Venerable Raleigh Beltline bridge will disappear this weekend
A bridge that has carried Raleigh Beltline traffic over Hillsborough Street for 66 years will be demolished this weekend.
Weather permitting, Hillsborough Street and Beryl Road will close at the Beltline at 9 p.m. Friday so crews can begin taking the bridge apart. Demolition and cleanup should be done in time for Hillsborough and Beryl to reopen by 6 a.m. Monday.
The four-lane bridge opened in April 1958, carrying what was then known as the U.S. 1 bypass around Raleigh. It was the first piece of the Beltline to open and is the last four-lane section of what is now known as Interstate 440.
Contractors began widening the road from four to six lanes in 2019. The project includes reconfiguring and rebuilding the interchanges with Hillsborough Street, Wade Avenue, Western Boulevard and Jones Franklin Road, including all new bridges.
Traffic from the old I-440 bridge over Hillsborough was shifted to a new bridge earlier this month.
The Beltline project was supposed to take four years and be finished in June 2023. Several factors contributed to the delays, including the COVID-19 pandemic and difficulty in acquiring materials and right-of-way and moving utilities.
The N.C. Department of Transportation now expects the project will be substantially completed by the end of this year.
