By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
The new year is expected to bring new road construction through greater Seven Lakes.
Construction of a roughly 4.8-mile section of N.C. 211 between N.C. 73 and Holly Grove School Road has been on hold since the 124th U.S. Open wrapped in June.
The N.C. Department of Transportation advertised bidding for the project to open on Nov. 19. According to Matt Kitchen, an assistant division maintenance engineer with the N.C. DOT, the contract has an interim completion date set for Oct. 1, 2027. This completion date accounts for all the work excluding final plantings and permanent vegetation to be completed by March 29, 2028.
The DOT has set Jan. 6, 2025 as the opening availability for the contractor to begin. No work will begin until after the holidays.
Once the contract is awarded, in most cases, the sequence of operations is determined by the contractor. While the exact schedule is unknown at this time, Kitchen provided an idea of what travelers through the area could expect.
“I would anticipate that much of the work in the first few months would entail mobilizing equipment and materials and working on wet utility relocations and roadway drainage installations.” But he emphasizes that much of the logistical picture remains unclear until after the bid is awarded.
“This will be a three-year endeavor,” said Kitchen, “and we ask for the public to be patient and attentive to changing conditions with various traffic patterns utilized throughout the process.”
The N.C. DOT has recently completed other work in the area. A section of N.C. 73 from the Montgomery County line to N.C. 211 in West End was resurfaced in October.
This resurfacing was prioritized based on the N.C. DOT’s annual primary resurfacing allocation. According to Kitchen, it was selected based on the pavement condition analysis performed each year on all primary routes and was selected based on its existing condition.
As of Nov. 17, the contractor installing the thermoplastic markings was still in the process of completing the striping.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
