Work on widening an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in North Carolina will now be completed this year, after the state department of transportation previously added multiple changes, according to the contractor.
S.T. Wooten, based in Wilson, North Carolina, was awarded the $465 million contract in 2019 with an original deadline of May 2024. Work on the stretch of interstate – which runs from Dunn to Fayetteville – is now estimated to wrap up in December.
Some of the changes requested by NCDOT included redesigns and altering roundabouts after it was discovered that large trucks were struggling to move through them and damaged the concrete, which will be remedied through updated concrete aprons.
S.T. Wooten
Altogether, six new roundabouts will be added to the I-95 corridor to handle local traffic using on and off ramps. NCDOT also requested the contractor install a new noise wall – in addition to the four that were already planned – at the southern end of the corridor.
So far, the northern 14 miles of the project have been fully repaved, widened from four to eight lanes and handed over to NCDOT management.
Widening this 18-mile stretch of interstate from four to eight lanes will better accommodate the 60,000 daily drivers along this crucial north-south corridor, NCDOT says.
By the end of the year, S.T. Wooten will have built one new bridge, upgraded nine, widened one and combined two bridges along the I-95 corridor. Additionally, five culverts will have been replaced and six new ones added.
S.T. Wooten previously worked on expanding and upgrading a portion of Interstate 40 between Raleigh and Clayton, North Carolina.
