The crane has been fixed and the traffic jams in Elizabethtown are set to begin.
The Cape Fear River bridge girder replacement work is scheduled to begin Wednesday, May 4, according to NCDOT’s Kenneth Clark. The work had been delayed two days because of a problem with the rotation of the massive crane that towers over the bridge along U.S. 701 that separates Elizabethtown and White Lake.
Beginning Wednesday, the bridge will be closed in both directions from 9-10 a.m. and from 2-3 p.m. each weekday to allow a tractor-trailer to offload the girders onto the bridge.
During the closures, the contractor will allow ambulances and law enforcement vehicles to cross the bridge, even with the girders resting on the bridge. Because fire trucks are too large, Elizabethtown town officials will plan to park a fire truck on the northern end for mutual aid during the closures twice each weekday.
The closures will last until the girders can be set into place, which is expected to be finished by the end of May. There will be no closures on Saturdays, Sundays, or Memorial Day or the Friday afternoon before the White Lake Water Festival on May 21, according to NCDOT.
The Town of Elizabethtown has announced that Tory Hole Park will be closed during the construction period.
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