Wilmington City Council approves resolution accepting comments from staff on CFMB replacement

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington City Council is weighing in on the future of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, including potential alternatives to the replacement options being considered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night accepting comments and recommendations presented by city staff and consultants. Those comments will now be submitted to NCDOT as part of the public input process for the bridge replacement project.

The city hired two outside consulting firms to review NCDOT’s environmental assessment, examine the impacts of the state’s proposed alternatives and determine whether additional bridge designs should be considered.

During Tuesday’s presentation, city staff and consultants outlined several potential alternatives.

“So the first option that we presented again was a bascule bridge, for those that don’t know what that is, which is probably most people, that’s a bridge very similar to the Isabel Stellings Holmes Bridge on the north side of town,” Wilmington Director of Design and Construction Justin Carter said. “That’s a bridge that separates in the middle and raises up. Our second option, again assuming the channel needs to stay at 400 feet, would be to build a bridge along the alignment that’s proposed by NCDOT but only have it be 3 lanes and that would be a lift bridge, just like the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and that would carry 3 lanes of traffic in one direction. That would bring traffic into town. We would replace or rehabilitate the existing Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.”

According to Carter, the bascule bridge option would cost about $540 million. The second option, which would include a new lift bridge and repairs or rehabilitation to the existing bridge, would cost about $585 million.

Carter also discussed the possibility of NCDOT revisiting the previously considered Southern Crossing near Shipyard Boulevard, which would have a price tag of over $6 billion due to miles of interstate needing to be made alongside the bridge.

Consultants also examined the potential economic impact of tolling the replacement bridge. They said the city, county, and state could lose nearly $40 million in revenue, regardless of which alternative the NCDOT chooses.

Following the presentation, several council members raised concerns about the state’s process for replacing the bridge and how the project would be funded.

“If we have enough money to pay for transportation infrastructure so a gas tax can be paused, why do we not have enough money to pay for state infrastructure when it comes to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge?” Councilmember Cassidy Santaguida asked.

Saffo also questioned the amount of state funding available for the project.

“When we look at the state budget, they collected 8 billion dollars in gas tax and we get none and we got 20 some billion dollars in the rainy day fund, we’ve getting none,” Saffo said. “So we’re being asked as a community to pay 80% of the cost of this and they’ll tell us what type of bridge we’re gonna build.”

Saffo also raised concerns about how a new bridge could affect nearby roads, including Fifth Avenue, Dawson Street, and Wooster Street.

“When I look at who designed this, who looked at this, was there any discussion from the Department of Transportation’s engineers with local engineers here and with our community to at least look and see what that impact would look like,” Saffo said. “I don’t think it was done and if it was done, then they really don’t care.”

The public can still submit comments to NCDOT about the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project. The public comment period ends Oct. 15.