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Engineers outline six options for Mackay Creek span; two-lane repair and three-lane rebuild cost estimates vary widely
Summary
County and DOT engineers reviewed six design and funding options for the Mackay Creek span, reporting recent two-lane repair and reconstruction estimates and noting a potential $30M'$50M incremental cost to add a third lane, subject to further DOT refinement.
Jared Freylix, presenting DOT technical options to Beaufort County Council, said engineers had developed six alternatives ranging from a limited two-lane like-for-like replacement to a full multi-lane rebuild stretching across the 278 corridor. He told the council the February three-lane option would have fit a previously assumed $300 million envelope, while a simplified two-lane replacement (now under consideration) recently had an updated DOT reconstruct estimate of about $90 million.
"They have presented us a letter... the cost to repair was about $50,000,000, and the cost to reconstruct as is 2 lanes was $90,000,000," Freylix said. On the possibility of adding a third lane at the Mackay span, he described a rough order-of-magnitude: "if 2 lanes cost a 100,000,000, then magnitude 3 lanes is somewhere between 30 to $50,000,000," and added that DOT engineers would provide a fine-tuned number.
Freylix also described schedule and traffic impacts: he said much of the work would be off alignment and nighttime tie-in work would be used to reduce daytime disruption, though he acknowledged the potential for "a couple weeks or so" of daytime closures in tie-ins. Staff confirmed $13 million already has been expended on preliminary engineering and NEPA and that impact fees and referendum funds were among potential local funding sources if the council chose to partner on added capacity.
