NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners were set to hear a presentation at its meeting on Monday, but a key representative was not present.
Steven Still, the county’s emergency management director, came before the board to share an update on the maintenance on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. At the podium, Still apologized that a representative from the North Carolina Department of Transportation was not present.
“They should have made provisions a long time prior to this. To come in with some PowerPoints to gloss over important details is inadequate and, to me, a dereliction of duty to our community,” Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, Jr. said.
Frustrated by the NCDOT’s absence at the meeting, commissioners reiterated the importance of people planning ahead of the closure.
“The public thinks that New Hanover County asked for this, that New Hanover County is facilitating this. We did not. We’re being told that this is happening whether you like it or not,” Commissioner Dane Scalise said. “We need DOT to help us in getting this message out to the public. I don’t want them being surprised in January. I want them leaving their house earlier, planning on using Isabel Holmes Bridge, thinking about working from home, ways that’s going to help mitigate this disruption that’s going to be caused. It is going to be a disruption. I am concerned about it and I hope very much that we can get the message out to the public that — please be aware for a period of time the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge is not going to work like it normally does.”
Both lanes into Wilmington from Brunswick County will close sometime in January through April. After that, work will then switch to the opposite side of the bridge with completion aimed for June.