Groundbreaking set for bypass
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on October 8, 2008 1:46 PM
News-Argus/GREG SOUSA
A groundbreaking for the first phase of the U.S. 70 bypass will be held Thursday near this spot on Wayne Memorial Drive.
N.C. Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett is expected to be in Goldsboro Thursday for an 11 a.m. groundbreaking for the first section of the U.S. 70 Goldsboro Bypass.
He will be joined by Transportation Board member Gus Tulloss.
The ceremony, which will also include local elected officials, will be held on Wayne Memorial Drive about 2.6 miles north of its intersection with Tommy's Road. People traveling north on Wayne Memorial Drive will turn right into a large drive at the white entrance columns.
The section of the bypass, expected to cost $65.5 million, stretches 3.9 miles from west of Interstate 795 to just east of Wayne Memorial Drive.
Work is under way, and completion is expected by Dec. 31, 2011.
Interchanges will be built at Interstate 795, U.S. 117 and Wayne Memorial Drive.
The complete bypass, expected to cost about $234 million, is to be built in four phases starting at N.C. 581 northwest of Goldsboro and tying back into the existing U.S. 70 near LaGrange.
The local project also includes a "retrofit" of the existing U.S. 70 to make safety improvements.
The U.S. 70 Goldsboro Bypass is part of a planned four-lane divided highway from Clayton to the coast.