Traffic is now moving on both sides of the I-77 bridge again. Here’s the latest.
Traffic is now rolling on the new I-77 bridge over the Catawba River.
Prior to 1 p.m. Friday, traffic cameras showed traffic moving both ways on the bridge connecting Fort Mill and Rock Hill. Traffic used two of the four new southbound lanes.
The traffic flow comes three days ahead of when all four lanes will, by contract, be open. The southbound bridge lanes closed May 6 for repairs.
Early use of the bridge isn’t a surprise. Late Thursday SCDOT posted on its Facebook page that lanes would likely reopen prior to the 5 a.m. Monday project deadline.
On May 17, United Infrastructure Group CEO Jim Triplett posted on Facebook his company expected to have the job done at least 18 hours ahead of schedule. By the following day, the company was finished pouring the new bridge deck.
Early Friday afternoon traffic moved each way at two lanes each. At the end of work, both northbound and southbound traffic will have four lanes each.
While progress has been steady, traffic has been slow. On Friday in particular as controlled traffic in the area brought speeds down to 5 mph from the welcome center in Fort Mill to the bridge. That work is in anticipation of shifting lanes back to their usual locations.
By 1 p.m. Friday traffic moved on the bridge, but southbound traffic backed up heavily for several miles into Fort Mill.
The Herald reported in February, well before SCDOT announced the project, that the bridge work would happen this month. That report noted SCDOT originally put the whole bridge, northbound and southbound lanes, out for bid but canceled it when only one bid came it and it was higher than the department budgeted. The northbound lanes will have to be resurfaced in a separate project.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
