Overnight Lane Closures Coming to US 501 Bridge Over the Intracoastal Waterway

Posted Monday, November 9, 2026 2:54 pm

David Hucks (via MyrtleBeachSC)

Nov 9, 2026 · @ https://x.com/myrtlebeachnews

If you cross the US 501 bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway late at night this week, expect to lose a lane. The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) will close the right lane in each direction on back-to-back overnights, starting Thursday, Nov. 12, so crews can carry out routine maintenance and inspection work on the span.

On its own, a two-night lane closure is a minor inconvenience. But this bridge is the main gateway between Conway, Carolina Forest and the beach, and it sits on a corridor that has seen a near-constant rotation of cones, shifts and closures over the past two years. This article lays out exactly what is closing and when, why SCDOT schedules this work in the dead of night, how it fits into a larger pattern on 501, and what questions locals should be asking about the corridor’s bigger construction projects.

The schedule: two nights, one direction at a time

SCDOT plans to work on one side of the bridge each night, so traffic in both directions keeps at least one lane open at all times. According to the department’s announcement, as reported by WPDE and My Horry News, the closures will run as follows:

Direction	Lane closed	Begins	Reopens
Southbound (toward Myrtle Beach)	Right lane	Overnight Thursday, Nov. 12	6 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13
Northbound (toward Conway)	Right lane	Overnight Friday, Nov. 13	6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14

The department’s request to drivers is simple: it wants motorists to “slow down and pay attention” in the work zone [My Horry News, 2026].

Two details are worth flagging. First, none of the published reports give an exact start time for either closure; they describe the work only as beginning “overnight.” Drivers heading home from a late shift or a Thursday night out should assume the lane could be coned off any time after the evening rush.

Second, the earliest report on the closures, from WBTW on Nov. 6, said the northbound lane would close during the same window as the southbound lane . Every later account, including WPDE’s updated story on Nov. 9, places the northbound closure on Friday night instead. The staggered, one-direction-per-night schedule is the version supported by most outlets, and it is the one locals should plan around. The mismatch is a reminder that secondhand traffic alerts can drift from the original notice, and that SCDOT’s own release is the record to trust.

Why the work happens in the dark

The overnight timing is not a courtesy SCDOT chooses case by case. It is built into state rules. The department publishes a list of hourly restrictions that bar lane closures on busy primary routes during the hours when the lanes left open would carry more than 800 vehicles per hour, per lane, in each direction [SCDOT, 2019]. Horry County routes take up several pages of that list, with daytime and weekend windows blocked off and separate seasonal limits noted for the coast [SCDOT, 2019].

In plain terms, US 501 is simply too busy during the day to lose a lane on a key bridge. That is why the past bridge inspections on this corridor have followed the same playbook. When SCDOT inspected the US 501 bridge over the Waccamaw River in May 2025, it closed lanes nightly from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. over four nights [SCDOT, 2025].

The November timing also matters. Inspection and maintenance work in mid-November lands well outside the summer tourist peak, when traffic counts on the beach-bound corridor are at their highest. For year-round residents, that is the trade-off: the work comes when visitors are scarce, but the people most likely to hit the cones are locals working overnight shifts in hospitality, health care and retail.

A corridor that rarely gets a break

This week’s closure is the latest entry in a long run of work orders on US 501. Taken one at a time, each notice looks routine. Read together, they show a highway carrying a heavy and growing load, with maintenance and expansion competing for the same limited overnight hours.

When	Location	What happened
Nov. 12–14, 2026	Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway	Overnight right-lane closures for maintenance and inspection
June 23–24, 2026	US 501 at Mill Pond Road, Conway	Daytime outside northbound lane closure to repair a drainage structure [SCDOT, 2026a]
June 7–11, 2026	Between SC 544 and Myrtle Ridge Drive	Overnight traffic shifts, paving and signal adjustments for the widening project [SCDOT, 2026b]
May 18–21, 2025	Bridge over the Waccamaw River	Nightly lane closures for a routine bridge inspection [SCDOT, 2025]
Dec. 2024	Widening zone	Temporary speed limit cut to 45 mph during construction [SCDOT, 2024]

The Mill Pond Road job is the notable exception to the overnight rule. That work ran during daylight hours on a Tuesday and Wednesday, according to SCDOT. Drainage repairs can be harder to postpone than inspections, which may explain the difference, though the department’s notice did not say why daytime hours were used.

The pattern also tells drivers something practical. Inspections on 501’s two major bridges, over the Waccamaw and the Intracoastal Waterway, have now both been handled with short overnight closures announced roughly a week ahead. Locals can reasonably expect the same approach the next time either span is due.

The bigger picture: RIDE 3 deadlines and a search for relief

The bridge work is routine upkeep. The larger story on 501 is the money Horry County taxpayers have put into rebuilding the corridor through the RIDE 3 penny sales tax.

The largest piece is the six-lane widening of US 501 from SC 31 to the SC 544 interchange, built in two phases starting with the southbound side near Gardner Lacy Road. Horry County’s project page lists a $41 million budget and an estimated completion of fall 2026 [Horry County, 2025a]. That page, however, was last updated in April 2025, when it showed about $19.8 million spent. Closer to the beach, the realignment that will route 501 from Broadway Street onto 7th Avenue North carries a $13.9 million budget and the same fall 2026 target [Horry County, 2025b].

Fall 2026 is now nearly over. Whether either project will hit its target is a fair question for county and SCDOT officials, especially since the public project pages have not kept pace with the work on the ground. Overnight paving and traffic-shift work was still under way in the widening zone as recently as June [SCDOT, 2026b].

The county has also tried to give drivers ways around 501 rather than only through it. When the Middle Ridge Avenue extension opened as a parallel route, an assistant county administrator, David Gilreath, said the goal was to let people travel the area without having to get on the highway at all.

For this week’s bridge closures, the practical detours are the other Waterway crossings. The SC 31 Carolina Bays Parkway, built in phases to take pressure off older routes, links 501 with SC 544 and points north [Construction Equipment Guide, 2015]. The SC 544 bridge is another option, though it saw its own overnight maintenance closures in October 2025 [SCDOT, 2025b]. With only one lane closed per direction, though, most overnight drivers will likely find it faster to stay on 501 and slow down.

Understanding the US 501 Bridge Over the Intracoastal Waterway Maintenance Schedule

What’s next

If the schedule holds, both lanes on the Intracoastal Waterway bridge should be fully open by 6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 [WPDE, 2026]. Weather or findings during the inspection could push work to another night, so check before you drive late Thursday or Friday.

Beyond this week, three questions deserve follow-up:

What did the inspection find? Routine inspections usually end quietly. If crews flag anything that needs repair, residents should expect another round of closures, and the public deserves to know why.
Will the 501 widening and realignment finish on time? Both RIDE 3 projects were targeted for fall 2026 [Horry County, 2025a; Horry County, 2025b]. An updated completion date and spending total from the county would show taxpayers where their penny sales tax stands.
Can notices be more precise? None of the reports on this closure listed a start time. Clearer notices would help overnight workers plan, and would reduce the kind of mismatch seen between early and later news reports.

To stay informed, SCDOT takes traveler questions at its toll-free line, 855-GO-SCDOT (855-467-2368) [SCDOT, 2026b]. We will update this story if the schedule changes.