Feb. 17, 2014. The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to replace a bridge on Joe Thomas Road over Little Helton Creek in Ashe County.
The contract was awarded to James R. Vannoy & Sons Construction Company Inc. for $372,659. Construction on the project is expected to begin in mid-April. Crews will replace the structure with a concrete culvert positioned on a new alignment.
The existing structure was built in 1960 and is considered structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. That means that although the bridge is safe, it was built to design standards that are no longer current.
While crews are completing the project, traffic will be maintained on the existing bridge. All construction work should be completed by September, with permanent vegetation established by Feb. 27, 2015.
For real-time travel information at any time, call 511, visit www.ncdot.gov/travel or follow NCDOT on Twitter at www.ncdot.gov/travel/twitter. Another option is NCDOT Mobile, a phone-friendly version of the NCDOT website. To access it, type “m.ncdot.gov” into the browser of your smartphone. Then, bookmark it to save for future reference.