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Leaphart Road Bridge in West Columbia scheduled to open Friday (Jan. 26)

January 22, 2018|admin@westmetro_news|Comments Off on Leaphart Road Bridge in West Columbia scheduled to open Friday (Jan. 26)|

The Leaphart Road Bridge over I-26 in West Columbia is scheduled to open Friday (Jan. 26.) according to the SCDOT.

Chris Drive (on the Columbia side of the bridge) south of Leaphart Road, will also reopen Friday.

“There is still quite a bit of coordination required this week with various subcontractors that are necessary at this stage of the construction process, but we’re currently on track for a Friday opening, most likely toward the end of the day,” said Robert Power, Resident Construction Engineer for the SCDOT.

But the north side of Chris Drive will be closed Friday and Harbor Drive, north of Leaphart Road on the other side of the bridge, from Chris Drive, will remained closed.
The closings are necessary to allow for the roads to be raised to the new height to connect to the newly elevated Leaphart Road Bridge.

Leaphart is a heavily traveled road. A total of 10,000 cars used the bridge every day before it was taken out of service. The bridge is on the road that connects Highway 378 to US 1.
The bridge was closed permanently on March 24 after being deemed structurally unsafe. Motorists who relied on the road are taking detours and alternate routes to Sunset Boulevard and US 1.

Initially, the bridge was not expected to be finished until late 2018, but the schedule to repair and reopen it, was expedited because of the emergency close down of the roadway.
Meanwhile, construction on the Rainbow Drive bridge over I-26 in Springdale was closed and construction on the bridge began in September of 2016.
When the bridge was closed, the SCDOT reported that the end date on the bridge replacement would be Nov. 30, 2018.
Because the bridge is down, a 2.84 mile detour was put in place. Signs posted direct motorists around the road closure by using Platt Springs Road and Wattling Road.


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