City crews wrapping up Florence-related repairs on Montgomery Avenue

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Officials with the city of Wilmington say crews are wrapping up work this week on a section of Montgomery Avenue, between Princess Place Drive and Market Street, that was closed in October so underground drainage pipe damaged during Hurricane Florence could be repaired.

This project is part of the second phase of efforts to repair damages to streets, sidewalks and drainage systems across Wilmington that were damaged during the storm.

After Montgomery Avenue is completed, similar repairs will be made on Shell Road Village Drive. A small portion of the project will include work at the Municipal Golf Course, but that work is not hurricane-related, according to city officials.

The Montgomery Avenue work is one of the major projects the city has underway or planned to make needed repairs after Hurricane Florence struck last year. After addressing immediate repairs following the storm, staff worked for several months to identify all the city streets, sidewalks, buildings and drainage infrastructure across the city that need to be repaired.

The city also had to get federal officials to inspect and approve each of the repair sites to make sure the city could receive federal/state reimbursement before the projects could go forward.

Because the city has to pay for all of these repairs out-of-pocket with taxpayer dollars, the federal inspections and approval were critical to make sure the city gets reimbursed for as much as possible.

So far, the city has spent or appropriated more than $30 million in response to the storm and hopes to get much of that reimbursed. Status of repair projects can be tracked at www.wilmingtonnc.gov/repairmap.

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