By WECT Staff | June 24, 2020 at 11:43 AM EDT – Updated June 24 at 1:01 PM
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. (WECT) – Recent traffic headaches on Wrightsville Beach appear to be coming to an end.
Mayor Darryl Mills said he’s hopeful that crews with Hyland Paving will finish up their work repaving West Salisbury Street on Wednesday — or Thursday at the latest.
Once repaving work is done, the Salisbury Street area improvement project will be “substantially” complete, Mills said, with a punch list of items remaining.
Drivers say the traffic only added about ten minutes to their travel time Wednesday morning.
“Just a little extra time, but it’s worth it,” said Melissa Farrir. Her and her husband Gary decided to visit the beach after coming to Wilmington from Willard for a doctor’s appointment.
One man says the traffic hasn’t been too bad during his travels to the beach.
“I can see that leaving the island, it looks like they’re going to be a lot of traffic, but so far it’s smooth sailing,” said Michael Waggett, who is visiting Wrightsville Beach from Nashville, Tennessee.
Crew members directed traffic from the four-way intersection, which helped move traffic along a little faster.
The recent roadwork has caused traffic backups on the north end of the island. Last Thursday, the traffic gridlock backed up all the way to Shell Island with some drivers saying they were stuck at a standstill for hours.
Mills said the roadwork is the final phase of the Salisbury Street project which included new bathrooms with more outdoor showers, some reconfigured parking, new street lights, new utility lines buried underground, and the sidewalks enlarged to better accommodate pedestrians.
“The project, which is a public and private effort, was designed and is intended to give that area a fresh, improved appearance as well as better serve the public,” Mills said.
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