OPERATION GRIDLOCK: Current and future impacts of I-140

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Its completion is still a year away, but the Cape Fear region is already feeling the impacts of I-140.

Fifteen miles of the road are already open. Part of the Wilmington Bypass is in New Hanover County and the other is in Brunswick County.

“Right now, it’s kind of pointless, because I don’t go to that side of Brunswick,” Ashley Morris said.

Everyone is waiting on the almost eight mile stretch in between the two that will connect it all together.

“It’ll save time from going through 421, going through that gauntlet everyday,” Ricky Vinci said.

Once it is complete, the DOT said the approximately 20 mile stretch of 140 will consist of 19 bridges. Eleven of them are over railroad tracks or structures.

For drivers like Vinci, who have to commute from Pender County to the other side of Leland on occasion it is something that will get him around Wilmington and alleviate traffic on the Causeway.
“When you get caught after 8, you have to add 40 minutes to your run,” Vinci said.

It will also help Ashley Morris.

“For sure, because my parents live in Pender County, so I’ll just go around especially cause it’s a mile down the road,” Morris said.

Morris works off highway 17. She has also already seen development from the bypass.

“It’s really nice to see such nice things coming to Brunswick County,” Morris said. “Brunswick County is on the up and up when it comes to being along 17. 74/76 is still very rural.”

That includes two brand new gas stations on either side side of the road.

“You don’t have to watch how much gas you got so you can get to a gas station,” Sandra Kern said.

Kern is still worried these projects aimed to help traffic near the causeway just are not enough.

“That’s (the causeway project) already outmoded by the time they built it basically,” Kern said. “I noticed it still wasn’t enough for the traffic that’s going over it.”

The final piece of the new four-lane, $411 million Wilmington Bypass is set to open at the end of 2017 bringing development to the surrounding towns and relief to drivers.

We partnered with the StarNews on Operation Gridlock to tackle traffic in our area. You can check out their story on I-140 impacts in the Saturday edition of the StarNews.