SMITHFIELD – A project to extend and
widen Booker Dairy Road in Smithfield will start this spring, after the N.C.
Department of Transportation awarded a $13.2 million contract in January.
Crews for Branch Civil Inc. of Roanoke, Va., will widen the
existing two-lane road into four lanes with a raised median between Buffalo Road
and just east of Bradford Street. From there, they will extend the four lanes
eastward onto a new location, paralleling the existing Booker Dairy Road, before
connecting with Ava Gardner Avenue at the Walmart.
Ava Gardner Avenue is now a dead end, but it will be improved as
part of this project and get a traffic signal where it intersects with North
Brightleaf Boulevard (U.S. 301).
“We are widening this road to four lanes to ease congestion. The
new location will minimize impacting residential areas and open more land to new
development,” said Ryan Beamer, an NCDOT resident engineer for the Division 4
office in Smithfield.
During construction, two-way traffic will be maintained on the
existing portion of Booker Dairy Road.
The project is expected to be completed by fall 2019.
The project is a continuation of earlier work that extended Booker
Dairy Road east of U.S. 70 Business, also called West Market Street.
Contact: Andrew Barksdale
919-707-2662
acbarksdale@ncdot.gov