Jordan Lake Bridge Preservation Begins

By Casey Mann, Chatham News + Record Staff

The N.C. Dept. of Transportation will be performing maintenance on the bridges that cross Jordan Lake on U.S. Hwy. 64 in Chatham County for the better part of this year.

The bridges are nearly 50 years old and “nearing the end of their useful lives,” according to an NCDOT statement, and Garry Phillips, the NCDOT resident engineer managing the project, said that the concrete for the decks and columns needs repair but the bridges themselves do not pose any sort of imminent risk nor are they in danger of falling.

“It’s like a car — you drive it for so long and you need to do maintenance,” Phillips said.

American Contracting and Services Inc. was awarded the $1.6 million contract to complete the work with an anticipated completion date of Sept. 1. The work will begin with crews doing repairs on the columns from the waterline to the deck. After that, the crews will begin on the decks, first milling off two inches of the old concrete then resurfacing them with latex concrete.

To facilitate the work, the crews began setting up “traffic shifts” last Thursday which will push all traffic flow into one lane in either direction for a 1,100-foot span. Phillips notes that according to the contract, there must be at least one lane of traffic in either direction throughout the entirety of the project to allow traffic flow. Drivers should be aware that there will be delays in travel times during the construction period and especially during holidays and weekends when Jordan Lake fills with visitors.

“The goal is to have this finished in time for the Labor Day holiday,” Phillips said.

As is standard for all NCDOT contracts, if the construction goes beyond the Sept. 1 deadline, the company would be responsible for liquidation payments back to the NCDOT in the amount of $1,000 per day. However, that date may change if the state either adds work to the original contract or if significant weather events cause delays.

The average lifespan of a bridge is between 75–100 years if properly maintained, according to Phillips. The current maintenance project on the bridges should provide the bridges an additional 25 years of life.

“At some point all bridges will have to be replaced,” Phillips said. “After 25 years, we will have to start to think about replacing these.”

(featured photo by David Bradley)

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