Bridge on schedule

Wake Forest motorists might not recognize the strip of Stadium Drive near the Richland Creek bridge.

Right now, the road is covered in piles of dirt and discarded blocks of concrete.

Between the piles of dirt sits a shiny white bridge that will carry motorists from Capital Boulevard to Wake Forest-Rolesville High School and points beyond.

“Right now, I’d say they are about 80 percent done,” said North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer Chad Hinnant.

Balfour Construction Company is building the bridge, which has forced traffic to detour along North Main Street and Harris and Wall roads since late April.

DOT officials want the bridge done by Aug. 24, the day before classes start at the high school.

“Right now, that’s still our target date,” Hinnant said. Construction crews have run into relatively few snags with the construction project, which involved dismantling the existing narrow two-lane bridge and building an entirely new structure.

Hinnant also said the new construction should do away with the constant problem of crumbling pavement that plagued drivers crossing the old bridge.

At this point, Hinnant says work crews still have a little construction work left before they install the side rails and pave the entire structure.

Then they will have to grade the road to make the transition from road to bridge and back a smooth one.

To the naked eye, the bridge looks a lot wider than the road it serves, but Hinnant says that’s deceiving.

The project includes the construction of a sidewalk on the north side of the bridge.

And Wake Forest officials asked DOT to make the bridge wide enough that a second sidewalk can be added to the south side of the bridge later.

“The fact that the bridge is on a curve helps make it look wider, too,” Hinnant said.

The project dodged a bullet in June when Tropical Storm Alberto caused severe flooding in several areas of town, including the bridge work site.

“We had some washing. As far as messing up the work they had already done, it didn’t really,” Hinnant said.

The bridge is just one of the improvements slated for Stadium Drive over the next several years.

Bonds passed by voters in 2005 will pay for the widening of Stadium Drive from U.S. 1 to Rock Springs Road.

For now, motorists will have to settle for getting their road back. Complete with a new bridge.