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The North Carolina Department of Transportation officially opened the Hertford S-Bridge replacement to traffic Tuesday afternoon.

The first vehicles on the bridge – fire trucks from Hertford and Winfall – met each other at the middle at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The new swing-span bridge carries U.S. 17 Business over the Perquimans River between the communities of Hertford and Winfall. The bridge replaces the iconic – but deteriorating – old Hertford S-Bridge, which welcomed vehicular and maritime traffic for 93 years before its removal last year.

Construction began on the design-build process in the summer of 2019. The total cost of the project was about $60 million, which included replacement of the bridge and improvements to the adjacent causeway.

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