Motorists traveling off the mountain toward Lenoir and
Hickory will need to steer clear of U.S. 321 on Monday nights.
The N.C. Department of Transportation is adding another closure
to help with blasting for the widening project. The additional
closure will be on Monday nights between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., beginning
on June 1.
The regular closures, taking place from from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
on Tuesdays and Thursdays, will continue, though NCDOT engineer
Lee Hammer said the Monday-night closings may reduce the number
of Tuesday closings as crews will be able to blast and remove
larger sections of rock with the expanded window of time.
“The one good thing about this is they should be able to
pull off a much larger blast, which should move the project along
faster,” Hammer said.
The complete project is already more than half a year late. The
$64 million widening of a 6.6-mile section from Caldwell County
to Blackberry Road was due to be completed by Aug. 15, 2008. It
is currently about 80 percent complete, according to Hammer. He
anticipates the Monday-night closing will remain in place for
at least several months.
The detour from the Boone area follows U.S. 421 to Wilkes County
and then detours west on N.C. 18 to Lenoir, reconnecting with
U.S. 321.
The third phase of the road widening, originally scheduled to
start in 2008, was delayed because of a lack of funds. The right-of-way
acquisition is under way in Blowing Rock, with the contract scheduled
to be granted in October 2010.
The U.S. 321 widening through the Green Park historic district
will be a narrower four-laned highway with no median, while the
route near the town of Blowing Rock will include sidewalks, medians
and other amenities.
The right-of-way acquisition is under way in Blowing Rock for
the third phase of the widening, with the contract scheduled to
be granted in October 2010. Pettyjohn said the right-of-way purchases
had stalled due to lack of funding.
The route will run from Blackberry Road to Possum Hollow Road
near the Tanger Outlet Shoppes on the Parkway. The final 4.3-mile
section of the widening project through the town will cost about
$46 million.
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