Skanska will build a bridge on the North Carolina coast between Tyrrell and Dare counties to replace the aging Lindsay C. Warren Bridge on US 64 over the Alligator River. The $450 million contract was awarded to Skanska USA on Jan. 8 by the North Carolina Transportation Board, funded in part by $110 million from the Federal Highway Administration under the Act employment and investment in infrastructure.
Also known as the Alligator River Bridge, the 65-year-old bridge is “structurally deficient,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation says, adding that it is not unsafe. The swing bridge is reaching the end of its life cycle and needs to be better monitored, inspected and maintained.
“Work to maintain the current bridge negatively affects its ability to provide a reliable connection between Columbia, Manns Harbor, Manteo and the Outer Banks,” the state agency says.
Replacing the aging swing structure just to the north at a new location will be a 3.2-mile fixed-span high-rise bridge that will include two 12-foot traffic lanes with 8-foot shoulders with access by bike
Work is expected to begin early this year, and plans call for the bridge to open to traffic in the fall of 2029, with the existing swing bridge demolished in the spring of 2030.
The route serves as a critical hurricane evacuation route and is the primary route to access the state’s Outer Banks from the west, the DOT says. Mechanical failures of the span, which the agency says the bridge is prone to, are forcing motorists to take a 99-mile detour. The design is also expected to improve river traffic, as more than 4,000 boats pass through the swing ladder each year.
The bridge and waterway were closed nine times in 2018, according to the state DOT’s funding application to the Federal Highway Administration. Between 201 and 2021, the bridge was closed to traffic an average of five times a year, and the waterway an average of 5.6 times, with an average closure time of about 2 hours, although that some have occurred up to 36 hours in that time, the application says.
The environmental planning and preliminary design phases began in early 2021 and ended in late 2022, with final designs completed in winter 2023. In July 2024, 11 bridge test piles were enter the river bed at various depths to obtain more information about the soil layers. depths and consistency at the site of the new bridge, DOT Resident Transportation Engineer Pablo Hernandez said. at that time it would help the department determine the final design of the bridge.
The proposed bridge will be grade-separated and feature redundant precast and prestressed concrete beams with precast deck panels with a composite concrete deck, the funding application says. The fixed-height span will measure 65 feet and provide 140 feet of horizontal clearance in a channel.
