turn onto Oddie Road; and
• Pave the shoulders of the road.
The project also includes cutting down an embankment on the west side of Oddie Road to make it easier for drivers on Oddie Road to see traffic approaching the intersection before deciding to turn onto Stokes Ferry Road. This will also help reduce the potential for crashes between vehicles traveling in different directions.
Work on the project is scheduled to start as early as Dec. 3, with final completion set for May 14, 2014.
This is one of 14 contracts totaling $100.8 million awarded by Transportation Secretary Gene Conti in September for highway and bridge projects across North Carolina. NCDOT awarded the contracts to the lowest bidders, as required by state law. The bids received on the projects awarded came in about 11.3 percent, or $12.8 million, below NCDOT estimates.
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