Blue Ridge underpass near NC fairgrounds will take longer than expected to finish

It’s going to take contractors a year longer than expected to finish the underpass that will carry Blue Ridge Road under Hillsborough Street next to the State Fairgrounds.

When work began after the 2022 State Fair ended , the N.C. Department of Transportation hoped to reopen Blue Ridge in time for the fair this fall.

Now, citing a number of complications, NCDOT officials say the goal is to get it done before next year’s fair and perhaps part of the 2025 N.C. State University football season at nearby Carter-Finley Stadium.

The underpass will replace what was the most complex intersection in North Carolina. In the span of a few dozen yards, Blue Ridge Road crossed Beryl Road, Hillsborough Street and the N.C. Railroad tracks that handle 22 freight and passenger trains a day.

It took 11 phases of traffic signals to keep everything moving, the most of any intersection in the state, says Joey Hopkins, the secretary of Transportation. With Blue Ridge going under the two roads and the railroad tracks, traffic will move more smoothly and safely, Hopkins said.

Hopkins took Gov. Roy Cooper and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg out to see the progress last week. For Buttigieg, it was the first day of a national “summer of construction” tour that he’ll use to highlight projects supported by the big infrastructure bill that Congress passed in late 2021.

After a couple of years of planning, many of the 57,000 projects receiving some financing from the $1 trillion bill are underway.

“I want to see that for myself,” Buttigieg said in an interview. “And I want to make sure people hear that story about what their taxpayer dollars are going into.”

Goal: Move cars and people more safely

The Blue Ridge Road underpass predates the infrastructure bill; planning began in 2010, and NCDOT received a $19.9 million federal grant in 2019 to help get started. Another $15.2 million from the 2021 infrastructure bill will help with construction, which is expected to cost $48.4 million.

The project entails digging a trench for Blue Ridge Road as well as new parallel bridges for Hillsborough, Beryl and the railroad tracks. Hillsborough Street was closed for six months last year while contractors built most of the bridge that will carry it over Blue Ridge.

But the state could not close the railroad tracks, the main line between Raleigh and points west. Instead, contractors built a parallel set of tracks that trains are using while the permanent railroad bridge is completed.

Shifting the tracks and moving the buried utility lines beside the roads took longer than expected, says Mark Craig, NCDOT’s regional construction engineer. Labor and materials shortages and the need to shore up the soil under the temporary railroad tracks are among the factors causing delays.

The project is about 60% complete, and NCDOT expects people will be using the underpass by the time the fair opens in October 2025, Craig told Cooper and Buttigieg as they watched men work on the railroad bridge.

“We’re proud of where we’re at now,” he said. “We just have a little ways to go.”

The underpass will help move people and cars more safely during big events at the fairgrounds, Carter-Finley and PNC Arena, Cooper told Buttigieg. That’s especially true when people try to cross the streets on foot; when the underpass opens, both Blue Ridge and Hillsborough will have sidewalks for the first time.

Despite the delays, Cooper said he thinks people will love the finished product.

“I just think once it’s finished, people are going to say, ‘Wow,’” he said.

Buttigieg replied: “Send us a postcard from the ribbon cutting.”

NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com