RALEIGH – The following are highlights from this week at the N.C. Department of Transportation. The stories below are also featured in
NCDOT Now, the department's weekly newscast.
Winter Weather
N.C. Department of Transportation crews are wrapping up a multi-week response to two
winter storms that impacted all 100 counties. Thanks to round‑the‑clock cleanup after the first storm and extensive pre-storm preparations, NCDOT crews were ready to respond as winter weather returned.
Across both storms, more than 2,100 NCDOT employees operated over 1,250 trucks to treat and clear the state’s 81,000-mile road network.
“These folks have been working 90 to 100‑hour weeks to keep us safe,” said Governor Josh Stein. “We all owe them, and the many other public servants putting in overtime on our behalf, a debt of genuine gratitude.”
Bat Wall
In the Pigeon River Gorge at Exit 15 on Interstate 40, crews are
replacing the Key Bridge with local wildlife in mind.
Bats have been observed roosting in the old structure, so engineers designed a new solution: bat‑friendly crevices built directly into a nearby retaining wall. The idea came from NCDOT resident engineer Kenny McCourt.
“I was sitting with a notebook drawing up some ideas on how to take it off the bridge,” McCourt said. “And it hit me — we've got a soldier pile wall that we're going to have to, you know, enclose with shotcrete.”
“And in this area, we've started this new concept of boulderscape in a lot of the areas because it looks more natural, it’s quicker, it’s more cost‑effective to what we do,” he said. “We took a piece of paper and started drawing these bat habitats enclosed into the boulderscape wall, give them more of a natural habitat.”
The idea quickly gained support, bringing together NCDOT engineers, contractors, federal and state wildlife agencies, and Boulderscape to build the new roosting spaces. Now, bats call the wall home.
Officer Christopher J. Driver Bridge Dedication
A bridge in Nash County now stands as a tribute to Officer Christopher J. Driver, a Rocky Mount police officer who was killed in 2018 after his cruiser struck a vehicle left abandoned in the road.
NCDOT, local officials, law enforcement officers and family honored Driver by dedicating the Sunset Avenue bridge over Interstate 95 as a memorial to him.
For more information about NCDOT Now, contact the NCDOT Communications Office at (919) 707-2660. Additional news stories from throughout the week can be found on
NCDOT.gov.