City, DOT negotiate traffic flow during bridge replacement

Although the spans are not set to come down for another two years, city officials are lobbying N.C. Department of Transportation planners to come up with a coherent traffic plan once the agency's bridge replacement project begins.

The DOT plans to replace the two Queen Street bridges across the Neuse River with a more up-to-date structure. They are currently considered "functionally obsolete."

"The bridge is structurally sound, but it doesn't meet today's design standards," Ed Eatmon, construction engineer for the DOT's District 2 office in Greenville, said Friday.

A new bridge would be wider and have a different style of guardrail.

Transportation officials are still preparing their documents for the project, and the tentative date for accepting bids from contractors is October 2010, Eatmon said. Bridge removal would begin soon after a contractor is selected.

City Manager Scott Stevens and other municipal leaders expressed concerns this week about how traffic, and especially emergency response times, would be affected if South Queen Street is closed during construction.

"Our major concern, just beyond the inconvenience, is the response (time) for fire trucks," Stevens said.

Their concerns are not new. Several public meetings have been held in Kinston since planning began nearly five years ago and city leaders conferred with their Division 2 counterparts this summer.

Eatmon said DOT officials are considering two traffic options. They can either keep vehicles moving over the bridge as construction takes place, a method he called "very difficult and very expensive and very cumbersome," or re-route motorists through the Skinner's Bypass intersection where U.S. 70 East and N.C. 11 South meet.

Eatmon explained that the project could last for 12-18 months if the detour is set up, and twice as long if South Queen is kept open.

Stevens said he was concerned about firefighters having to drive through one of the most heavily-used intersections in the county when responding to an emergency at Lenoir Community College or another location along U.S. 70 East.

City officials have encouraged the DOT to consider funding construction of a fire station in that area, and that station would remain there as Kinston revamps its municipal fire protection system to serve a growing city.

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