Cape Fear River rail bridges in N.C. getting closer to reality

Progress continues to be made on a pair of railroad bridges that will be built across the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

The city of Wilmington has included the spans in its rail realignment project that will connect the Port of Wilmington with a rail yard in Navassa. The realignment will eliminate 32 crossings. The preferred new rail route begins at the Port of Wilmington and goes north along South Front Street before crossing Cape Fear River just south of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. The line ends at the Navassa rail yard west of U.S. 421.

The new spans will be bascule bridges. One bridge will be 9 ft above mean high water and the other will be 20 ft above the high water level. The project is estimated to cost $760 million.

The U.S. Coast Guard is in the process of completing a Preliminary Navigational Clearance Determination. The initial determination could be released in the next few weeks.

The project also is going through a federal environmental review process, and the project design phase is expected to be 30% complete in mid-2023.

The project actually began back in 2014 and a feasibility and screening study was completed a few years later.

Read more articles on rail bridges.