U.S. 117 South to close for road work
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 13, 2018 5:50 AM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Equipment stirs up dust Thursday afternoon as crews construct the O'Berry Road/U.S. 117 South interchange at Dudley. Sections of U.S. 117 South will be closed overnight on July 23 and July 24 to allow crews to set concrete girders for the bridge/overpass over U.S. 117 South.
Sections of U.S. 117 South will be closed on alternating nights later this month to allow a construction company to set concrete girders at the O'Berry Road bridge/overpass in Dudley that will go over the highway.
The northbound lanes between Country Club Road at Mount Olive and U.S. 117 Alternate, just south of Wayne Memorial Park, will be closed from 9 p.m. Monday, July 23, to 5 a.m. Tuesday, July 24.
The southbound lanes between Country Club Road and U.S. 117 Alternate will be closed from 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 24, until 5 a.m. Wednesday, July 25.
On both nights, Wayne County sheriff's deputies will be onsite to direct traffic and to stop anyone who tries to drive on the closed portion of the highway.
Detours will be in place on both nights.
On July 23, work crews from the S.T. Wooten Corp. will close northbound U.S. 117 to set the concrete girders that go over the northbound lanes only.
Drivers who want to continue north will need to take a right onto Country Club Road then turn left onto U.S. 117 Alternate.
Motorists will follow U.S. 117 Alternate north to where it intersects with northbound U.S. 117, just south of Wayne Memorial Park.
Drivers on northbound U.S. 117 also will be able to turn left onto Country Club Road.
On July 24, crews with the S.T. Wooten Corp. will close southbound U.S. 117 to set the concrete girders that go over the southbound lanes only.
Southbound traffic will have to turn left onto U.S. 117 Alternate and follow the road to Country Club Road. Traffic will turn right onto Country Club Road and then left back onto southbound U.S. 117.
Also on July 24, S.T. Wooten workers will take advantage of the closure and will lay some pipe across the closed portion of southbound U.S. 117.
Work has been underway since August 2017 on the new interchange at U.S. 117 and O'Berry Road.
O'Berry Road was closed in October and could remain closed for up to a year for construction of an overpass to take the road over U.S. 117 South.
Work also has been underway since January on an interchange at U.S. 117 South and Country Club Road.
When completed, U.S. 117 will pass over Country Club Road.
Both northbound and southbound U.S. 117 are down to one lane at Country Club Road, as work crews build up outside ramps.
Once the ramps are completed, traffic in both directions will be shifted and traffic detoured onto them.
That section of U.S. 117 South at Country Club Road will then be closed so that the overhead bridges can be constructed.
Both interchanges are scheduled for completion by October 2019, with additional work, including vegetation and reforestation, possibly continuing through March 2020.
The two projects will cost an estimated $20.6 million.
The interchanges are being built to enhance safety and in preparation for U.S. 117 to eventually become designated as an Interstate in the Wayne County area, state Department of Transportation officials said.
Both intersections already carry an average of 15,000 vehicles per day, a number that is expected to increase to more than 27,000 per day by 2037, according to DOT data.
For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on Twitter.