Traffic Snarl Around Wilmington & Brunswick County 2 Days in a Row

First I will have to agree that the decision for the County Sheriffs to allow clean up when they did was absolutely the wrong one. I imagine this will be a learning experience for them. A wiser decision that someone had mentioned was to place an officer at the location until night for cleanup then, this I think would have solved the whole problem. They could even bill the time for the police assistance back to the drivers insurance.

Now to address the other side of the situation and all the commuters to and from Brunswick county. I am sure most of you choose to live in Brunswick county and commute to Wilmington over the bridges, did not take into account how awful a route this is and how prone it is to backups. I bet you looked at what kind of a home you could get in comparison to New Hanover County and thought it was a good deal, more bang for you buck; which I am sure that it is. But what you have to realize is that there is a reason that its such a good deal and that is because there is only one way into Wilmington, and this one and only artery is so prone to backups its ridiculous. You need to get use to this as it is not going to change. from what I hear completion of 140 and the Skyway Bridge are problably decades away.

Next time its backed up, do what I do go downtown have a drink eat some food at a local establishment and wait it out. You need to expect these types of things from time to time.

Don't get me wrong I am still pissed that I didn't get home until 8:30, but I blame myself for living in Brunswick county and commuting back that way over the river.

I work in street repair and maintenance and (NOT FOR DOT) DOT will not allow us to work on or near a busy state roads during the day time. We have to schedule our work at night.
So I guess this changes everything.If no one has the authority to get these people off the street during rush hour then I guess this gives us the right to do our work anytime of day.And I hope a DOT rep shows up on the job then maybe I can get some answers out them.
There is a time and place for everything and yesterday at Hwy 421 & Hwy 74/76 was not a good time or place to tie up so many people.
As so many people have said it is only going to get worse.I think the state of North Carlina has weighted too long to build a another road from Wilmington to Brunswick County. It makes you think which is more important,my home or my work, which one should I give up to avoid this Hwy.I have too much time tied up in both. Hope for the best.

At 3pm traffic was going good on 421 to Leland and then 10 minutes later it was a dead stop. Why did they not start cleaning up right after morning rush hour traffic instead of right before afternoon rush hour! Leland traffic is getting worse and worse!!! Someone Has to do something about it!!! The Amber Alert sign on 74-76 needs to be put in a different place instead of right after the Leland exit coming into Wilmington. Even on weekends, when that sign is on it stops traffic because of everyone trying to read it. There are already too many distractions to have to deal with that as well!!!! There is one further back on Hwy 17 (Myrtle Beach direction). They could move that one further back on Hwy 74-76 coming the Whiteville direction!!! HELP!!!!!!!

I drove past all that traffic on the left lane yesterday; quite a sight.

who can i charge for this delay.

my wait time cost me valuable money in missed appointments.

it is about time someone is held responsible for their actions.

Why hold up traffic two days in a row when the wreckage should have been cleaned up Tuesday night. Pure incompitence on the county's part.

You think these past two days were bad well get ready for more days like this. We all know more and more people are moving over to Brunswick County and nothing is being done to help improve the roads. UNTIL WE ALL STAND UP TOGETHER AND DEMAND SOMETHING TO BE DONE IT WILL STAY LIKE THIS!!!

Did anyone else read the other article that stated that the lumber was insured. Why did they make this decision to clean up so quickly b/c of theft of the lumber when the owner was already getting paid by the insurance co. for it? I don't get it....

My family and I moved from Wilmington to Atlanta for a job transfer and lived there for 3 years before moving back here. A 16.5 mile round-trip commute cost me 2.5 hours out of my day every day because to be able to live in an affordable area with better schools, we had to suffer a commute.

I'm glad we're back living here now. But, Yesterday reminded me a little of Atlanta traffic and how the infrasturcutre wasn't prepared for the rapid growth, which led to the daily jams.

Then I was thankful it's not an everyday occurence in Wilmington... for now. If this keeps going, which it will, look for a lot of these ads:

For Sale: 5 Year old 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch, with 1 car garage in established community with swimming pool, tennis and walking trails, just minutes from Historic Downtown Wilmington and Area Beaches. Convenient to the New Wal Mart, shopping and dining. Lower property taxes and a quick, easy commute accross the bridge.

Sound Familiar?

