NCDOT proceeds with big bridge project despite Trump administration suspending support
The N.C. Department of Transportation and its contractors are moving ahead with construction of a new bridge to carry U.S. 64 over the Alligator River, even though the Trump administration has paused a federal grant that will help pay for it.
NCDOT was awarded $110 million for the Alligator River bridge from the bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by Congress in late 2021. It’s one of two dozen grants the department received from the bill that the U.S. Department of Transportation has put on hold as part of the administration’s efforts to re-evaluate federal spending.
But contractors this week began driving the first of hundreds of concrete piles that will eventually support the new 3.2-mile bridge between Tyrrell and Dare counties. NCDOT is counting on the federal grant to cover about a quarter of the project’s $450 million cost and is getting started despite the government’s pause, said spokesman Tim Hass.
“We are hopeful it is temporary and the grant will move forward as awarded,” Hass wrote in an email.
The USDOT announced the grant in January 2023, one of a handful nationwide designed to help state and local governments pay for difficult but critical projects.
Though chosen by the Biden administration, the bridge project has bipartisan support. Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced the federal grant separately but almost simultaneously.
“I am proud to have advocated for this funding, and thank local officials in both counties for their tireless advocacy for this grant as well,” Tillis said in a statement at the time. “It’s clear that the bipartisan infrastructure law is already bringing major investments to our great state.”
The existing two-lane bridge over the Alligator River is a vital link between the Outer Banks and the rest of North Carolina. But it’s more than 60 years old and out of date. About halfway across is a swing-span that brings traffic on U.S. 64 to a halt when it opens to let boats pass or occasionally breaks down and needs repairs.
The new bridge will also have two travel lanes but will be wider, with shoulders and higher guardrails. It will rise up to 65 feet above the channel, high enough to let boats pass underneath without stopping traffic.
The new bridge is expected to open in the fall of 2029. Demolition of the old one, known as the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge, will start the following spring.
State awaits word on two dozen federal grants
NCDOT has not received any guidance about the suspended federal grants, said spokesman Jamie Kritzer.
That includes the largest, nearly $1.1 billion to build the first leg of a high-speed passenger rail line between Raleigh and Richmond, Virginia. Gov. Josh Stein and state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about the status of that grant when Duffy visited Western North Carolina on Feb. 10.
“That’s one of the ones that’s a primary for us,” Hopkins said following their brief meeting with Duffy. “And we’re going to make a specific ask to try to get that one rolling.”
Among the other federal grants to NCDOT now on hold:
▪ $242 million to help replace the aging Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in Wilmington
▪ $25 million to install wildlife crossings on U.S. 64 in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
▪ $13.2 million to help Wake Forest build a downtown train station as part of the Raleigh-to-Richmond rail project
▪ $1.8 million to develop a plan to protect N.C. 12 from ocean flooding in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM.
