The finish line is in sight: Calabash River bridge still set to reopen to traffic May 1

The Calabash River bridge remains on track to open by May 1, an NCDOT engineer said last week, marking the near-total completion of the $9.6 million project that is set to be fully completed this fall.

“The Calabash River Bridge Project is still on track to open as of May 1,” North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Division 3 Engineer Michelle Howes told the GSATS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) during a April 1 meeting. “I just talked to the contractors yesterday and they are still hopeful that that date is achievable for them, and they have that $750,000 incentive to open the road by that date.”

The May 1 reopening will be a day of celebration many Sunset Beach- and Calabash-area residents that have been required to take a detour to get between the two towns since the bridge closed in September 2023.

Howes said some shoulder work and landscaping will still need to be done after the bridge is reopened to traffic. The estimated full completion date is Oct. 28, 2025.

The bridge is a part of Beach Drive SW (N.C. 179 North) that crosses the Calabash River between Calabash and Sunset Beach and serves as a primary evacuation route for folks living in those towns and surrounding areas. But the bridge had been deemed functionally obsolete and structurally deficient by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

For a bridge to be deemed structurally deficient, “the deck, superstructure or substructure must be rated at a 4 or less,” NCDOT previously told The Brunswick Beacon. The old bridge’s substructure was rated at a 3 due to corrosion.”

The old bridge was also being affected by flooding during severe weather events, largely because it was found to be two-feet below the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 50-year water surface elevation requirements, per NCDOT. The new bridge will be roughly seven-feet higher than the required elevation.

Other projectsUpdates on other transportation projects in the GSATS boundary in Brunswick County — that includes the towns of Shallotte, Sunset Beach, Carolina Shores, Calabash, Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach and Varnamtown — were also shared during the April 1 meeting.

Carolina Bays Parkway Extension

In February, GSATS TAC Chair Walt Eccard, also the mayor of Shallotte, sent a letter on behalf of the Brunswick County communities within GSATS to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) urging the administration to begin the public scoping process for the Carolina Bays Parkway Extension this spring, as scheduled.

The Carolina Bays Parkway Extension Project — a North Carolina and South Carolina joint project — will create an alternative, but still undetermined, route from South Carolina Highway 9 in Horry County, South Carolina, across the state line to U.S. Highway 17 in Brunswick County and will impact communities in Brunswick County regardless of the selected route.

The current estimated project cost is $552 million, with North Carolina’s share projected at $367 million and South Carolina’s share at $185 million. NCDOT notes the cost estimates are subject to change.

Several potential routes for the extension have been proposed, and some of those proposed routes could significantly impact residents in the Calabash, Carolina Shores, Hickmans Crossroad, Longwood, Grissettown and Shallotte areas, among others — with some routes proposed to run right through where homes, businesses, farms and churches currently sit.

The FHWA in response to GSATS’ letter said the project is “a high priority” of the administration and that a preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement is “currently being finalized” and expected to be completed this spring.

When the statement is approved, “at least one public hearing will be held to provide an opportunity for the community to obtain information and provide comments about the proposed project,” the FHWA’s letter said.

A Final Environmental Impact Statement will then be created and a Record of Decision, which signals the FHWA’s approval of a project’s environmental statement and its compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, is scheduled to be completed in fall 2026.

U.S. 17 Superstreets and U.S. 17-Smith Avenue interchange

The project to convert intersections along U.S. Highway 17 to reduced conflict intersections, or superstreets, between each end of Shallotte is set to go out to bid in July, with construction expected to get underway by the end of 2025, Howes noted.

The project converting of the U.S. Highway 17-Smith Avenue intersection to an interchange is set to go out to bid in 2030 and the project to convert the U.S. Highway 17-N.C. Highway 211 intersection to an interchange has been funded only for preliminary engineering and design, so currently has not expected bid date.

Ocean Isle Beach roundabout

Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith, who serves on the GSATS TAC, asked Howes for an update on an NCDOT study of the roundabout at Beach Drive (N.C. 179) and Ocean Isle Beach Road/Causeway Drive.

“That intersection’s getting busier and busier and I’m not talking about tourist traffic either, I’m talking about daily traffic,” Smith said. “With the number of homes that are permitted right here in our backyard, I mean, everybody’s coming through that intersection.”

Howes in response said she would check with NCDOT’s feasibility studies group in Raleigh, but noted she did not believe a meeting for that potential project has been scheduled. The feasibility study would consider adding slip lanes to the roundabout, “or if a different solution would be better suited for it, then they’ll develop cost estimates associated with that,” she explained.