On Tuesday, Jan. 29, North Carolina Department of
Transportation resident engineer, Kerry Cross, held a conference call with
Wrightsville Beach Mayor David Cignotti, town manager Tim Owens and police
chief Dan House to discuss traffic plans for the constricted Heide Trask
Drawbridge during warm weekends.
As a result of the congested traffic during an unseasonably
warm weekend of January, town hall received numerous complaints about the wait
time at the bridge, which was up to an hour for some.
During the conference call on Tuesday, the parties decided
that before future warm weekends before the four lanes of the drawbridge are
open in early April, the town would contact the city of Wilmington about the
increasing the timing intervals for traffic signals west of the bridge to
Military Cutoff Road.
During the weekend, officers from the Wrightsville Beach
Police Department will direct traffic and control merging movements east of the
bridge. Also, the officers will be stationed at the intersection of Airlie Road
and Wrightsville Avenue to prevent left turns out of and into Airlie Road.
