The schedule for replacing three bridges in Wake Forest has changed again. A fourth replacement project, the bridge over Horse Creek on Purnell Road, is underway and should be finished in midsummer.
The three bridges are those over Sanford Creek on Forestville Road, over Richland Creek on West Oak Avenue/Wall Road, and over Smith Creek on Rogers Road.
The Forestville Road replacement project was scheduled to begin this month but has now been pushed back to begin Wednesday, July 1. The work on West Oak Avenue, once planned to begin in July will now begin in late September. The work on Rogers Road, which includes widening the road from its intersection with South Franklin Street to the intersection with Forestville and Heritage Lake roads, is slated to begin in March 2016 and be completed that August.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation has worked with the Town of Wake Forest and the Wake County Public School System to set out detour routes for each project. The town has set up a web page, www.wakeforestnc.gov/operation-bridge-exchange.aspx, to keep residents informed about the four projects it calls Operation Bridge Exchange (OBE).
Residents are already using the detour for the Purnell Road replacement, which involves using Capital Boulevard, Jenkins Road and Thompson Mill Road.
The detour for the Forestville Road closure will send drivers to Burlington Mills Road, South Main Street and Rogers Road. Go to www.wakeforestnc.gov/forestville-road-bridge-replacement.aspx to see the route. The work will go on from July 1 and last through November.
There will be a lengthy closure for the West Oak Avenue bridge replacement because the project will begin Sept. 29, which will leave only a month or so before winter sets in. DOT expects to complete the demolition of the existing bridge and construction of the new bridge in the fall but grading and paving cannot be done until the end of winter weather in 2016. See www.wakeforestnc.gov/oak-avenue-bridge-replacement.aspx.
All four projects are part of DOT’s state-funded Bridge Improvement Program to improve the overall condition of the state’s bridges. The NCDOT is investing $810 million over four years to strategically perform preservation or rehabilitation work when possible.
Each of the four bridges scheduled for replacement is considered structurally deficient and functionally obsolete, which means that although the structures remains safe to use, they all require constant repairs and should be replaced. In addition, the bridges were built to design standards that are no longer in use.
Construction dates for all the bridge replacements are tentative and subject to change, as they already have.
