A new bridge opened across the Raleigh Beltline last week, at the spot where for decades cars — and only cars — passed under the highway through a low, narrow, one-lane tunnel.
The new Ligon Street bridge over Interstate 440 has two lanes with sidewalks on both sides, providing an option for cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Beltline between Hillsborough Street and Western Boulevard. The bridge connects N.C. State University’s main campus with several university buildings west of the Beltline, including the JC Raulston Arboretum.
The bridge replaces a tunnel that was built in the early 1960s when the highway was constructed as a bypass around Raleigh. The passage connected the Method neighborhood on the east side with the community’s Oak Grove Cemetery on the west. NCSU also had fields and orchards west of the highway on land that eventually became research labs, warehouses and the arboretum…