New Bridge Opens Over Raleigh Beltline

0:00It's April 6th, from your city to your ears. This is Durham News Today, powered by AI. A brand new bridge just opened over the Raleigh Belt Line on Lygon Street, swapping out a sketchy one-lane tunnel that's been there since the early, 1960s. This spot on Interstate 440 used to be cars only. Squeezing under the highway between Hillsboro Street and Western Boulevard, now it's got two lanes plus sidewalks, making it easy for cars, trucks, buses, walkers, and bike riders to cross. The bridge hooks up North Carolina State University's main campus with key spots on the west side, like the JC Raulston Arboretum, research labs, and warehouses. Back in the day, that tunnel linked the method neighborhood to Oak Grove Cemetery, and NC State had fields and orchards over there before they built. It all out. Felt to drill through, remember the drill crawl, to a near stop, peak for headlights or shadows coming the other way. Total yield or crash vibes,

1:00it was narrow and low, demanding real driver courtesy just to make it across without drama. This upgrades part of a massive NCDOT push to widen the belt line from Wade Avenue to Interstate 40 and carry. That project's mostly wrapped, but there's still tweaking interchanges at Wade, Hillsboro, and Western. They shut the tunnel back in April 2022, pumped it full of concrete, and buried the ends under gravel to keep it from collapsing under. The road someday. Now the area's flowing smoother, bridging gaps that held folks back for decades.