Between Mendenhall Drive and the southernmost driveway of Bayshore Commons, Market Street now has a walking and biking path along its edge. By July 2026, the regional transportation planning agency was reporting that construction on that stretch was done. Its update also carried a condition. The path was "currently waiting on final asphalt to be laid on Market St by NCDOT."
That sentence explains the whole corridor. The path is a New Hanover County project, but the final asphalt on Market Street was NCDOT's to lay. Next door, NCDOT has been building a median project on Market Street since 2019. In this corridor, the path's finish line depends on the state's road schedule.
Two Projects That Meet at Mendenhall Drive
Two public projects run along this part of Market Street, and different agencies manage them.
The path is a county project, numbered BL-0040. It runs through the Wilmington Urban Area MPO's Locally Administered Projects Program, which means the county manages it under the regional planning agency. It has two segments:
- Market Street (US 17 Business), from Mendenhall Drive to the Porters Neck Walmart commercial lot. The county's 2025 bid listing puts the end point at the southernmost driveway of Bayshore Commons Shopping Center.
- Middle Sound Loop Road, from Red Cedar Road to the Publix commercial lot. The bid describes this segment as starting about 850 feet east of Market Street and running to Red Cedar Road.
The county's bid posting, dated May 6, 2025, lists the work under two project numbers, BL-0040 and EB-6027.
The road project is NCDOT's U-4902D, a raised median along US 17 (Market Street). The state's January 2026 State Transportation Improvement Program describes it as a 1.66-mile work zone from Middle Sound Loop Road to the Mendenhall Drive and Marsh Oaks Drive junction. In NCDOT's project handout, drivers who used to turn left across Market Street make U-turns at median breaks.
The median project's work zone ends at Mendenhall Drive, and the path's Market Street segment begins there and continues north to Bayshore Commons. If you drive from Middle Sound Loop Road up to the Walmart, you pass through both projects back to back.
The Dates, Side by Side
| Milestone | Market Street path, BL-0040 | Market Street median, U-4902D |
|---|---|---|
| Work begins | September 22, 2025 | April 2019 |
| Original target | Construction from October 2024, about nine months | November 2022 |
| Revised target | No percent-complete figure published | June 2026 |
| Status as of July 2026 | Built, waiting on NCDOT's final asphalt | 94% complete |
| Status in September 2026 updates | Final walk-through held, punch list being addressed | No newer figure published |
The median work began more than six years before the path's first day of construction. In a September 2024 update, WMPO expected path construction to start in October 2024 and take nine months. Work on the Market Street segment actually began on September 22, 2025, almost a year after that forecast start. Even so, the path crew built its segment in less than a year and then waited for the road.
Why a Finished Path Waited on Asphalt
On a road project, the top layer of asphalt usually goes down last. In the county's July report, the path was physically complete, and the one item standing between it and a finished project was NCDOT laying the final asphalt on Market Street.
At the same time, NCDOT had plenty of other Market Street work underway just south of Mendenhall. Its July 2026 progress sheet for the median project lists Sealand Contractors as the contractor, with a contract value of $24,654,091. The original completion estimate was November 2022, and the revised date is June 2026, marked with an asterisk. Progress that month stood at 94%.
NCDOT's March 2026 progress notes show what late-stage work on the corridor involved. The list included building median islands, curb and gutter at Novant Health, and widening at Torchwood Road. If you drive Market Street toward Porters Neck, those notes match the cones and lane shifts you saw this spring.
By the September 2026 updates, published in WMPO's October 13 advisory committee packet, the Market Street segment had reached closeout. The update reads: "Held final walk-through with NCDOT, design engineer, and contractor for Market St section; final punch list items are being addressed." NCDOT walked the county's path alongside the design engineer and the contractor.
The Middle Sound Loop Half Ran on Its Own Clock
The path's second segment, on Middle Sound Loop Road, did not depend on NCDOT's paving. It depended on the utilities and drainage underneath it.
The July update gives the order of work. Duke Power repaired a utility conflict on Middle Sound Loop Road on May 20, 2026. On June 23 and 24, crews dug an open trench, installed drain pipe and repaved the area. WMPO noted this saved "considerable time" over drilling horizontally under the road.
By September, the remaining work was smaller fixes. Drainage box elevations had been adjusted, and paving was expected in late September 2026. Change orders covered three items: a winged headwall, an expressway gutter system and drainage grates. A separate change order, submitted August 26, 2026, asked for the project's remaining construction funds. Headwalls, gutters and grates are the parts of a sidepath that move water away from it, and here they set the schedule.
Both segments of the same county project were held up by something outside the path itself, the state's paving on Market Street and a power line and drain under Middle Sound Loop Road.
What the Corridor Has Queued Next
The next round of work near Porters Neck is also on state roads, and NCDOT publishes those schedules in its progress lists and board documents.
- The signal at Market Street and Porters Neck Road. In January 2026, the NC Board of Transportation listed project HS-2403AR, an upgrade of the traffic signal at US 17/Market Street and Porters Neck Road. Construction moved from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026.
- Reduced conflict intersections north of the county line. NCDOT's September 2026 construction list for the region includes reduced conflict intersections along US 17 from Scotts Hill Road to Sidbury Road in Pender County. The estimated completion is December 18, 2027, and the project was at 0.00% on that list. That stretch of US 17 runs north from Porters Neck toward Hampstead.
- Gordon Road toward I-40. On the same list, the widening of Gordon Road from Market Street to I-40, project U-6202, was 26.50% complete with an estimated finish of December 18, 2029.
Commercial plans are moving along the corridor too. In July, WECT reported that Culver's had filed plans for its first Wilmington restaurant at 6 Van Campen Boulevard, in the Walmart-anchored shopping center. As of July 30, the city was still reviewing the proposal.
To track the Market Street path, the most useful document is WMPO's monthly packet. It carries the county's path updates in its local projects section and NCDOT's construction table a few pages later. As of the September 2026 updates, the path had passed its final walk-through and the punch list was in progress.
At Joel's Homes, we keep up with projects like the Market Street median, the Porters Neck Road signal and the new path because they change how each Porters Neck street connects to shops, trails and the water. If you want to know how corridor work near your home could show up in what it's worth, request your instant home valuation and we'll go over it with you.
