Crews have started widening a 1.5-mile stretch of Covered Bridge Road in Archer Lodge, kicking off a two-year construction project that will bring daily lane closures, brief traffic stoppages, and occasional overnight and weekend work to one of the town’s busiest corridors. The $12.3 million project stretches from west of Helena Lane to east of Buffalo Road, and drivers should expect it to remain a fixture of their commute until construction wraps up in summer 2028.
According to Johnston County Government, contract crews are beginning by relocating water lines, primarily along the left side of Covered Bridge Road for eastbound drivers, before roadwork itself gets underway. The road will remain open to two-way traffic for most of the project, and access to homes and businesses along the corridor will stay open throughout construction, per the same announcement. Raleigh-based Carolina Sunrock LLC was awarded the contract in May 2026 after submitting the lowest bid among seven competing firms, coming in 13% below the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s engineering estimate, according to NCDOT.
What’s Changing Along the Corridor
The project will widen Covered Bridge Road to three lanes, adding a dedicated center turn lane designed to cut down on rear-end collisions and ease bottlenecks at high-traffic rural intersections, NCDOT says. Beyond the turn lane, the plan calls for realigning South Murphrey Road and Archer Lodge Road into a single signalized intersection, installing a new signal at Castleberry Road, and adding turn lanes with an upgraded signal at Buffalo Road, the agency’s release states…