Bridge to somewhere

State and city officials, working with consultants, have settled on a replacement for the intersection at Skinner's Bypass.

Kinston's Planning Department, the N.C. Department of Transportation and Kimley-Horn and Associates of Raleigh will collaborate on the construction of a bridge over U.S. 70 to replace the existing traffic signal at its intersection with N.C. 11/55.

The project, part of a long-term effort to revamp the entire eastern U.S. 70 corridor, is expected to improve safety at a crossing that is considered one of the most dangerous in Lenoir County.

Their other replacement option involved turning the lanes of U.S. 70 into a bridge over N.C. 11/55. Kimley-Horn announced the selection late Monday.

"It was the cheaper alternative by several million dollars," Planning Director Tommy Lee said Tuesday.

Although cost estimates will not be available until designs are complete, Mike Rutkowski of Kimley-Horn said workers will build one span over U.S. 70. If the bridge was built over N.C. 11/55, two spans would have to be constructed to serve the eastbound and westbound routes, which are separated by a median.

"In that instance we are probably saving millions of dollars by doing this," Rutkowski said.

A "square-loop" interchange will be built to shuttle traffic on and off the bridge. Building a square interchange, instead of the traditional cloverleaf design, creates four spaces where commercial development can take place.

"Part of the strategy is to take advantage of this very desirable and strategic commercial location and increase our tax base without creating hazardous conditions," Lee said.

Officials are also looking into "cross-access easements" that allow access roads to be built between properties within each square, instead of building access roads off the highway and creating another potential safety hazard, Lee explained.

The interchange roads will be built first to minimize disruption to the daily traffic - it will be shifted, possibly to those roads, during bridge construction, Rutkowski said.

"It's the highest level of design we are trying to achieve along the (U.S. 70) corridor," he stated. "In other words, once we build this we're not coming back in 10 or 20 years and building it over again. This is the way it's going to be."

David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.