WILMINGTON – The state will accelerate the completion of the Hampstead Bypass, a long-anticipated freeway that will make travel in the Wilmington area safer and faster.
The N.C. Department of Transportation plans to award a contract in summer 2020 on these two related projects:
- Constructing the U.S. 17 Hampstead Bypass – 13 miles from the U.S. 17 Wilmington Bypass to north of the town of Hampstead, or shown as red on this map.
- Converting a 5.5-mile stretch of U.S. 17 in Hampstead into a “superstreet,” which uses medians to redirect right turns from side roads and business driveways.
The NCDOT had previously scheduled to start construction on the superstreet in 2021, followed by the Hampstead Bypass in 2025. Together, the Hampstead Bypass and the superstreet will cost an estimated $314 million to design and build. Both projects will enhance how people and goods move in the region.
“These two projects will have a huge impact in our area, not only for tourism and economic development, but they will vastly improve the safety of people traveling through the Hampstead area,” said Karen Collette, the department’s Highway Division 3 Engineer.
The new bypass, which will stretch over parts of New Hanover and Pender counties, will offer other important advantages. When completed, people will be able to travel without stopping between north of Hampstead and south of Leland in Brunswick County. And the new route will offer an alternate when crashes temporarily close U.S. 17 in Hampstead.
The department is building more and more superstreets across the state because they improve safety and have been shown to reduce vehicle crashes by 50 percent. A superstreet uses raised medians and other designs to reduce the risk of crashes and improve the traffic flow of congested corridors with high crash rates.
The department last week identified the Hampstead Bypass as one of 138 regional projects that will be planned for construction in the forthcoming 2020-2029 State Transportation Improvement Program, which relies on a data-driven process to prioritize which projects are built first in the state. The project was accelerated, in part, because it received support from the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization, which represents local planning and transportation needs.
To reduce congestion during construction, the department plans to complete and open the new bypass before beginning work on reconstructing U.S. 17 within Hampstead.