Starting in early January, the North Carolina DOT plans to shut down bridge traffic into Wilmington for three months. Then, after a brief pause around the Azalea Festival, it will shut down traffic leaving the city, again for three months.
The DOT was supposed to appear at the meeting to explain some of the logistics of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge project — but didn’t show. Steven Still, Director of Emergency Management for the county gave what updates he could.
Commissioners, including Jonathan Barfield, sharply criticized NCDOT’s absence.
“NCDOT should have made provisions to alert the community a long time prior to this. People will leave for the Christmas holidays, come back after the first, and realize ‘oh, I can’t get home,'" he said.
Commissioner Dane Scalise emphasized the NCDOT is solely responsible for the bridge closure, not the county.
According to NCDOT, drivers entering Wilmington will detour to the Isabel Holmes Bridge to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to College Road.
The Port of Wilmington has requested that trucks be allowed to travel on Third Street, which is currently banned.
Dennis McGarry, president of Residents of Old Wilmington, told WHQR his nonprofit, which advocates on issues in the city's historic downtown neighbors, has many safety and infrastructure concerns.
"The issue for Third Street is a very narrow corridor. And you have pedestrians, you have a lot of vehicles parked on Third Street," he said.
Wilmington city staff said they are not yet sure who has the jurisdiction to allow or deny the port’s request, but hope to figure it out by the end of this week.
