A section of Hillsborough Street will soon close for several months in West Raleigh
Hillsborough Street is scheduled to close at Blue Ridge Road for several months starting Saturday, March 4, as the building of an underpass reaches a new phase.
Contractors are putting the finishing touches on a new connector road that will allow drivers to go between Hillsborough and Blue Ridge on the east and north sides of the intersection. But come Saturday at 9 p.m., through traffic on Hillsborough will be blocked, as will traffic to or from Blue Ridge on the west side of the intersection.
Blue Ridge has already been closed south of the intersection. Now drivers who would normally cross Blue Ridge on Hillsborough will be directed onto Wade Avenue or Edwards Mill Road.
The closure is expected to last about about six months. It’s part of two-year effort by the N.C. Department of Transportation to build an underpass that will carry Blue Ridge Road under Hillsborough Street, Beryl Road and the N.C. Railroad tracks, which all meet at the southeast corner of the State Fairgrounds.
The project entails not only digging down for the new section of Blue Ridge but also building new parallel bridges for Hillsborough, Beryl and the railroad tracks. To go from Blue Ridge to Hillsborough and vice versa, drivers will use the connector road that will open this weekend in the northeast corner of the intersection, near the N.C. State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
NCDOT and its primary contractor, Lane Construction Corp., hope to get the work on Hillsborough finished and the road reopened before this fall’s N.C. State University football season and the State Fair in October.
The underpass will replace the complex set of signals that have managed traffic where three roads and the railroad tracks come together. Work got underway in earnest at the close of last fall’s State Fair, when Blue Ridge Road was closed at the railroad tracks. Contractors are building a parallel set of tracks that trains will use while a bridge is built.
This weekend’s closure of Hillsborough Street was originally scheduled to take place before more than 55,000 fans watched the Carolina Hurricanes play the Washington Capitals at nearby Carter-Finley Stadium. Poor weather contributed to delays that kept the intersection open that weekend.
This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 1:05 PM with the headline "A section of Hillsborough Street will soon close for several months in West Raleigh."
