Bridges Closed in only One Direction

[Dirt Roads]

[Cross-posted from the North Carolina thread]

After a fiery truck accident back in September 2022, the I-85 Hampton Pointe overpass (Hillsborough/Chapel Hill, Exit 165) was again closed last Wednesday (May 31) at the beginning of a follow-up inspection.  After further inspection, the portion of the structure beneath the southbound lane was found to be safe and reopened the next day.  The posted detour uses I-85 [eastbound]; much of the traffic uses Old Number 10 and Lawrence Road as a bypass route.  NC-86 is still posted as "Alternate I-40" construction route from the New Hope Church Road exit (Exit 263) and the I-85 Split (Exit 259).  This bridge outage doesn't affect [southbound] "Alternate I-40" traffic.

https://www.hillsboroughnc.gov/news/news/2023/6/1/1530/nc-86-bridge-northbound-lane-remains-closed-pending-repairs.html

I don't recall ever seeing an emergency bridge outage that affected only traffic in one direction.

[Dough4872]

https://www.fox29.com/news/route-420-bridge-over-darby-creek-in-prospect-park-closed-indefinitely-for-structural-repairs The PA 420 southbound bridge over Darby Creek was closed for structural repairs, yet this is also a twin-span bridge. I can't ever recall a single-span bridge being closed in only one direction.

[sprjus4]

The VA-168 bypass bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Chesapeake, VA was struck by a barge a few weeks ago, and the southbound right lane was closed for approximately a week and a half. Northbound traffic was uneffected. The city began repairs and estimated approximately 30 days would be needed initially, but then completed repairs within just 3 days.

Traffic got pretty bad during afternoon rush hour during the closure, causing miles of backup and standstill traffic on both VA-168 all the way to I-64, and surrounding local roads. Thankfully, it was fixed fairly quick.

https://www.cityofchesapeake.net/3171/Rt-168-Bypass-Bridge-Updates

Technically, the bridge wasn't fully closed southbound, although half of it was. Only the left shoulder area, plus some of the left lane was passable, with the rest blocked off and shifted by cones.

[Bitmapped]

PennDOT has done this with a bridge painting and rehab project on I-79 over the Ohio River at Neville Island. There have been a couple weekends where one direction or the other are closed to facilitate work being done.

[tdindy88]

This just reminded me of the closure on I-65 in Lafayette, Indiana a few years ago. They were widening the interstate and found a problem with the northbound bridge over Wildcat Creek. Traffic was detoured onto US 52, SR 28 and US 231 around the Lafayette area and it wasn't the greatest of detours. There was also construction along Sagamore Parkway (old US 52 and the best multi-lane bypass around Lafayette) which didn't help matters. The closure was for just over a month if I recall.

[fillup420]

[Cross-posted from the North Carolina thread]

After a fiery truck accident back in September 2022, the I-85 Hampton Pointe overpass (Hillsborough/Chapel Hill, Exit 165) was again closed last Wednesday (May 31) at the beginning of a follow-up inspection.  After further inspection, the portion of the structure beneath the southbound lane was found to be safe and reopened the next day.  The posted detour uses I-85 [eastbound]; much of the traffic uses Old Number 10 and Lawrence Road as a bypass route.  NC-86 is still posted as "Alternate I-40" construction route from the New Hope Church Road exit (Exit 263) and the I-85 Split (Exit 259).  This bridge outage doesn't affect [southbound] "Alternate I-40" traffic.

https://www.hillsboroughnc.gov/news/news/2023/6/1/1530/nc-86-bridge-northbound-lane-remains-closed-pending-repairs.html

I don't recall ever seeing an emergency bridge outage that affected only traffic in one direction.

well, the entire bridge has since been closed until further notice. In my opinion, they should tear it down and rebuild that entire interchange.

[Dirt Roads]

[Cross-posted from the North Carolina thread]

After a fiery truck accident back in September 2022, the I-85 Hampton Pointe overpass (Hillsborough/Chapel Hill, Exit 165) was again closed last Wednesday (May 31) at the beginning of a follow-up inspection.  After further inspection, the portion of the structure beneath the southbound lane was found to be safe and reopened the next day.  The posted detour uses I-85 [eastbound]; much of the traffic uses Old Number 10 and Lawrence Road as a bypass route.  NC-86 is still posted as "Alternate I-40" construction route from the New Hope Church Road exit (Exit 263) and the I-85 Split (Exit 259).  This bridge outage doesn't affect [southbound] "Alternate I-40" traffic.

https://www.hillsboroughnc.gov/news/news/2023/6/1/1530/nc-86-bridge-northbound-lane-remains-closed-pending-repairs.html

I don't recall ever seeing an emergency bridge outage that affected only traffic in one direction.

well, the entire bridge has since been closed until further notice. In my opinion, they should tear it down and rebuild that entire interchange.

Indeed.  The bridge was closed to all traffic in anticipation of the nightly closures on I-85 [westbound] starting June 17.  That bridge work was expected to continue for several weeks.  Unfortunately (as I'm sure you witnessed), it rained all of that first week and it has rained off-and-on since.  I have seen evidence of construction activity, but it doesn't look like NCDOT had made much progress (as of Wednesday, June 28).  I previously reported that traffic volumes at the Walmart and Home Depot in Hampton Pointe was much lower then.  The same was true last week, but today Walmart crowds were back to normal and the parking lot at Home Depot was jam-packed.

Worse, is now NCDOT has posted VMS signage at Hampton Pointe indicating major road closures on NC-86 (presumably due to the development of the relocated Chrysler dealership and the new Aldi beside the Sheetz).  Most traffic leaving both Hampton Pointe and Sheetz use Old Number 10 to get back to Hillsborough rather than the posted detour via I-85 to use the double U-turn at Exit 170.


Just in case you didn't see it, here's the original post from Bob Malme:

NCDOT press release about upcoming nightly closures of I-85 South at the NC 86 exit starting next week to allow for bridge repairs:
https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2023/2023-06-14-nc-86-bridge-repairs-overnight-closures.aspx