The state is prepared to award a contract to replace the bridges that carry U.S. 421 over Muddy Creek west of the Peace Haven Road exit, officials said.
The existing bridges are getting old and need replacement, said Pat Ivey, the district engineer for N.C. Department of Transportation Division 9, which includes Forsyth County.
The state originally planned to replace the bridges as part of constructing the western leg of a beltway that was to connect U.S. 52 with I-40 on the western side of Winston-Salem.
With the western leg on the back burner, Ivey said, it was decided to pull the bridge replacement out of the beltway project and do it separately.
"They are narrow bridges with no shoulders," Ivey said. "They are obviously at the end of their useful lives."
The bridges are east of the interchange where Lewisville-Clemmons Road crosses U.S. 421. They were built in 1958. According to 2007 traffic counts, U.S. 421 carries about 51,000 vehicles a day at that location.
The new bridges will be built wide enough to eventually accommodate three lanes in each direction and still have a 10-foot shoulder, Ivey said.
If the state accepts the low bid on the project, submitted by Smith-Rowe Inc. of Mount Airy, the cost would be about $8.1 million. That's almost 20 percent below the original estimated cost of $10 million.
The high traffic count means that bridge work will have to be done in a way that doesn't shut down U.S. 421 or lead to major traffic backups. To do that, workers will be building portions of the new bridges beside the existing bridges, and then shifting traffic over to the new sections while the old bridges are torn down and replaced with new construction.
Ivey said it would take two years to do the work.
Ivey noted that in recent years the state had to close the southbound bridge on U.S. 421 because of a problem with one of the supports.
Although the repair work fixed the problem, the age of the bridges and the importance of the route make replacement a priority, Ivey said.
Before the contract can be awarded, he said, the contractor has to certify making a "good faith effort" to hire a certain number of subcontracting companies owned by minorities or women.
Gov. Bev Perdue announced the U.S. 421 project along with nine others last week, including four projects being paid for with federal stimulus money. The U.S. 421 bridge replacement project is not among those being built with stimulus funds.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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