A two-year project to replace the Laurel Fork Bridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway has neccessitated a detour of more than 10 miles in Ashe County south of the Parkway’s Doughton Park.
The historic bridge being replaced at Milepost 248.8 dates to 1939, according to a National Parks Service news release. The Parkway is closed to cars, bicycles and hikers between MP 248.1 and 258.7. Also, hikers on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at the base of the bridge should follow the fence line around the project site.
Visitors approaching Doughton Park and the Bluffs Restaurant from the south will need to follow the detour. Travelers headed north will still have access to the Northwest Trading Post, a convenience store, at MP 258.7.
The target completion date for the project is November 2024. Funding for the $29 million project comes from the Great American Outdoors Act’s National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund.
Detour signs on the Parkway direct park visitors around the project site via routes NC 18, NC 88, NC 16 and Trading Post Road at Glendale Springs at the southern end of the detour.
Below, a Blue Ridge Parkway brochure map shows the area of a detour required for replacement of the Laurel Fork Bridge at Milepost 248.8. Drivers headed north will need to exit onto Trading Post Road at MP 259 near Glendale Springs and use NC 16, then NC 88 and NC 18 to rejoin the Parkway at MP 248.1 just south of Doughton Park.
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