DOT road widening begins

LUMBERTON – In a city where it seems that road construction work is as commonplace as the streams of heavy traffic, another North Carolina Department of Transportation project has gotten underway in Lumberton.

At this time, the last of the clearing work is close to being complete, according to Craig Freeman, who is the Division 6 project engineer on this project. In that regard, the current work involves the clearing work for the utilities relocations to begin.

It’s all part of the state’s transportation improvement program.

“Fayetteville Road will be widened for a portion of the project,” he said. “There will be a roundabout installed at 24th Street and Godwin Avenue. Near the (Lumberton) High School, there was a driveway location for the buses. It’s going to look a little different under the final plans as opposed to what it is today. Those were all coordinated with the high school back in, I think, the 2020 time frame. Might have been 2019. It was pre-COVID.”

The majority of the roadway is now five lanes, which includes a turn lane. One section south of Robert Avenue is presently four lanes. It will be replaced with “a two-lane divided that leads into the (projected) roundabout.”

Freeman said cars are constantly moving through that corridor. The average daily traffic on it, he noted of Fayetteville Road, is 34,250 vehicles. That is projected to increase to 41,250 in 2044.

The work is necessary, he said, due to congestion and to provide safer accommodations for pedestrians along the corridor. Part of the project will have some pedestrian sidewalks included in it, through coordination with the city of Lumberton. All the signalized crossings will have pedestrian signal heads telling you when to walk, when not to walk.

“One of the main focuses will be at N.C. 211 and the Fayetteville Road intersection,” he said. “There, we’re utilizing a quad-left (quadrant) roadway.”

That typically removes all left turns from the intersection, but under this scenario, only one set of the left turns is going to be removed. Motorists would use Boomerang Drive as an alternate route to make that movement.

The overall estimated cost will run about $45 million, which includes the right-of-way utility relocations and construction, according to Freeman. The estimated construction cost alone will be approximately $34 million.

Freeman estimates that the full scope of the physical work – the relocation of the utilities, as estimated by the six or seven utility owners – will run anywhere from six to 12 months.

“We don’t move the utilities for the ones I’ve mentioned,” he said. “People come out and relocate their poles.”

The largest portion of the current clearing is taking place near Lumberton High School where quite a few trees have had to be removed.

Trees in conflict with the relocations of the utilities – the power poles that have to be relocated – is part of the widening project. That’s been going on for probably a couple of months now, he said.

Once the clearing work is finished, the utilities will be relocated.

“It has not been let (process of receiving bids) for construction yet,” said Freeman. “But in preparation for that we have the contractor come out and do the clearing.”

Most of the road widening will occur from N.C. 211 (North Roberts Avenue) along Fayetteville Road and up to Farringdom Street, Freeman said Wednesday.

The overall distance of this work is roughly 1.3 miles from 22nd Street heading north to Farringdom and then a section along N.C. 211 from Walnut Street to the railroad tracks.

“It’s not an overly long project,” he said, “but it has a lot to it.”

The initial planning started around 2016 before a public meeting was held for feedback in the October 2018 timeframe.

Motorists can expect some temporary lane closures at times. “But that could be three or four months before they start relocating stuff,” said Freeman.

As far as its schedule for construction, the project is expected to be up for bids for construction in May 2025.

“We can’t build a roadway,” he said, “if we have all the utilities in conflict with what we have to do.”