FAYETTEVILLE — Construction of a bridge linking northbound College Avenue to the Fulbright Expressway will start in January, city officials said Wednesday.
The Street Committee approved three contracts for City Council review. If approved, the “flyover” connection will be complete by mid-2014.
Design and engineering on the project have already been completed. The construction and management contracts, along with an agreement between the city and SourceGas to relocate a gasoline main, total almost $7.5 million.
The construction and management contracts will cost the city $1.41 million, with federal highway money covering the remaining 80 percent of the cost. The city and SourceGas will split the $113,000 relocation cost 50/50.
Traffic will be limited in several areas during various parts of the 18-month project, said Chris Brown, city engineer.
The inside lane of northbound College will be closed for several months while the entrance to the bridge and its supporting walls are constructed. Westbound Fulbright will also be closed for at least a month while the connection is completed at that end of the bridge.
The bridge will pull about 25 percent of the left-turn traffic off northbound College at the Joyce Boulevard intersection, possibly more, Brown said. That accounts for all traffic making the U-turn to get on Fulbright, as well as some traffic heading to retail and restaurant areas east of College. The bridge will access the Shiloh and Mall avenues area as well as Fulbright.
“There’s always some price to pay for progress, but both in terms of dollars and inconvenience, this isn’t bad,” said Alderman Bobby Ferrell, chairman of the committee. “Really, this project is 20 years late, but it’ll soon be a reality.”
No timetable has been set for the lane closings, Brown said. Short closings of 30 minutes to an hour will also be necessary on the expressway as steel girders are lifted into place on the bridge foundations, but those closings will happen late at night when traffic is light, he said.
The flyover is one of several projects the city is using bond money to finance over more than a decade. The city issued two rounds of bonds, in 2006 and 2009, totaling $34.2 million. Once the money for the flyover is transferred, about $2.2 million will remain available, Brown said.
The committee will review in December a list of proposed projects that could be engineered and planned using that $2.2 million, and built with money from the third round of bonds, expected to be issued in 2014, Ferrell said. Additional highway money for the state or federal governments, or revenue from the recently passed half-cent state sales tax for transportation, could also be available for certain projects, he said.