The N.C. Department of Transportation is putting the finishing touches on the Lenoir-Rhyne Boulevard extension and hopes it will be finished by Christmas.
The road has been closed from Tate Boulevard to Seventh Avenue, NE, for more than two years.
About a half-mile of the road is being widened from two lanes to four lanes, said Brian Withers, assistant resident engineer for Division 12 with the DOT.
The most time-consuming portion of the project has been building a detour for the railroad tracks that run above the road and are used on a daily basis.
Construction crews had to build a detour bridge for the railroad tracks, destroy the old bridge, build the real bridge, then destroy the detour bridge, said Truett Mosteller, site superintendent with Mountain Creek Contractors. Train service was never interrupted during construction, he said.
Building the detour bridge involved moving earth and building a bridge to the same elevation as the previous trestle for the tracks, said Withers.
The new bridge has been completed, though, with soaring columns underneath — a modern update to the version that was there before.
Mosteller said the construction has been "pretty standard" work. There's been just one hang-up.
"The biggest problem has been the weather," he said.
More rain is predicted this week, but Mosteller is hopeful about getting the project completed in the next few weeks. On Monday afternoon, some construction workers were raising the pipe access covers and water mains after the road had been paved, while others were working on slope protection around the railroad trestle.
The project, which cost $8,087,514.47, hasn't run over budget, Withers said. Mountain Creek Contractors has already installed new traffic signals, new drainage systems and new sidewalks, curbs and gutters.
"We have to do a surface touch-up, putting the last inch-and-a-half of asphalt down and clean up. Our last step is painting," Withers said. "We do everything that requires equipment on the roads before we paint."
He said if the weather continues to be warm, the project should be completed by Christmas or Jan. 1.
If there are a few days of bad weather, then it will be finished no later than Jan. 31.
When the project is completed, Hickory plans to begin a landscaping project around the Lenoir-Rhyne Boulevard Extension area.
If the DOT approves the plan, landscaping should be completed by spring, said Mandy Pitts, communications director for Hickory. Landscaping can't begin until the construction is finished.
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