Wrightsville Beach Loop Bridge Closure: What Changes at Lees Cut?

"Walking the loop here at the beach is certainly a big part daily life for residents and visitors and the town is actively figuring out a way to maintain some sort of loop during the bridge closures." Neal Andrew chairs the Wrightsville Beach Bridge Replacement Committee, and he told WWAY this in March. At that point the project was still in design, and construction was expected in spring 2028. That date no longer holds. Work on the first bridge started this month. The full John Nesbitt Loop now has a countdown, and it's set by a waterline crew rather than a calendar.

A circuit that depends on one small bridge

The Loop is a sidewalk route of about 2.5 miles. It starts at the town complex, runs down Causeway Drive, turns onto North Lumina Avenue, comes back up West Salisbury Street, and returns down Causeway to where it began. On the way it passes Wrightsville Beach Park, the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History on Salisbury, and the Arboretum's benches at the corner of Causeway Drive and Salisbury Street. Beach Access #29 sits along the Lumina stretch, and Johnnie Mercer's Pier is a couple of blocks off the route.

The weak point is on the return leg. West Salisbury Street crosses two bridges, one over Banks Channel and a smaller one over Lees Cut. The state is replacing both, plus the Causeway Drive span over Banks Channel. Lees Cut goes first. It's the smallest of the three, and its closure is the one that breaks the circuit. At the committee's community meeting on Oct. 5, the town said Loop access will be restricted once crews start building the Lees Cut bridge. It will share closure details when dates are set, according to WECT.

The countdown is a waterline

NCDOT is building the project in phases and negotiates each contract with the builder as the work moves forward. Balfour Beatty won the Phase 1 contract for $8.67 million, according to the NCDOT announcement, last updated Oct. 1, 2026. The contract sets the order of work:

1. Soil testing. Flagging crews closed the westbound lane of West Salisbury Street near the Lees Cut bridge from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, Tuesday, Oct. 6, through Friday, Oct. 9, for drilling and soil tests.
2. Waterline relocation. This was set to start in October and take four to eight weeks. Equipment will be on Pelican Drive and along the shoulder of West Salisbury Street, and most of the work stays out of the travel lanes.
3. Full closure. When the waterline is moved, West Salisbury Street over Lees Cut closes completely so the new bridge can be built. NCDOT will announce the official date once it's set.

If the four-to-eight-week estimate holds, the waterline work ends somewhere between November and December. The NCDOT project page expects work on the smaller bridge to start by the end of 2026. Until NCDOT names a closure date, though, the Loop's last full day can't be pinned down. What is clear is that the current stretch of weeks is the full circuit's final open window before construction, and it lands during the off-season.

What construction looks like from the sidewalk

Some details are settled. Town and state officials say at least two travel lanes will stay open in each direction for the whole multi-year project. Police, fire, and EMS will be stationed on both sides of the work zones at all times. Once active construction starts, the Heide Trask Drawbridge will open only on the hour to help control traffic onto the island.

The pedestrian plan is less settled. In March the town said it would create "mini loops" or other walking areas during construction. The committee discussed the idea again in October. No published source shows where those mini loops would go, how long they'd be, or when they'd open. Until the town releases a map, a mini loop is a commitment without a route.

The project is long. Coastal Review puts the total cost at about $105 million and expects completion between 2030 and 2032. In August, WilmingtonBiz reported a schedule with the Banks Channel phase in summer 2027, the Causeway phase in late 2028, and spring 2030 as a target rather than a promise. Whichever timeline proves right, the Lees Cut closure is the first of several years of changes to how people walk around town center.

What the Loop becomes afterward

The Loop's sidewalks are wide enough to pass other walkers on most of the route. They narrow at the Banks Channel bridges, as Wrightsville Beach Magazine has pointed out. Those narrow spots are exactly what's being replaced. The new bridges won't add car lanes. Each one will have a multi-use path 10 to 12 feet wide and a 6-foot bike lane.

So the stretches of today's Loop with the least room are getting the most new space. The town is also looking past the bridges. It has hired a contractor to study the Loop's design, lighting, and pedestrian safety. The contractor hasn't been named publicly, and no recommendations have been released. Wider bridge crossings combined with a redesign of the route between them could produce a different Loop by the 2030s. The decisions behind it are being made now.

Where those decisions get made this fall

Three public sessions before the end of November bear on the Loop. The Flotilla closes out the season beside it.

The two parks sessions are on the town calendar. They're about parks and recreation needs, not the bridges. Still, the Loop's main access point is the park, and the park offers free parking for the first two hours. The Nov. 9 committee meeting is the next set opportunity to hear about closure timing and pedestrian detours. NCDOT also sends email updates to anyone who signs up on the project webpage. The closure notice will most likely arrive that way first.

The Flotilla listing says a public tree lighting on Friday night kicks off the weekend, with details to come closer to the date. Depending on when the waterline crew finishes, the Flotilla could be the last big town gathering held while the full circuit is still open, or the first one after it closes.

The circuit while it's still whole

The rest of the route doesn't change. The Wrightsville Beach Museum of History is showing "I WAS HERE: The Wrightsville Beach Mailbox at Shell Island," a show built around the mailbox at Shell Island. On Causeway Drive, Drift Cafe operates at 114 Causeway Drive, where Causeway Cafe stood for decades. Its posted hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The Loop takes about an hour to walk start to finish. Parking is next to Wrightsville Beach Park, and you can join the route anywhere. The full-closure date for West Salisbury Street over Lees Cut will come from NCDOT once the waterline is moved.

At Logan Sullivan Real Estate Group, we're watching the Lees Cut timeline closely, because the town's daily routes shape how Wrightsville Beach feels to the people who live here. If you'd like to talk through how the bridge years could affect your plans on the island, Let's Connect.