First round of Corridor K bidding concludes

Raleigh – The first contracts for the Corridor K expansion in Graham County have been unsealed.

The N.C. Department of Transportation closed the “letting” (acceptance of bids) period for the first of three planned roadway improvements Aug. 16, with the lowest bid coming from Franklin-based Watson Contracting, Inc. Watson’s bid of $47.5 was just 1.9 percent higher than the projected cost of $46,624,005.25 and outpaced Robbinsville’s Adams Contracting Company, who came in 4.6 percent higher at $48,750,475.24 ($1,250,475.24 more than Watson).

Drainage, grading, paving and signals will be needed for the first 6-mile phase, which will commence near Five Points Road and follow U.S. 129 North (Rodney Orr Bypass) to the intersection of N.C. 143 East (Sweetwater Road). From there, the phase will continue down N.C. 143 to Beech Creek Road.

Other bids opened Aug. 16 were Mountain Creek Contractors, Inc. (Catawba; $50,945,317.20, or 9.3 percent above estimate); Charles Blalock & Sons, Inc. (Sevierville, Tenn.;$51,417,115.37, or 10.3 percent higher); Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc. (Charleston, Tenn.; $58,248,621.85, or 24.9 percent over estimate); and Fluor Enterprises, Inc. (Greenville, S.C.; $62,508,765, or 34.1 percent more than projection).

Phase two in the county will continue from Beech Creek Road on N.C. 143 to 0.5 miles north of the Appalachian Trail at Stecoah Gap and will carry the heftiest price tag – $60 million. Letting for the second stage of the project will begin Tuesday, Sept. 20.

The segment will be 3.911 miles and including drainage, grading and paving, as well as the installation of a land bridge – estimated to cost $5 million alone – over the highway, to allow Appalachian Trail wildlife and hikers alike the opportunity to cross over the road without traffic interference.

The bridge is a compromise offered after several trail advocates expressed concerns about how the expansion would affect foot traffic, as the current plan is to widen the roadway to four lanes at the gap.

From there, the final expansion will continue down N.C. 143 to its intersection with N.C. 28, before passing south through Stecoah and concluding at Gunter Gap Road – just before Highway 28 opens up into a 4-lane at Wolf Creek General Store. This phase is estimated to cost $32.9 million and runs 5.4 miles. Letting for the last segment of the expansion begins Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Division improvements

A lengthy list of further plans for improvements in western North Carolina was also recently released by the state department of transportation.

Division 14 – which spans Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Polk, Swain and Transylvania counties – is penciled in for multiple improvements to its roadways, some of which are projected to not occur until the end of the decade.

Some of the local projects included in a list sent out to media include:

* Further upgrades to the N.C. 143/N.C. 143 Business corridor, in the area of West Buffalo Creek, with an estimated $31 million price tag and projected end date of 2025;

* Improvements to N.C. 28, from the Swain/Graham county line near Tsali to Fontana Dam Road. The target end date is 2029, with a hefty estimate of $235 million – of which just $13.3 million has been funded;

* Work from U.S. 19 Business in Andrews to where U.S. 129 branches off into Graham County in Topton. There is no target date – nor estimate cost – available for this plan, as of yet.

At the division-wide level, upgrades to intersections are on the docket – mostly to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.