By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Write
Ten members of the N.C. Board of Transportation voted unanimously Monday morning to name the U.S. Highway 17 Bypass bridge after the late Ashley B. Futrell Sr.
The board met in teleconference to consider extending the honor to Futrell, who served as a state senator and was the editor and publisher of the Washington Daily News.
The transportation board has members representing 14 highway divisions statewide.
Futrell’s name is in the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame. He served three terms in the Senate, from 1965 until 1972, reads a draft resolution in favor of naming the bridge for the former lawmaker.
Through action in the Legislature, Futrell supported building the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and advocated for starting Beaufort County Community College, the resolution says.
Futrell died in 2005.
The transportation board must vote on whether to assign names to bridges and highways in the state, Hugh Overholt, a board member from New Bern, told the Daily News last week.
A bridge-opening ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 26, reads a news release from the transportation board.
The bypass bridge will not open to public traffic immediately following the ceremony, related Greer Beaty, director of communications for the N.C. Department of Transportation.
“I think it will (open) soon after the opening ceremony,” Beaty said.
Ice, snow and extreme cold temperatures have prevented crews from putting some finishing touches on the bypass, Beaty said.
Some road lines still have to painted, and that the work can’t be done until drier, warmer air moves in, she advised.
“It won’t be open to general traffic the day of the ceremony, but it won’t be long after that,” she said of the bridge.
As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear exactly when the bridge would open to the public.
Pavement markings and some asphalt work have been held up because of bad weather, said Bill Kincannon, a DOT resident engineer.
“A lot of this is weather-dependent,” Kincannon said.
Inspections of the bypass are ongoing and production is ongoing, he noted.
“They’re not finished yet,” he said of work crews. “We need a few nice, warm days.”
The project is around 98 to 99 percent complete, according to Kincannon.
Construction of the $192 million bypass began in March 2007.
A current cost overrun of 3.71 percent is listed on DOT’s Web site.
Last year, Kincannon said a then-listed cost overrun of 3.57 percent was attributable to a range of factors, including design modifications and environmental-compliance moves.
The bypass runs for 6.8 miles from Price Road south of Chocowinity to Springs Road north of Washington.
The bridge is just one component of the bypass, which is intended to ease traffic congestion in Washington and speed the progress of passing motorists.
Last November it was reported that completion of the bypass was running months ahead of schedule.
The contractual completion is Nov. 1 of this year.
Late last year, Kincannon cautioned that bridge inspection would take “a considerable amount of time.”
Though the main work could be over by spring, that was no guarantee motorists would be traversing the bypass by then, Kincannon said last year.