The NC Department of Transportation has closed a bridge on Herring Road in southern Wayne County after inspectors discovered a safety problem underneath the deck.
The department already was planning to replace the 64-year-old bridge over Yellow Marsh Branch in the Dudley community. The bridge is one of several in the region to be replaced in a contract previously awarded to T.A. Loving of Goldsboro.
Closing the bridge now, however, will save the department tens of thousands of dollars on repairs to a bridge that will be replaced with a modern span.
The DOT is currently working with the contractor to accelerate the Herring Road bridge project, which will start soon after utilities that are in conflict with construction are relocated. Once underway, construction on the new bridge will take about four months to complete.
In the meantime, a detour will direct drivers onto South Landfill, Durham Lake, O’Berry and Massey roads to avoid the shuttered bridge, which is close to an unrelated detour for the overpass and interchange that the DOT is building with US 117 and O’Berry Road. O’Berry Road will reopen by the end of this year.
