Crews begin to remove 501 barriers. What that means for your commute

The barriers lining the U.S. 501 Bypass bridge over the Waccamaw River are coming down.

The deconstruction began Monday morning. Traffic was steadily flowing through, with some buildup near the mouth of the bridge in both directions.

U.S. 501 Business remains open in both directions, giving drivers an alternative route into downtown Conway.

While the deconstruction of the barriers has started, the work to return the bypass to four lanes is going to take several days to complete. South Carolina Department of Transportation officials said deconstruction should take less time to complete than the initial construction project, but you should expect traffic delays through the early part of the week.

The barriers first went up immediately following Hurricane Florence and took about a week to install. During construction, all of U.S. 501 Bypass was closed for two days.

SCDOT most will likely announce when all four lanes are open to traffic.

While returning U.S. 501 to a fully functional thoroughfare will be a major step toward flood recovery, hundreds of roads are still closed in Horry County as water slowly recedes.

A complete list of roads still closed due to flooding can be found on SCDOT’s website.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 12:26 PM.