Road will be widened, guardrails added
Work began this week to improve Thanksgiving Fire Road in northeastern Johnston County.
Fred Smith Company, a Raleigh contractor for the N.C. Department of Transportation, will widen a section of the road and make other safety enhancements at its intersection with New Creech Road, north of Selma.
Specifically, crews will widen the 10-foot lanes by two feet and install guardrails along a stretch of Thanksgiving Fire Road that is a little more than two football fields long. Additionally, they will increase the slope of the road in a curve. All of the improvements are intended to make the road safer for motorists traveling on it.
During construction, drivers will encounter occasional lane closures with flagging; they should watch signs for construction information, stay alert and obey the posted speed limit.
Toward the end of the project in late November, workers will replace a drainage pipe underneath Thanksgiving Fire Road at a section between New Creech Road and N.C. 96. The pipe helps maintain the roadway and prevent soil erosion. The road will be closed then for about two weeks.
The project will wrap up by early December. The contract is worth $593,395.
