Wrightsville Beach's Smallest Bridge Sets the Island's Schedule for Years

When does the West Salisbury Street bridge over Lees Cut close? As of this week, NCDOT hasn't said. A lot of things that matter to daily life on Wrightsville Beach depend on that date anyway. They include how often the Heide Trask drawbridge opens, what the Loop looks like and which events stay on the island at Thanksgiving. The Lees Cut bridge is the shortest of the three bridges being replaced, and it goes first. Its closure starts a sequence that NCDOT now hopes to finish in 2030.

Right now, the work is on Pelican Drive

The first visible phase isn't a closure. WECT reported on Oct. 1 that NCDOT gave Balfour Beatty an $8.67 million contract for Phase 1, which covers the new Lees Cut bridge and relocating waterlines. The waterline crews were set to start in October and take about four to six weeks. Residents should expect to see construction equipment on Pelican Drive and the shoulder of West Salisbury Street, and NCDOT doesn't expect any traffic impact during this stage.

The bridge closes to traffic once that work is finished. WECT reported that the official closure date "will be announced at a later time." The best guide to the window comes from the Town's Bridge Replacement Committee. At its Aug. 31 meeting, the committee heard that Lees Cut would close first, sometime in October or November 2026, and that the work would take 9 to 12 months. If the waterline crews hold to four to six weeks from an October start, the closure would come in late fall at the earliest. The holidays start around then too.

The drawbridge schedule depends on the Lees Cut closure

The Lees Cut closure matters most to people who never drive over it. The Aug. 31 committee minutes say NCDOT and the Coast Guard reached a verbal agreement on the Heide Trask bridge:

"the Heidi Trask bridge openings would occur only at the top of the hour beginning with the closure of the Lee's Cut bridge."

The Coast Guard put the formal version in a proposed rule in the Federal Register on Aug. 27. The bridge would open on the hour for all vessels from 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2026, through 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2030. The proposal carves out an exception for commercial vessels doing towing, dredging, marine construction or navigation-aid maintenance that can't make an hourly opening because of operational constraints. Those vessels could ask for an opening with at least 30 minutes' notice. Emergency openings would need at least 10 minutes' notice.

That's a proposal, though, not a final order. The committee's Oct. 5 agenda still says NCDOT has verbal Coast Guard approval and is "waiting official written approval." A Nov. 1 start on the hourly schedule is likely but not yet official.

The order of closures

After Lees Cut, the work doesn't let up. The committee minutes lay out a chain of overlapping phases:

The June 15 committee minutes say at least one travel lane in each direction will stay open on Causeway the whole time. The new Causeway bridge will also sit about four feet higher at its center than the current one. The minutes also say boat traffic will keep moving throughout the project. By Aug. 31, NCDOT was hoping to finish in 2030 instead of 2032.

The faster schedule comes from how the project is being delivered. NCDOT's project page says it's using a construction manager/general contractor approach. Under that approach the contractor comes on early, which NCDOT says could finish the project up to two years sooner than first planned. NCDOT estimates the total cost at $105 million.

The Loop's redesign got pulled forward too

The faster bridge schedule changed the Town's plans for the John T. Nesbitt Loop. In October 2025, the Town asked firms to submit qualifications for a Loop expansion. That request for qualifications describes the Loop as roughly 2.45 miles of five-foot sidewalk, "used daily by thousands of residents and visitors weekly," with a worn goat path running beside much of it. It also notes that the Loop crosses all three NCDOT bridges slated for replacement. At the time, the document said the bridge work was set to begin "sometime in 2028." Construction is now expected to start by the end of 2026, so the Loop plan has about two fewer years to come together.

The RFQ project area covers:

• Causeway Drive from Salisbury Street to Coral Drive
• A multiuse path from Causeway Drive through Wrightsville Beach Park, connecting to the existing path by the tennis and pickleball courts
• West Salisbury Street from Causeway Drive to the Kenan's Creek Bridge
• The stretch of West Salisbury between the Kenan's Creek and Banks Channel bridges

The goals listed are a wider trail, moving walkers farther from cars, better ADA access, more benches and water fountains, and tying into NCDOT's bike and pedestrian improvements on the new bridges.

On Sept. 29, outside funding followed. The New Hanover Community Endowment announced a $1.5 million grant to add to the Town's own spending on Phase I of the Loop improvements. The grant will help "maintain a walking route during the N.C. Department of Transportation's three-year bridge replacement project" and pay for planning and design of a wider, fully accessible Loop. In June, the Town Manager told the bridge committee that the Town was also planning a multiuse path to use while the bridges are under construction. That path was still in preliminary design. The route walkers will take once Lees Cut closes hasn't been published yet.

The Town wants the Causeway intersection finished first

The Town is also racing the bridge schedule on one intersection. The Town is paying for its own project at Causeway Drive, Waynick Boulevard and North Lumina Avenue. The plan adds dual left-turn lanes from Waynick onto Causeway, moves the crosswalk across Causeway Drive at Wynn Plaza to the opposite side of the intersection and upgrades the signals and some sidewalk and roadway. In its July 16 project update, the Town said the project isn't part of NCDOT's work but is meant to coordinate with it. It estimated the total cost at $568,000. At the Aug. 31 meeting, the committee heard that design was 95% complete, with an estimate of about $500,000 paid for entirely by the Town. The Town's own goal, stated in June, was to finish it "before the bridge projects begin." In July, the Town said construction could start as early as this fall and that it would announce a schedule once it was final. The Oct. 5 agenda lists more edits to the intersection design.

The holiday calendar has already changed

The clearest early sign of the construction years is a race leaving the island. Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity's Turkey Trot ran on Wrightsville Beach for 21 years, with a course around the Loop. This Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, it moves to Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park downtown, Port City Daily reported. Organizers said the race had outgrown the island and that construction road closures could make race day hard to run. They also said it will stay downtown for the whole bridge project. With registration topping 3,000 runners each year, the downtown site gives it room to grow. Free downtown parking on Thanksgiving Day helps too.

The two events right after it are still listed on the island:

1. Wrightsville Beach Tree Lighting, Friday, Nov. 27. Wrightsville Beach Parks & Recreation lists the Elf Patrol at 5:30 p.m., Santa at 5:45 p.m. and the Wilmington Celebration Choir at 6 p.m., with free admission, at the Town's 321 Causeway Drive address. Details are on the event listing.
2. NC Holiday Flotilla, Saturday, Nov. 28. The Festival in the Park runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the boat parade and fireworks start at 6 p.m. Wrightsville Beach Parks & Recreation is the organizer, and the listing says more details will be added closer to the date.

Both fall in the window the committee gave in August for the Lees Cut closure. On the flotilla's date, the proposed hourly drawbridge schedule would be four weeks old, if the Coast Guard makes it final as proposed. The committee's list of issues to plan for names "normal events" and "special events" next to emergencies, deliveries and evacuation. Both organizer listings are worth checking again the week of each event.

Where the closure date will come from

The Oct. 5 agenda says the bridge committee is "not the official source of project information" and passes along what it's told. The official date will come from NCDOT. Its project page has email and text alert signups. The Town's bridge FAQ and its newsletter, which ran a bridge bulletin in September, cover the local side. The committee's agendas and minutes are posted in the Town's Agenda Center.

Questions about bridge timing come up more and more when people are deciding where on the island, or how close to it, they want to be. If you'd like to talk through how the construction years might affect your plans on Wrightsville Beach, I'm glad to help you sort out the timing with Kristen Dunn. Let's Connect.