Cook School Road Bridge to Close for Replacement, Demolition Begins Monday

SHELBY-- The Cook School Road bridge replacement project in SurryCountybegins Monday, when crews will startdemolitionon the existingstructureover U.S. 52.

U.S. 52 North and South will be closed nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.to remove the bridge. The closures will vary from only U.S. 52 North oronlyU.S. 52 South,to U.S. 52North and Southtogether.The ramps at Exit 136 will be used as detours for the closures.

The bridge removal should take roughly four days. The existing structurewas built in 1953 and is considered functionally obsolete. That means that the bridge is safe but isin deterioratingcondition and needs to be replaced

Once the existing structure is removed, motorists will be directed to use the following detour:

• Cook School Road (North) traffic will be detoured onto U.S. 52 Southboundto Exit 134 (N.C. 268), and then from U.S. 52 Northboundto Exit 136 to Cook School Road (North).
• Cook School Road (South) traffic will be detoured onto U.S. 52 Northboundto Exit 141 (Holly Springs Road), and then from U.S. 52 Southboundto Exit 136 to Cook School Road (South).

The new bridge should opento traffic by Aug. 1, 2015.

This bridge replacement is one of two projects in a contract awarded this spring to contractor Smith-Rowe of Mount Airy. The other bridge in the contract, the N.C. 268 bridge over U.S. 52, recently opened to traffic.The contract amount for both projects is $3.1 million.