Four stalled bridge projects, one of them in Halifax County, will resume now that replacement contractors have been secured to continue the work.
The bridge project in Halifax County is the one at Highway 561 that takes drivers over Conocannara Swamp. Sanford Contractors will begin in September and reopen the road by April 2023.
The bridge over Conocannara Swamp is located southeast of Halifax.
The $2.2 million contract was awarded in March of 2021 with an original September deadline to reopen the road.
In the spring the North Carolina Department of Transportation declared National Bridge Builders of Kernersville to be in default of four separate contracts to replace several bridges, mostly in Edgecombe County.
The company had removed its equipment and crews and ceased work, effectively abandoning the work sites after the old bridges had been demolished.
The department was forced to terminate the contracts after exhausting all other efforts.
When that happened, the bonding company used by National Bridge Builders was required to secure replacement contractors to finish the job, at no additional expense to NCDOT. The breach of contracts, however, has delayed the reopening of the roads.
The bonding company has recently notified NCDOT of replacement contractors and updated construction schedules for the affected sites.
Besides the Conocannara Swamp project the other bridges scheduled for replacement are as follows:
Three bridges clustered together over Swift Creek on Seven Bridges Road in Edgecombe County. S.T. Wooten will start in September and reopen the road by May 2023.
Highway 122/111 bridge over Town Creek north of Pinetops in Edgecombe County. Sanford Contractors will start this month and reopen the road by March 2023.
Highway 97 over Swift Creek north of Tarboro in Edgecombe County. Sanford Contractors will begin this month and reopen the road by April 2023.
The Conocannara Swamp bridge opened on the eve of World War II in 1939 and since then has become structurally deficient, requiring increasingly more repairs and temporary closures for maintenance.
