All highway traffic over the Alligator River bridge that links Dare and Tyrrell counties was halted for more than four hours on Saturday, February 3, Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman reported.

The Dare County Sheriff’s Office, Tyrrell County Sheriff’s Office and the State Highway Patrol responded to block U.S. Highway 64 traffic at both the east and west ends of the bridge after the swingspan became stuck in the open position about 7:19 a.m.

An NC Department of Transportation crew and a private contractor responded to work on the bridge.

The bridge reopened to traffic around 11:45 a.m. Saturday.

The two-lane bridge, originally opened in 1962, is undergoing a $16-million rehabilitation, including repairs to the mechanical parts of the center-pivot swingspan that accommodates vessels on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

A planned and announced closure of the bridge to highway traffic January 10-16 allowed the contractor to work on the swingspan mechanism. Motorists intending to travel the 30 miles between Columbia and Manns Harbor were detoured an extra 59 miles through Fairfield and Engelhard, using NC 94 and US 264.