Dickinson avenue construction resumes after pause

Beginning on March 20, a construction crew will resume the construction project on Dickinson Avenue after almost one year since the original contractor abandoned the project in April of 2023.

According to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), NCDOT contractor Fred Smith Co. of Raleigh will begin work on the road this Wednesday. The contractor will begin Section 6 of the project, according to the release, near Atlantic Avenue and Ficklen Street. The stretch of road being worked on will not be accessible by drivers for the time being, according to the release.

There will be traffic detours through 14th Street and Evans Street. Pedestrians and drivers around this area should be careful around the site and its machinery, according to the release, and keep in mind the detours may affect commute times.

According to the release, the original contractor in charge of the Dickinson Avenue project left the construction site after completing section 1 and broke their contractual agreement with the NCDOT. The new contractor, Fred Smith Co. of Raleigh, will be taking on the same project that was paused in 2023, according to the release. Section 6 is the penultimate phase of the project, according to an NCDOT timeline on their website, and section 7 is expected to last from Spring 2025 to Fall 2025.

During January last year, the project manager of the Dickinson Avenue project, Sarah Lentine, explained the construction and its purpose to The East Carolinian. There are numerous things that are being updated on the surface of the road and below it, Lentine said.

“Currently Dickinson Avenue has some issues below the surface of the pavement that has continually caused some issues with potholing and issues with the pavement because of the underlying materials,” Lentine said.

The aging storm drains on Dickinson will be updated thanks to the project, according to the NCDOT website, and the construction crews will also improve curbs and gutters, repave the road, replace the water and sewer lines and replace the materials underneath the pavement like dirt, gravel and sand. Many of the changes should reduce flooding in the area, according to the website.

There are sidewalks on both sides of Dickinson between the Moye Boulevard and Hooker Road intersection to the intersection with Reade Circle, according to the website, but their width and quality is inconsistent, so the project will also redo these sidewalks.

Dickinson Avenue’s streetscape design will also undergo some changes during the project, according to the website, improving areas such as the Memorial Drive to 10th Street overpass and the 10th Street overpass to Reade Circle to accommodate pedestrian safety and on-street parking, and the City of Greenville has funded the construction of brick and concrete sidewalks from 10th Street overpass to Reade Circle.

Some extra changes to the streetscape, according to the website, include new crosswalks at the Dickinson Avenue and Reade Circle intersection, trees, decorative streetlights and new park areas at the intersections of Dickinson Avenue with Pitt Street and Clark Avenue.