$104 million bypass contract awarded
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 8, 2012 1:46 PM
A $104.4 million contract has been awarded to Barnhill Contracting Co. of Tarboro to design and construct the eastern leg of the U.S. 70 Goldsboro Bypass.
The contract for the western, and final segment, of the bypass is scheduled to be awarded June 19 and the total length of the bypass should be opened by the summer of 2016.
"(The eastern section) is a design/build project, and while it is awarded now, don't expect to see work any time soon," said Corey McLamb Department of Transportation Division 4 resident engineer. "It is subject to change, but we are anticipating around February or March of next year actively starting on the project, the bulk of the construction."
There will be some work prior to that time including utility preparations and securing permits, he said.
"A lot of lead time is needed," he said. "We anticipate that once it is started that it will move quickly."
That section is expected to be completed by July 1, 2015.
The eastern section that stretches from just east of Wayne Memorial Drive to east of Promise Land Road in Lenoir County is actually a combined project.
The 3.3-mile Section BB from just east of Wayne Memorial to west of Creek Road and the 7.5-mile Section C from west of Creek Road in Wayne County to east of Promise Land Road were combined to accelerate the project.
The combined section will be built using design/build, which is different from the traditional approach to building a highway. Traditionally, all of the right of way is acquired before work starts. In a design/build project, a contractor teams up with an engineering firm and is responsible for the entire project instead of stringing it out over several steps, which allows work to proceed as right of way is acquired.
The contract for the final 5-mile stretch between N.C. 581 and Salem Church Road is scheduled to be awarded in June, keeping the $234 million project on track to be open to traffic by 2016.
Barnhill also built the first section of the bypass from just east of Wayne Memorial Drive to just west of Salem Church Road.
Work began Sept. 29, 2009, on that 3.3-mile, $65.3 million section that opened in December.
The section is designated as N.C. 44 until the bypass is completed.