Press Release from City of Raleigh:
Traffic Pattern Changes Coming for Peace Street Bridge Work
RALEIGH – With the holiday period and some bitter cold winter weather behind us, some changes are coming for the Capital Boulevard bridges project in Raleigh.
The first change is the closure of Dortch Street, starting this Sunday night, January 14. The 21-day closure will require an offsite detour using Capital Boulevard, North West Street and the southbound Capital Boulevard ramp off Wade Avenue, depending on which direction of Dortch Street a driver is going.
Next up will be a traffic pattern change on Peace Street, which is set for Sunday night, January 21. That is when the contractor will switch traffic so it can complete stage two of a culvert going under the road in advance of the new bridge being built over Peace Street.
The initial traffic shift for the culvert work took place last September, and put traffic into a single lane in each direction, with a left turn lane so drivers on westbound Peace Street can turn onto North West Street, and westbound Peace Street returning to a two-lane pattern between North West Street and Glenwood Avenue. For the upcoming shift, traffic will move over onto the section of road that has been closed, and then the section vehicles have been using will be closed off to traffic.
The one-lane each-way traffic pattern is to be in place for 300 days, and since it started last fall, it should wrap up early this summer.
Both of these changes are weather conditional.
Also expected in the coming weeks is the setting of girders for the new bridge. A date has not been set as additional materials need to be delivered to the site. This will require an overnight closure of Peace Street for safety reasons, with a detour in place.
The bridge over Peace Street is 67 years old. Its replacement is part of a complete revamping of the interchange, with the current diamond-style interchange now in use replaced by a square loop shape interchange that will eliminate the current Capital Boulevard ramp directly to Peace Street. Instead, drivers will travel over the new bridge, and use Johnson Street and Harrington Street, which will be extended, to access Peace Street at a traffic light. There will also be bike lanes added along Peace Street between the interchange ramps, and sidewalks will be widened to 14 feet along Peace Street and most of the square loop.
It is part of a $36.9 million project that also puts a new bridge-ramp on Wade Avenue over Capital Boulevard. Work on that bridge, which is going in next to the current structure, is expected to see motorists moving over to the new bridge later this spring or early summer
Updated information on the bridge projects are available on the project website, as well as through the department’s Triangle twitter feed.
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