New Sunset Beach bridge now fully connected

It’s official—the Sunset Beach island is now connected to the mainland after the last girders of the new high-rise bridge went up last Friday.

Laura Lewis

The last girders of the new Intracoastal Waterway high-rise bridge connecting the Sunset Beach island and mainland went up last Friday afternoon.

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But the general public will have to wait a few more months before it can officially cross the new span, which is to be named the Mannon C. Gore Bridge per a resolution approved Monday by Sunset Beach Town Council.

The last connecting concrete girders went up Friday afternoon, said Mark Hackney, project superintendent with English Construction Co. of Lynchburg, Va., which has been building the new $32 million NCDOT high-rise span since April 2008.

There was no ceremony to this noteworthy connecting moment—just a team of construction workers up on the bridge and a few photographers on hand below to snap pictures.

“It was just another day,” Hackney said.

The workers can now walk across the bridge. Hackney said the general public has to wait a little longer.

Hackney said mid-September is now being projected as the time when the new bridge will be ready to open to traffic.

“That’s what we’re shooting for,” Hackney said Monday. “It will be awhile before we can put any traffic on it.”

At this point, bridge construction is “pretty much” on schedule with no delays, according to Hackney.

Monday, Sunset Beach Town Council approved a resolution to name the span for town founder Mannon C. Gore, who also launched and operated the first bridges connecting to the island.

Organizers are still planning to tie opening of the new bridge with the fourth annual Sunset at Sunset celebration the first weekend in October.

Plans by the Sunset at Sunset committee call for an evening dedication of the new span Friday, Oct. 1, town councilwoman and event liaison Karen Joseph said at Monday night’s monthly board meeting. A reception will follow, then the daylong festival on Saturday, Oct. 2.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is “very good at dedications,” Joseph said, adding business invitations to the event will be going out soon.

In the meantime, the Sunset at Sunset Committee is compiling a “bridge remembrance book” of the old pontoon bridge scheduled to be dismantled sometime after the new span opens.

Anyone who has a story about the old bridge is invited to send it in by logging onto the website www.sunsetatsunset.com.

Also in conjunction with the festival is a photography contest of the old or new bridges, “or a combination thereof,” Joseph said.

For artists, there’s also a painting contest of the old pontoon bridge. The winning, “official” painting will be displayed at town hall.

“We know a number of people have already begun [painting], so that should be a nice thing as well,” Joseph said.

Information is available at the Sunset at Sunset website.

After the new bridge opens, Hackney said the old pontoon bridge will remain in place just long enough for workers to move equipment and an excavation from the old causeway.

“After that, it’ll come down,” he said.

The town is still debating whether and how portions of the old bridge might be salvaged and perhaps incorporated into a future park.