Yesterday was one of the most ridiculous rides home I have ever experienced. And, to think it could have been avoided makes it even more maddening. Unfortunately, some people take their stress and irritation out on other less-aggressive drivers which only adds to the mess.

Take heed, the handwriting was on the wall with traffic control.
Picture the same scenario 10 years from now when Wilmington's infrastructure has shown its true colors, or lack there of an adequate road system.

Just wait until the new Convention Center is built, and the Bug Tussle Review plays there. You think that traffic jam was a mess??????

It's no wonder drivers have road rage. As a caller to one of the local radio stations expressed, "This is further proof that men should not be in charge of things."
Maybe, if they do exist, some of those intelligent men could go ahead and get the bypass from Wilmington through Brunswick County completed. And, NO, we don't need another stupid bridge to be stranded on during rush hour.

Why did they wait until rush hour to start the clean up? They had all day to get it done. There is no reason why all of the traffic backups happened last night. No excuse.

One can tell who is from Leland and who is not.. Sounds like the clean up crew must have come from that side of the county.

There was absolutely no reason for this to happen at rush hour. I did not get to my daycare until 7:30pm. My kids had not ate anything for supper and still had 2 hours worth of homeowork to do. Not only did it affect me by sitting in traffic for 2 hours, it affected my kids. They had to go to be so late, that they will be exhausted in school today. Whoever made the decision to clean this up at rush hour, needs to pay the price. If someone was stealing the wood, they should have had a sherriff stand there until rush hour was over. The whole thing was ridiculous!

Usually my commute is a nice one and a half hours back home. However, due to the bonehead decisions of those in charge, it was four hours. Four hours! By the time I got home, it was already time to prepare for the next workday. I hope that changes can be made in the future so that traffic clean-up is not continued into rush hour!

Yesterday was completely AVOIDABLE.... They should have cleaned up the spill the night that it happened!!!!!!!!!!!!! and none of this would have occured.. STUPID!!!! WHERE are the people in charge and WHY cant they THINK? I bet somebody is getting A LOT of phone calls today.. STUPID!!!!!

Seriously? It was an ACCIDENT. Get over yourselves. Stop blowing it completely out of proportion. You could very well have an accident and hold up traffic for just as long so try to show some compasion and understanding.

I sometimes think that no one has given thought to how the bridge raisings impact rush hour traffic. When I see those ships leave from further up the river during rush hour, I want to know why they could not have left later or even earlier. This is not a small town with inconsequential traffic. It is time for those who manage such things to think in terms of a sizeable metro area. I should add that radio stations should do the same especially in providing traffic reports. It is time for Wilmington to grow up.

The traffic back-up was completely avoidable and unnecessarily impacted the lives and stress levels of thousands of area residents. The decision maker that allowed this to happen needs to be held accountable and at the very least owes a public apology to the community.

If I were an attorney, I would be looking at into the feasibility of a class action lawsuit. Parents were seperated from children for hours, some paying late pick-up penalties to their day care providers or extra pay to sitters for the additional 2 - 3 hours it took to get home. Other parents were trapped in their cars on the bridge with screaming and hungry infants restrained in car seats and young children that had to use the bathroom with nowhere to pull off for more than an hour. People missed appointments, workers lost wages, and all of us experienced an undue amount of stress and frustration that could have been avoided.

Those of us that commute between Brunswick and New Hanover County have certainly experienced a back-up at some point for an accident or a bridge opening and we accept these as frustrating fact of life, but this was ridiculous and should not have been allowed to occur. The excuse is that people were pulling off to steal wood? Really? So, they couldn't just park a patrol car there and clean up the mess after rush hour traffic had cleared? There were officers standing around during the clean-up process anyway doing not much of anything! If the answer to that is "no" because of additional costs that would have been incurred for lights/workers/equipment after hours - SO WHAT! What about the costs incurred by those of us that lost wages, had to pay extra childcare fees, burned at least a quarter tank of gas sitting in grid lock?!

As a local tax payer, a concerned citizen and an irrate parent - I EXPECT ANSWERS!

If we are to believe the news reports, then we have the SHP to thank for allowing that to take place during rush hour traffic. Someone at the Highway Patrol that made that bonehead decision, needs to be reassigned. No, it still doesn't matter that people were stopping and taking the lumber that was laying on the sides of the road. The impact on New Hanover and Brunswick Counties far outweighed the cost of some lumber that could've been recovered later. Idiots.

The long clean up must have been job security.