Brunswick County residents prepare to navigate traffic challenges once Cape Fear Memorial Bridge repairs start

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — During a meeting on Monday, January 22nd, the New Hanover County Commissioners adopted a resolution opposing the use of a toll to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

The resolution does allow for a toll to be an option considered by the State Department of Transportation for project priority scoring purposes, citing future disproportionate impacts to residents, tourism, and the flow of commerce in the region.

The Wilmington City Council passed a similar resolution at their meeting on January 16th.

Meanwhile, repair work on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge starts on Sunday, January 28th and drivers on the west side of the bridge are preparing for major traffic impacts.

The eastbound lanes going into Wilmington from Brunswick County will close for repairs to the movable deck on the bridge.

Those lanes will be closed until the start of March.

Southport resident Richard Stitcher said it’s going to be difficult trying to figure out the best route to get into Wilmington.

“It’ll be a major impediment,” Stitcher said. “Most of our medical appointments are in Wilmington on the bridge side of town near the hospital and if we have to go around to the Elizabeth Holmes and then all the way across, it’ll probably add, well with everybody else, 45 minutes to every trip.”

Stitcher said one of his doctors said during a meeting last week they expect a lot of people to be late or miss their appointments once the repair work starts.

Leland resident Larry Sola said it’ll be annoying getting into Wilmington and he might not be willing to make the drive.

“I think we’re gonna try and avoid having to go in,” Sola said. “The only real alternative is to take 140 in and that’s a bit longer. It would certainly make me think twice before going in. But if I have to, I have to but I’ll try and avoid it.”

In the end, Stitcher said people will still go into Wilmington, regardless of how difficult it might become.

“People normally going into Wilmington, in my impression, are gonna go there anyway,” Stitcher said. “I don’t think it will dampen the amount of people that go into town very much.”

Once work is done on the eastbound lanes, there will be a pause for the North Carolina Azalea Festival, before starting again on the westbound lanes going out of Wilmington, which will be finished by early May.