RALEIGH (AP) -- Travelers on Interstate 40 in Durham County will experience slow downs at night and some weekends as work crews repair bad concrete along ten-point-four miles of the highway.
The $21.7 million project will squeeze traffic at night and some weekends from three lanes to one on the region's busiest highway. Engineers say the repaving will last until May 2008 and crews will take out three inches of concrete and replace it with asphalt.
The contractor will replace concrete put down in 2003 and 2004 on the outer two lanes in each direction of I-40. The concrete was supposed to last 30 years. An investigation showed the state Department of Transportation gave incorrect instructions to a contractor and didn't inspect properly.
Three state employees were disciplined and the state's top highway official resigned.
