NCDOT: Rockingham bypass 65% completed

ROCKINGHAM — The Rockingham Bypass (Future I-74/74) is about 65% completed, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation resident engineer Cary Fine.

The project has a projected completion date of May 2025. After the project was awarded in the fall of 2019, it had a projected completion date of November 2023, although this was pushed back due to design changes and material shortages.

“We are currently on on schedule to meet this May 2025 date and open the road to traffic,” Fine said in an email.

The project, initially slated to begin in 2026, was accelerated to begin construction in November of 2019, as part of the Department of Transportation’s 2020-29 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

The $145 million project will continue from I-73 and reconnect with U.S. 74 at the interchange between U.S. 74 and U.S. 74 Business, south of Old Charlotte Highway. This bypass will create interstate from Winston-Salem nearly all the way to Wilmington, with Richmond County at the center.

Vecellio & Grogan Inc. of Beckley, West Virginia was awarded the contract in 2019 with the low-bid of $146.1 million. The bypass will be 7.2 miles long. Overall, the total cost of the project is funded for $278 million, at an estimated total cost of $308 million.

According to NCDOT, the bypass is “expected to reduce congestion by removing interstate traffic from signalized intersections, local roads, and highways. As a secondary benefit, the project may improve safety within Rockingham by providing a main route for continuous through travel for passenger vehicles and trucks.”

Section C of the project, from north of Harrington Road to the US 220 interchange south of Ellerbe, began in February 2014 and was completed in September of 2019.

Richmond County Tourism Director Meghann Lambeth pointed out that the bypass will create a “smoother route” for travelers who are en route to the coast, also adding that the state of North Carolina is the number one vacation destination for residents from northern states according a market analysis presented at the 2022 Visit NC conference in Durham.

In a 2019 Daily Journal article, then-Richmond County state senator Tom McInnis said the project is a result of decades of preparation and that the “economic benefits are tremendous.” In the same article, Rockingham City Manager Monty Crump called the bypass a “long-term positive.”

A feasibility study evaluating four initial alternatives for this interstate connector was published in May 1996 and a preliminary public hearing was held in July 1996. Two of those options were selected considering feedback from local citizens, government groups and resource agencies, and a public hearing on the two routes was held in July 1999.

The Finding of No Significant Impact, which found the Rockingham Bypass would not have a significant impact on the environment, was signed by NCDOT and the Federal Highway Administration in February 2002, according to NCDOT.