We urge all area drivers when possible to remain calm as, beginning today (March 15), the project to widen Interstate 26 to four lanes will  — at least, for motorists — shift into low gear as it enters “a new phase with two significant impacts to drivers,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation noted in a press release.

Specifically, on that date the project will require the closing of Butler Bridge Road for 180 days “in order to remove the existing bridge and build a completely new bridge that will be wide enough to span the interstate,” the release stated.

To manage this bridge work, the bridge traffic of an estimated 13,000 vehicles per day will be detoured to a route that includes a temporary stop light at the intersection of Rugby Drive and North Rugby Road.

In addition, NCDOT officials “will divert one direction of traffic off I-26 to the Integrated Corridor Management system nightly for one week,” include Buncombe and Henderson counties.

As nearly everyone knows who lives in or has visited Western North Carolina, the section of I-26 between Asheville and Hendersonville has been a 24/7 nightmare of wrecks and traffic jams for decades. That is why the work to widen I-26  to four lanes in each direction is happening.

We share our readers’ frustration with trying to get through  I-26, one of the key transportation corridors for WNC.

Let’s stay calm and cooperate with the NCDOT to complete this painful phase of the project that is needed to assure smooth and safe driving on I-26 in the future.