O'Berry Road to close at U.S. 117 in the next 10 days
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 29, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Traffic on both sides of U.S. 117 will be limited to one lane in each direction soon as a result of road construction at the intersection of O'Berry Road.
O'Berry Road at U.S. 117 South at Dudley will be closed within the next five to 10 days as the at-grade intersection is transformed into an interchange.
The date could hinge somewhat on how the tropical weather expected to strike coastal North Carolina today affects Wayne County, said Michael Alford of S.T. Wooten Corp., the company doing the work.
Once O'Berry Road is closed the existing pavement will be broken up and traffic will have to find alternate routes, he said.
Detour signs will be posted when the road is closed, he said.
When O'Berry Road is closed there will be no exit off U.S. 117 between U.S. 117 Alternate just south of the Wayne County Fairgrounds and Country Club Road just north of Mount Olive.
U.S. 117 Alternate runs parallel to U.S. 117 and will be the main detour on the east side of U.S. 117.
On the west side is Durham Lake Road.
The closure will be followed in the next few months with traffic being reduced to one lane each in both directions on U.S. 117.
While lane closures may be necessary over the course of several months as girders are placed for the new overpass, they will only last for a day or two at a time, Alford said.
Some of that work will be done at night to lessen the impact on traffic, he said.
Crews have been busy for the past several weeks clearing trees and shrubbery for the on and off ramps.
The company has one year to complete the O'Berry interchange.
Wooten will begin work on an interchange at Country Club Road by late February or early March, Alford said. Construction on this section of the project is limited to 18 months.
Both interchanges are scheduled for completion by October 2019, with additional work including vegetation and reforestation possibly continuing through March 2020.
O'Berry Road will travel over U.S. 117, and U.S. 117 will pass over Country Club Road.
The two projects will cost an estimated $20.6 million.
Both interchanges are being built to enhance safety and in preparation for U.S. 117 eventually being designated as an Interstate in this area, state Department of Transportation officials said.
Both intersections already carry an average of 15,000 vehicles per day, and that number is expected to increase to more than 27,000 per day by 2037, according to DOT data.