Standing on the front porch of her home on South Second Street, Elizabeth O’Donnell can watch cars wind their way up the on-ramp onto the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

She doesn’t mind the sight of the traffic or its muffled noise. What worries O’Donnell, instead, is what could happen to her home as plans to replace the nearby Cape Fear Memorial Bridge start to finally move ahead.

A connector between Brunswick and New Hanover counties, the bridge carries more than 70,000 cars and trucks across the river each day, a number projected to grow to 100,000 by 2050.

Government officials, business leaders and residents across the Cape Fear region have pushed for years to replace the aging bridge, which was completed in 1969. The effort had faced funding headwinds until a few weeks ago when it received a $242 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant announcement brought Gov. Roy Cooper and Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt to Wilmington.

Before that, the project was essentially unfunded, save for a few million dollars allocated toward a feasibility and environmental study, said Mike Kozlosky, executive director of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO). The recent transportation grant – the largest Kozlosky said the Cape Fear region has seen in his career with the organization – has given the bridge replacement renewed momentum.

“It’s made the project very real,” Kozlosky said. “It’s just a tremendous announcement.”

The funding covers half the estimated $484 million cost of a fixed-span replacement bridge with 135-foot vertical clearance above the Cape Fear River – one of three identified design options.

A second alternative would more closely model the current bridge, which has a movable span, 65-foot vertical clearance when closed and 135-foot clearance when open. According to Kozlosky, a third option being considered is a fixed-span bridge with 100-foot vertical clearance, plus or minus 35 feet.

N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) officials opted to use the 135-foot, fixed-span option in grant applications because it’s “standard practice” for the department to replace moveable spans with fixed spans to “reduce long-term maintenance costs,” according to a department spokesperson. The 135-foot clearance is the current height of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge when fully raised.

O’Donnell said preliminary maps released by the NCDOT show the 135-foot option, and its ramps and surrounding infrastructure could take out her home before passing over nearby neighborhoods and landing at Fifth Avenue.

That deeper reach into the neighborhood – an area listed on the National Register of Historic Districts – is what concerns O’Donnell and Historic Wilmington Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on advocacy, education and preservation.

“Commerce is great, a new bridge is needed, and we want the new bridge,” O’Donnell said. “I just don’t want them to unnecessarily affect neighborhoods because they need to go with a monster bridge.”

Natalie English, president and CEO of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, recently voiced support for a replacement that’s taller than the current Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. She cited another NCDOT study, from June 2022, that suggests “only slight adjustments at the intersection of Front Street.”

“The Chamber reassures the community that the project respects historic and business districts while paving the way for future growth and connectivity,” she wrote. “Any suggestion to the contrary is misinformation intended to stoke panic and fear.”

A NCDOT spokesperson recently said it’s too early in the project’s design phase to determine how it will impact neighborhoods.

“Once the design is refined, NCDOT will coordinate with the State Historic Preservation Office to assess effects,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to the Business Journal.

NCDOT officials are working on a planning document for the replacement and expect to determine the design, including its height and whether the bridge is a movable or fixed span, next summer, according to the department spokesperson.

Officials will determine the final design through a process involving agencies with an interest in the project’s impacts or the study area. This process includes 13 entities, including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, WMPO and the N.C. Historic Preservation Office, among others.

English said a taller replacement option could have economic benefits and help Wilmington keep up with “competitor communities” such as Charleston and Savannah.

“By investing in a higher structure today, we would essentially future proof a critical component of our region’s infrastructure, enhance the safety and navigation for larger ships, leave room for new types of tourist attractions within our community,” English wrote in an email to the Business Journal. “A larger bridge improves access for commuters who are coming to Wilmington for jobs, health care, entertainment and other amenities. As more and more people seek affordable housing options outside of New Hanover County, a larger bridge will be critical to maintain reasonable commute times for our workers.”

As planning progresses, O’Donnell has been a steadfast advocate for a shorter bridge that would mirror the footprint of the current Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

She’s sent letters, emails and cards adorned with a photo of her home to officials at all levels –Cooper, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, members of the Wilmington City Council and the U.S. Coast Guard. Historic Wilmington Foundation and Residents of Old Wilmington have also opposed the 135-foot, fixed replacement.

Isabelle Shepherd, Historic Wilmington Foundation’s interim director, recently submitted a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard urging the entity to recommend a bridge with a vertical clearance of no greater than 100 feet and “give serious consideration” to whether a 65-foot bridge would meet current navigational needs.

Shepherd argues that a shorter bridge wouldn’t affect commercial vessels because they seldom travel under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Her letter cites lift logs that show 69 vessels made calls for bridge lifts in 2023, and 67 of the calls were for sailboats. The last commercial terminal upriver from the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge was Kinder Morgan, which relocated its terminal south of the bridge last year. Shepherd said the depth of the river channel would likely limit future commercial traffic under the bridge.

She worries a new bridge could lead to the demolition or neglect of contributing historic structures, which could shrink the historic district.

“We would like to avoid the demolition of an entire city block, an overpass stretching above South Third and South Fourth streets landing on South Fifth Avenue with all of that bridge traffic that that roadway is not designed to accommodate,” Shepherd said.

The final design process will include opportunities for public comment, Kozlosky said.

As planning moves forward, WMPO members will continue working with NCDOT officials to identify funding for the full cost of the bridge replacement. In addition to the $242 million grant, NCDOT has allocated $85 million toward the project in a State Transportation Improvement Program set to be adopted next June.

N.C. Department of Transportation officials have also applied for two more federal grants.
The Mega Grant Program aims to support large, complex projects that are often difficult to fund by other means, while the INFRA grant program offers funding for “multimodal freight and highway projects of national or regional significance,” according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website.

State transportation leaders expect to find out whether the project will receive that grant money by the end of the year.

The outcome of those grants and other funding sources will help determine whether the bridge could see a much-debated toll, Kozlosky said. Following a heated discussion earlier this year, members of the WMPO directed transportation officials to explore all options – including a toll – for the replacement of the bridge. The move helped the replacement rank substantially higher – among NCDOT’s top 10 highest-scored projects for funding.

“I don’t think anybody wants this to be a toll project,” Kozlosky said, “however, we’re going to continue to explore the funding options in order to deliver the project.”

That could include funding from grants, the State Transportation Improvement Plan and other pots of money within the Department of Transportation, Kozlosky said, but an exact path to funding has yet to be determined.