Love digs a new era in the Love Grove Community

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Love Grove community is all smiles as residents and city leaders break ground on a new way in and out of the neighborhood.

Friday morning, the symbolic shovels hit the dirt to get the ball rolling on the new entrance to the neighborhood in what has been a long time coming. About four years ago, a train derailment trapped residents for hours because there is only one way in and out, and the memory is still very real to folks there.

” Right now,” Love Grove community President Lynda McMillan said, “if a train derailment took place we would not be able to get out of this community, emergency vehicles would not be able to get here to us and that is something that presses on our hearts day and night.”

Construction is expected to take about a year and poetically will be done by the T.A. Loving Company. You can read more about what lead up to the groundbreaking by clicking here.

The $5 million Love Grove Bridge is one of 38 projects in the 2014 Transportation Bond. The city says the bridge will cross over Burnt Mill Creek over to One Tree Hill Way on the other side. It will be a two-lane bridge with traffic going both ways and a biking/walking trail to provide connectivity to the neighborhood.