Last Updated on February 26, 2026 5:22 pm
BOONE – An N.C. Department of Transportation contractor will begin pouring the concrete bridge deck for a new bridge on N.C. 105 in Watauga County on Friday.
The concrete deck for the N.C. 105 bridge over the Watauga River will be poured in three sections over the next several weeks, weather dependent. Crews from Wright Brothers Construction started replacing the 71-year-old bridge in 2022.
“This is a crucial step toward improving the driving experience for motorists on one of Watauga County’s essential corridors,” said Ivan Dishman, construction engineer for Watauga and seven other counties in northwest North Carolina. “Our team has done everything they can to minimize the project’s impact to traffic.”
This work involves large equipment, which could require brief lane or road closures. Any closures should not last longer than 15 minutes, with flaggers and law enforcement officers directing traffic.
This is the first phase of the $48.7 million bridge replacement project, which involves crews building half of the bridge adjacent to the existing bridge. Once the first half of the bridge is built, crews will shift traffic to it, demolish the existing bridge and build the last half of the new bridge. The entire bridge replacement project is anticipated to finish in late 2027.
For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.
