On race morning last October, the IRONMAN 70.3 traffic plan closed Causeway Drive from Waynick Boulevard to the drawbridge from 5:15 to 10 a.m. It sent drivers to Lumina Avenue and Salisbury Street instead. When Causeway is closed, Salisbury carries the traffic. That is the road the North Carolina Department of Transportation will close first.

Phase 1 of the $105 million replacement of three Wrightsville Beach bridges starts with the West Salisbury Street bridge over Lees Cut. Building it means closing West Salisbury Street from Lookout Harbor to the eastern entrance of Pelican Drive. Causeway Drive keeps two lanes in each direction. Until the new bridges are finished, more of the island's coming and going will run through one corridor, and probably through one drawbridge schedule too.

Phase 1 Takes Out the Redundancy Before It Touches Capacity

The project covers three spans along US 74 and US 76. Two are on West Salisbury Street, over Lees Cut and over Banks Channel. The third is the Causeway Drive bridge over Banks Channel. NCDOT is building them in a set order. Each phase changes a different part of the drive, and the order explains why the Salisbury closure matters more than its short length suggests.

In the first two phases, Causeway Drive keeps its full width while Salisbury Street is cut off over a longer and longer stretch. The Banks Channel bridge on Salisbury links Harbor Island to the middle and north end of Wrightsville Beach. So Phase 2 affects a main Harbor Island-to-beach route, and Phase 1 is only the start of that.

The town's FAQ says at least two travel lanes will stay open in each direction for the whole project. WECT repeated that line in its October 2 report. The more detailed phase plan that NCDOT laid out for WilmingtonBiz this August gives a narrower version. In Phase 3, it shows one lane each way on Causeway Drive and one lane each way on Salisbury Street. Counted across both roads, that is still two lanes in each direction. It just means Causeway alone stops carrying two each way once the third phase starts.

The Calendar Is Firmer Than It Was, but Not Final

NCDOT is building this project under a construction manager/general contractor contract. The department says that method could deliver the work up to two years earlier than first planned. In August, NCDOT's project lead told WilmingtonBiz the goal is to finish by spring 2030 and stressed that the date is a target that could change. The town's FAQ also says spring 2030. NCDOT's own project page still shows a completion window of 2030 to 2032.

The near-term dates are less clear than they look. NCDOT says construction on the Lees Cut bridge is expected to begin by the end of 2026. The same page says that bridge will not close to traffic until after Labor Day, and it does not say which year. The first scheduled closure is the only firm date so far. NCDOT flagging crews will close the westbound lane of West Salisbury Street near the Lees Cut bridge from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday, October 6, through Friday, October 9, for drilling and soil testing.

For the first time, the westbound Salisbury route will be restricted during working hours on four weekdays, which is a short preview of Phase 1.

The Drawbridge Change Mostly Affects Boats

The other half of the project is the Heide Trask drawbridge on US 74 over the Intracoastal Waterway. WECT reported that once active construction begins, the drawbridge will open only on the hour. That reads as a big change, but much of that schedule is already in place.

Pleasure boats already wait for the top of the hour from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The main change is for commercial traffic, which can now request an opening at any time. The Coast Guard says the goal is to ease car traffic on the bridge while the lane reductions on the two nearby bridges are in place. When construction ends, the bridge goes back to its normal schedule. For drivers, that means fewer unscheduled openings during the day.

The schedule is still a proposal. The Coast Guard published it on August 27, 2026, under docket USCG-2026-0758, and the comment period closed September 28. The federal regulation in effect as of October 1 had not changed. In July, a town committee agenda said NCDOT had given verbal approval to limit Heide Trask openings, with written approval still pending.

The docket also points to a question that is still open. The preamble describes hourly openings around the clock, but the proposed regulatory text applies the hourly schedule only from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. An anonymous comment filed September 28 raised that inconsistency. In another comment, Steven Singleton asked the Coast Guard to widen the 30-minute exception. He noted it leaves out charter, fishing, tour, ferry, and freight operators, and he asked the Coast Guard to reconsider the fixed end date. The final rule could look different, especially for night openings.

This Fall's Event Calendar Runs Along Causeway Drive

With Salisbury losing capacity, it matters where this fall's events are. Almost all of them are at Wrightsville Beach Park, 321 Causeway Drive, or on the race course.

1. Monday mornings through December 7. The Wrightsville Beach Farmers' Market runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its new 2026 location, the Wrightsville Beach Park softball field.
2. October 6 through 9. The westbound lane of West Salisbury Street near Lees Cut is closed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
3. Saturday, October 17. IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina begins with a rolling age-group swim start at 7:10 a.m. at Hanover Seaside Club. IRONMAN posted its 2026 traffic-impact plan for download on its race site, last updated August 28, 2026, and it is the document to check before race morning. In 2025, the plan also expected delays from 7 to 10:30 a.m. at Eastwood Road and Military Cutoff, with cyclists in a coned lane heading up Eastwood Road. That year's Causeway detour depended on Salisbury Street.
4. Saturday, October 24. The Seaside Shuffle 5K, organized by Wilmington Road Runners, starts and finishes at Wrightsville Beach Park and runs from 8 to 11 a.m.
5. Friday, October 30. Wrightsville Beach Parks & Recreation hosts Movies in the Park with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, 6:45 to 9 p.m., at Wrightsville Beach Park.
6. Sunday, November 1. This is the proposed start date for hourly drawbridge openings, if the Coast Guard finalizes the rule as published.
7. Saturday, November 14. The 13th annual Taste of Wrightsville Beach runs 5 to 8 p.m. at Bluewater Waterfront Grill, 4 Marina Street, and benefits Weekend Meals on Wheels.

None of these dates falls inside the October 6 to 9 work window. IRONMAN morning is the one to watch, because the 2025 race plan used Salisbury Street as the alternate route when Causeway Drive was closed.

What Comes Back at the End

When the project is finished, it adds features, not car lanes. The new bridges will not add travel lanes. Each span will have a 10- to 12-foot multi-use path and 6-foot dedicated bike lanes. The Causeway Drive bridge will be built in two halves. The first half goes up just north of the current bridge, traffic moves onto it, and then the old bridge comes down so the second half can be built. Boats can keep using the waterway the whole time.

Walkers and runners can expect changes before then. In March, the town committee chair said Wrightsville Beach was looking at "mini loops" or other pedestrian routes for the bridge closures while it worked on the 2.45-mile walking loop. The multi-use path on Causeway Drive is set to stay open through all three phases. Wrightsville Beach emergency officials have arranged for police, fire, and EMS crews to be stationed on both sides of the work zones at all times. NCDOT's project page has email and text sign-ups for updates, and that is where the Phase 1 closure date should appear first.

If the bridge schedule is part of how you're thinking about timing a sale, a renovation, or a move to the other side of Banks Channel, Jennifer Buske Young and the FreshNEST Homes team follow this project phase by phase and can help you plan around it. Book an Appointment and we'll go over how each phase lines up with your plans.