ASHEVILLE – A contractor for the N.C. Department of Transportation will be allowed to close Interstate 26 at Brevard Road in 30-minute increments between midnight and 5 a.m. on Thursday and Friday mornings.
The short-term closures are necessary for the contractor to remove large elements of the existing bridge structure during this stage of the bridge replacement project.
Traffic control crews, with assistance from the Asheville Police Department, will hold traffic in place during the operations, then release queued traffic after 30 minutes. These temporary closures may take place several times each morning.
Drivers may wait, or choose to take an alternate route through Asheville. Westbound drivers on I-26 may take Exit 37, Long Shoals Road (N.C. 146) and travel east to Hendersonville Road (U.S. 25), then turn left traveling north to connect with I-40. Eastbound drivers should take I-40 East to Exit 50, Hendersonville Road (U.S. 25) then head south and turn right onto Long Shoals Road (N.C. 146) back to I-26. Traffic on Brevard Road will not be interrupted.
The Brevard Road (N.C. 191) interchange improvement project is replacing the existing bridges over I-26 to allow for widening of the interstate and better accommodation of traffic on Brevard Road. The interstate ramps will also be reconfigured to allow for safer entry onto and off the interstate. The project will also bring upgrades to the drainage, signal and utility systems.
The $47.5 million project started in 2016 and is more than 70 percent complete. It should be completed in 2020.
Similar operations are also tentatively scheduled for three mornings next week.