CHARLOTTE — More than two and a half years have passed since people have been able to cross the Hawthorne Lane Bridge in Elizabeth.
CATS has previously said the bridge will open by March 22 but announced Thursday that it won’t be finished until late July or early August.
[ READ MORE: Streetcar project to be complete by end of year, CATS CEO says ]
After years of delays, CATS told Channel 9 last month it was confident the bridge will open by March 22. But we visited the very active construction site Monday and found there still is a lot of work left to finish.
Eyewitness News reached out to CATS on Friday, asking about the deadline. Officials said they would provide an update on the project on Monday. It wasn’t until Thursday that they released a new timeline.
Drivers, neighbors and business owners have complained about the massive traffic nightmare that the project has caused for nearly 1,000 days, and they’re fed up with the botched construction.
“This street has been under construction for three years, digging in, digging out, repaving, holes. It’s been awful,” neighbor Sherri Beaver said. “I was hopeful, really thought if they got it going, we could be done by March or April.”
Beaver said she has been a longtime resident of Elizabeth, going on nearly 35 years. She said she was excited about the project when CATS started it back in 2017, but now she just wants it over with.
Crews stopped work last year because the contractor ordered the wrong size girders for the bridge. The project was put on hold for eight months until new girders could be made and replaced in September.
[ ALSO READ: Neighbors losing patience with Charlotte streetcar construction ]
They were then supposed to work on the bridge deck. Channel 9 was told crews needed to make some minor adjustments several months ago before putting in the pavement, but even that hasn’t happened yet.
One neighbor told Channel 9′s Anthony Kustura that even on beautiful days, they could not see anyone working on the bridge.
“If you’re a year late on a project, you think you’d have a little more urgency,” neighbor Hunter Kerley said.
[ RELATED: Elizabeth neighbors exhausted after latest bridge construction delay ]
When it is completed, modern streetcars will connect Johnson C. Smith University to Plaza Midwood using the 10-mile Gold Line Extension crossing the bridge.
Neighbors are anxious for that to happen, but for now, they said it is just a distant dream.
“It would like to see the bridge get finished,” Beaver said. “I would love to see the trolley tracks get laid so that the construction could just get out of here.”
CATS released the following statement about why the project has been delayed:
At this time, City staff believe that three primary issues have caused the contractor to extend the bridge schedule include, but are not limited to:
- The contractor’s ability to acquire materials needed for industry standard field adjustments to the girders
- The contractor’s ability to maintain work schedules that they submit to the City
- Lane closure restrictions on U.S. 74 Independence Boulevard due to holidays, special events and inclement weather
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