Wrightsville Beach's Bridge Work Starts at Lees Cut, and The Loop Feels It First

The first visible piece of the Wrightsville Beach bridge replacement is small. Erosion-control devices went in along West Salisbury Street, materials started arriving, and signs went up near Pelican Drive. They announced that the westbound shoulder near the Lees Cut bridge would close starting October 27 so crews could move utility lines. WECT reported that the easternmost Pelican Drive access to West Salisbury Street may be affected.

That shoulder closure is the start of a project the North Carolina Department of Transportation lists as HB-0040. It is estimated at $105 million and will replace three bridges: the two West Salisbury Street spans over Lees Cut and Banks Channel, and the South Banks Channel bridge on Causeway Drive. Most coverage has focused on traffic and the drawbridge. For someone who already lives here, the bigger change over the next few years is on foot. The Loop loses access first, and when the work is done, the new bridges give it wider paths.

What the drawbridge change actually changes

The headline sounds disruptive: the Heide Trask Drawbridge will open only on the hour. In August the Coast Guard published a proposed rule in the Federal Register. It would open the S.R. 74 bridge for all vessels, commercial and recreational, on the hour from 12:01 a.m. on November 1, 2026, through 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2030.

Compare that with the current schedule in the same notice. Pleasure boats already wait for the top of the hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Today, the bridge opens on signal only for pleasure boats at night and for commercial vessels at any hour. For a daytime trip from a Harbor Island dock, the wait stays the same. What changes is the overnight window for pleasure boats and the standing on-demand access for commercial traffic. Even there, the proposal exempts towing, dredging, marine construction and navigation-aid vessels that can't adjust to an hourly opening.

The Coast Guard gives a clear reason. Lane reductions on the two nearby bridges will push more traffic onto S.R. 74, and fewer openings keep the cars moving. The rule is there to protect road traffic, and boats wait a little longer as a result.

Two details on timing are still open. The Town's August 31 Bridge Replacement Committee minutes record a verbal agreement that hourly openings would begin when the Lees Cut bridge closes, which may not be November 1. The committee's October 5 agenda still listed the Coast Guard's written approval as pending.

Where the change lands: The Loop

Visitor guides put The Loop at roughly two and a half miles. The Wilmington and Beaches CVB calls it a three-mile loop. Either way, it is a wide sidewalk that starts at the Causeway Drive entrance and wraps along North Lumina. It turns onto Salisbury Street over Banks Channel and comes back to Causeway, passing Wrightsville Beach Park on the way. At a steady pace, a full lap takes about an hour.

At the October 5 committee meeting, residents heard that access to The Loop will be restricted once crews begin building the new bridge over Lees Cut. WECT reported that the Town plans to share dates for the closure as they become available. Drivers have a firm promise: at least two travel lanes in each direction for the life of the project, plus police, fire and EMS staff stationed on both sides of the work zones. No one has published an equivalent guarantee for walkers, so for the people who do daily laps, the restriction on The Loop is the change to watch.

The committee chair, Neal Andrew, described the goal in WECT's report:

"I feel it's important to make sure my neighbors, my friends, and business owners are as prepared as possible for the upcoming work that will be disruptive, but we are trying to minimize those disruptions."

One more pedestrian change is coming at the Causeway Drive, Waynick Boulevard and North Lumina Avenue intersection. In July the Town proposed dual left-turn lanes from Waynick onto Causeway, a relocated crosswalk, signal upgrades and sidewalk work, with construction possibly starting as early as fall and schedules still to be announced. In August the committee heard that the design was 95 percent complete. The Town expects to pay the estimated $500,000 cost on its own. The Waynick and North Lumina corner sits on The Loop's route, so walkers will meet that crosswalk change too.

The order of closures, and the date nobody has pinned down

According to the August 31 minutes, here is the plan the Town's transportation consultant described:

1. Lees Cut bridge closes first. That phase was expected to run 9 to 12 months, with utility relocation happening on the other bridges at the same time.
2. Then the Salisbury Street bridge over Banks Channel closes. Work on its replacement begins alongside construction of a new bridge next to the existing Causeway span.
3. Salisbury reopens at about the same time the new Causeway section is finished.
4. Completion: NCDOT is now hopeful the program will wrap up in 2030 instead of 2032.

The start of step one is still uncertain. The same minutes scheduled the Lees Cut closure for October–November 2026. NCDOT's project page, last updated September 3, says construction on the smaller Lees Cut bridge should begin by the end of 2026. It also says the bridge will not close to traffic for replacement "until after Labor Day," without naming a year. NCDOT's official completion range still reads 2030–32, and its timeline notes that future dates may change. WilmingtonBiz reported the same "after Labor Day" wording in August.

The closure date matters because it sets the timing for the Loop restriction and, under the verbal Coast Guard agreement, for hourly openings too. The next committee meeting is November 9 at 10 a.m. in the Wrightsville Beach Public Safety Building conference room. The committee states on its own agenda that it is not the official source of project information and that it passes along what it is given. NCDOT is the official source, and its project page offers email and text updates.

Flotilla weekend arrives inside the work window

The first major event of the construction period comes at the end of this month. The North Carolina Holiday Flotilla runs November 27–29:

The CVB's event listing places Saturday's festival at Wrightsville Beach Park, 1 Bob Sawyer Drive, with more than 100 vendors and an antique-car show. That puts a 100-plus-vendor festival in the park on The Loop during a stretch when work at Lees Cut may have started. The committee has already contacted some special-event coordinators and lists both "normal events" and "special events" among its open issues. Any changes to parking, walking routes or timing should come out of that process, most likely around the November 9 meeting.

What The Loop gets at the end

When the work is done, the new bridges will add no travel lanes for cars. NCDOT's project highlights show the new space going to people on foot and on bikes:

• Causeway Drive bridge: a 12-foot multi-use path on the north side and a 6-foot bike lane in each direction.
• Both West Salisbury Street bridges: a 12-foot multi-use path on the south side and two 6-foot bike lanes.

The Loop crosses the water on Salisbury Street over Banks Channel, so its own route picks up one of those 12-foot paths. How the bridges look is still being decided. NCDOT pays for a standard replacement. Extras such as decorative street lighting, concrete stamping, decorative facades or rails would be the Town's to fund. The Town was getting cost estimates, and the Board of Aldermen will decide.

The cost breakdown reflects how crowded this ground is. Of the $105 million estimate, $70.8 million is for construction and $32.2 million is for property acquisition, compared with $2 million for utilities. Almost a third of the budget goes to buying the land needed for wider spans in the middle of town.

At Sherwood Strickland Group, Sherwood's construction and development background means we follow projects like this one phase by phase, for neighbors and for clients whose daily routes cross these bridges. If you'd like to talk through how the Lees Cut schedule, the Loop restriction or the hourly drawbridge openings affect a property you own or are considering, request a Red Carpet Consultation and we'll keep you current as dates firm up.