Downtown Asheville streets to close temporarily for NC DOT paving, pothole fixes

ASHEVILLE – Nighttime navigation through some of downtown's busiest streets will be a little trickier and require a little more planning starting next week.

That's when sections of U.S. 25 (Broadway Street and Biltmore Avenue) will be temporarily closed for resurfacing in order to remedy potholes caused by the aging asphalt.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation in collaboration with the city has released construction plans designed to create minimal impact on Asheville businesses, residents and visitors. The closures will begin May 31, with limited parking availability beginning May 30.

These roads, which lead motorists through downtown Asheville, will undergo construction in four quadrants. Each quadrant will be closed for two consecutive nights (excluding Fridays and Saturdays) for a period of time from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning. This will allow one night for milling the existing pavement, and a second for placing new asphalt and restriping the road to replicate current patterns.

Jody Lawrence, NCDOT Division 13 Assistant Construction Engineer, spoke to the benefits of the construction that will take place.

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“Asphalt flexes and moves with the season. So over time it melts and cracks,” Lawrence said. “Part of the goal is to replace that periodically with a smoother surface that eliminates water infiltration to the subgrade below and creates potholes.”

Drivers and pedestrians should keep in mind that on-street parking will be restricted the day that operations are scheduled to begin. Parking spaces will be blocked off as they open, and will remain unavailable until the work is complete. Pedestrian access to businesses along the corridor will not be impeded. Drivers can access a list of nearby parking decks and garages on the NCDOT website in order to organize alternative parking.

The timeline for closures provided by the NCDOT is as follows:

• May 31 and June 1: From the I-240 exit ramp to College Street.

• June 4 and 5: From West Walnut Street to Eagle Street.

• June 6 and 7: From Patton Avenue to Hilliard Avenue

• June 11 and 12: From Aston Street to South Charlotte Street

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In the event of weather-based delays, updates to this schedule will be made to the associated news release on the NCDOT website.

Detours for each affected route will be marked with signs to guide motorists, with Lexington Avenue and Charlotte Street serving most of this traffic. The graphics below provide more detailed looks at locations of the closures so that drivers may plan accordingly.

The resurfacing operation is part of a $3.1 million contract with Rogers Group of Greer, S.C., to resurface U.S. 25 from Beaverdam Road to Southside Avenue, and other roads in Asheville.

“This plan allows the contractor to resurface the road for the first time in more than 25 years while allowing businesses to operate as usual,” Lawrence said in the May 19 NCDOT news release. “Working a few blocks at a time provides all the necessary safety components, maximizes the contractor’s resources, lessens business interruption and reduces impacts to all modes of transportation.”

Iris Seaton is the Citizen Times News Reporting Intern.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville downtown streets to close nightly for paving, pothole fix