With the cold weather moving in and winter creeping in slowly, the Department of Transportation’s window of opportunity for paving a widened section of U.S. 1 is closing.

Around Dec. 15, the DOT will pack up its paving gear until the spring, but they’re not leaving things unfinished.

Gary Phillips, resident engineer for the U.S. 1 project stretching from Wiregrass Road into Rockingham city limits said the project is still 16 percent ahead of schedule.

He said paving will be put on hold but will pick back up in March. Phillips said most of the paving is done except for the final layer.

But until the spring, road crews will continue to work on concrete work like curbing and sidewalks, as well as drainage work, pipes, catch-basins, and some signal work at Wiregrass Road.

Phillips said they’ll be installing some new signal poles and some sign work.

“We’ll basically be doing the cosmetics this winter,” Phillips said.

And the four-lane stretch of U.S. 1 they’re working around Richmond Senior High was hopefully going to be opened up by Christmas, but the heavy rains during the last several months got them off schedule.

“Odds are they probably won’t split traffic until the spring,” Phillips said.

And while things may not be moving as quickly as motorists would like, Phillips said the project is still ahead of schedule and will likely be completed by it’s contract completion date of Aug. 15, 2010.

“We should definitely make that unless something really bad goes on,” Phillips said.

Staff writer Eren Tataragasi can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or at etataragasi@yourdailyjournal.com.