2023-12-19 15:29:00
Repairs to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge’s moveable mid-section means lanes in one direction will have to be closed for months at a time. Officials worry where that traffic, especially trucks, will go
The trucks are going to have to go somewhere. But where?
That’s the issue state and local officials are grappling with as work to keep the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge safe for drivers means finding a new route through Wilmington for the hundreds of trucks bound for the Port of Wilmington. Traffic volumes on the 54-year-old bridge increased nearly 34% between January 2012 and February 2022, with more than 72,000 vehicles using the bridge everyday.
When the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) closes the inbound lanes of the Memorial Bridge that carries traffic from Brunswick County into Wilmington, possibly as soon as early January, thousands of drivers are going to get detoured onto roads in the Port City that are already congested.
But it is the specter of hundreds of port-bound container trucks inching and idling their way through Wilmington, since they will no longer be able to access South Front Street off the Memorial Bridge, that has city officials especially worried.
According to a ports’ spokesperson, an average of nearly 1,900 trucks a week have passed through the ports’ main gate this year. Depending on when the container ships are in town, that might easily be near 500 trucks a day, and many of them use the Memorial Bridge to reach distribution centers and warehouses in Brunswick and other neighboring counties or while traveling to markets like Charlotte or South Carolina.
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Lots of trucks on Third Street?
According to the DOT, the preferred detour route would see trucks basically drive in a big square to avoid downtown Wilmington, crossing the Isabel Holmes Bridge just north of downtown Wilmington and using Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to access College Road and then Shipyard Boulevard to reach the port. Trucks coming from points further inland also might used Interstate 40 to get to I-40 and then College Road.
But a much more convenient route, at least for truckers, would be to cross the Isabel Holmes and then take a right on North Third Street through downtown and the city’s Historic District to reach the port.
Last month, state officials approached the city regarding allowing trucks to use North Third as part of the detour. They noted that the route would be shorter, involve passing through fewer signalized intersections, and would limit dumping even more traffic onto the heavily congested South College Road corridor between Market Street and Shipyard.
But city officials have, at least for now, rejected the proposal, concerned regarding health, safety and quality-of-life issues. They also might have an ace in the hole in that the stretch of North Third between Market and MLK Parkway is under city, not state, control − although interstate commerce rules that fall under federal oversight might limit what Wilmington officials can do.
“We’ll have to see how it goes,” Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said of safety and other issues generated from directing port-bound traffic onto South College Road. “But I think I can safely say allowing those trucks to use Third Street will be our last resort.”
More air pollution, noise
Either way the container trucks navigate Wilmington during the bridge lane closures, there are going to be impacts.
Among the most concerning will be the ramifications of hundreds of trucks idling at traffic signals throughout the city. According to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), an idling vehicle releases more harmful chemicals, gases and soot into the air than a vehicle that’s moving, even at low speed. That contributes to air pollution, regional haze and exacerbate health issues like asthma, allergies and respiratory ailments.
Emissions from the transportation sector accounted for 36% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which are the primary driver of climate change, in North Carolina in 2018.
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“That impact might be fairly significant,” said Dr. Sarav Arunachalamdeputy director for the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, when asked regarding the potential health impacts. “Trucks have quite a few pollutants that aren’t very good for human health.”
He recommends concerned residents consider wearing a quality N95 mask, just like during the COVID-19 pandemic, and look at investing in new or improved air filters for their homes.
Increased noise pollution in residential areas from increased truck traffic, especially downtown, is another potential fallout from the bridge lane closure − although the city’s noise ordinance has an exception for noise generated by “necessary business equipment” and is not “intended to deter individuals from lawfully exercising the individual right of freedom of speech and commerce.”
Staff from the DOT and local communities, including Wilmington and New Hanover and Brunswick counties, intend to meet weekly, starting Tuesday, to hash out issues surrounding the impacts from the upcoming bridge lane closures.
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at [email protected] or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.
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