Road to the Future: Bypass Workers Press their Race With Clock

BY SARA LINDAU: Staff Writer, The Pilot

Workers are making good progress on the U.S. 1 bypass, although on paper the entire project is about 5 percent behind schedule.

Overall, the $41 million project is about 85 percent complete, state transportation officials said this week. Everything is still on go for the four-lane bypass to open in time for the U.S. Open golf championship in June in Pinehurst.

A million-dollar bonus for the contractor is riding on it.

It’s been assumed for months that S.T. Wooten Corp. of Wilson will have to finish the job after the Open is over on June 19. Work will be temporarily suspended June 10 for the week of the Open. The state offered the bonus in hopes that the contractor would have most of the work done on the bypass so that vehicles could safely travel on it in time for the big golf event.

When the Open ends, contractors are not expected to completely close the bypass while the work is completed, according to Ron Van Cleef, assistant resident engineer for Division 8 of the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The project includes a bypass of Vass and Cameron and four-laning of an existing two-lane stretch of the highway in Lee County from where the bypass rejoins it to just below Quail Ridge Golf Club, where U.S. 1 goes back to four lanes. Once competed, U.S. 1 will be four-laned all the way to Raleigh.

“It looks right good on the ground,” Van Cleef said earlier this week.

To get the bonus, S.T. Wooten is striving to make the entire 12.5-mile stretch of U.S. 1 between Lee County and Lakeview, including the bypass, ready for travel by June 10. The contract calls for completion in September.

G.R. Kindley of Rockingham, who represents Moore County on the state Board of Transportation, thinks the economic impact of the Open and international exposure it brings justifies the bonus. State officials have placed importance on having the bypass open by June to make it easier for people to get in and out of Moore County.

The Pilot was unable to reach anyone with S.T. Wooten for comment.

Van Cleef said recent rain, typical for this time of the year, has stopped work on boggy slopes where equipment can’t operate efficiently while trying to grade the sides and prepare for seeding.

When the work began in the winter of 2003-2004, the workers were hit by an unusually wet winter. Although they started out “in the black,” as Van Cleef put it, they fell somewhat behind. But they caught up, and this year’s winter weather wasn’t as wet as last year.

They need to complete the four layers of paving on the highway itself, grading the slopes and seeding them, and finishing the asphalt “tie-ins” into both ends of the 14 bridges along the bypass, starting at the one over the Little River near Vass.

On Tuesday, Van Cleef and a DOT bridge inspector checked out three of the bridges at the southern end inside Moore County. Signs also have to be installed.

“The tie-ins are 90 percent complete,” Van Cleef said.

The bypass of Vass and Cameron, coupled with the four-laning of the only remaining two-lane stretch between Lee County and Lakeview, is expected to make travel more efficient, faster and safer, by providing better sight distances. The speed limits will be higher, probably 65 mph.

Those who favor the four-laning and bypass herald the link between Moore County and Raleigh as growing stronger because of easier accessibility. This, in turn, could lead to an increase in the number of residents moving here to commute to jobs in Raleigh or the Triangle and a growth in the local economy that usually goes along with that.

An environmental group, MooreForce, tried unsuccessfully through court challenges and administrative procedures to stop the project, arguing that it would harm wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas and destroy farmland. NCDOT has included a number of measures to mitigate the impact on wetlands.

The state is funding the highway project, with money also from the U.S. Department of Transportation under its federal highway program.