Western extension of I-540 delayed by a couple weeks

Bruce Siceloff says there are a few more weeks of delays at the west end of I-540 in the pipeline:

Scratch those holiday plans. The next 4-mile leg of I-540 will not open for the benefit of Research Triangle Park commuters until some time after Independence Day. Phillip Johnson, the DOT engineer overseeing the $102 million project, now hopes to get traffic rolling by July 11 or 12.

Johnson had said earlier that the freeway would open for traffic before next week's July 4 holiday. He said Wednesday that the contractor still has too much work to do -- guardrails, trafic signals at the interchanges, pavement markings -- to meet that schedule.

"I feel very confident we'll open it during that second week in July," Johnson said.
That would still bring the project in on schedule, more or less. Part of it was supposed to be finished July 1, and the other part August 1.

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