To make room for putting in the new supporters for the Peters Creek roadway, workers shut down the inside lanes of Business 40 at the bridge in late November. At that time, the plan was to keep the lane closures in effect through Jan. 11.

The state recently decided to give the contractors an incentive to speed up the work.

Mezak Tucker, the N.C. DOT’s resident engineer, said the contractor doubled shifts and was able to reduce the shutdown from 45 days to 16.

Pat Ivey, the DOT’s Division 9 engineer based in Winston-Salem, said he hopes the speed-up portends good progress to come on the larger Business 40 project.

“When (contractors) came to us with the proposal, they knew they could do it,” Ivey said. “They did not know how quickly. They brought in a bunch of other folks to help them out. The weather has been conducive to good work.”

Sometime next summer, another full-time lane closure on Business 40 is scheduled for 60 days as the Peters Creek work continues. With luck, that won’t take as long as scheduled either.