Check the box: Interstate 495 to 87 conversion administratively approved

Future I-87 signs are coming to Wake, Franklin and Nash Counties.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials have recently approved North Carolina's application to remove the short-lived Interstate 495 and future I-495 from Raleigh to Rocky Mount. This administrative move most likely will result in North Carolina signing Interstate 87 and Future I-87 on the entire corridor in the near future.


Interstate 495's Future is no longer bright along the I-87 corridor.

Approved in 2013, Interstate 495 was first signed in 2014 along US 64 from Interstate 440 in Raleigh to Interstate 540 in Knightdale. The remaining segment of highway to Rocky Mount was signed as Future Interstate 495. However, in 2016, North Carolina's congressional legislators were able to get language in the 2015 FAST ACT designating the US 64/US 13/US 17 corridor from Raleigh to Norfolk as an Interstate. In 2016, the FHWA and AASHTO designated this entire corridor (including the existing Interstate and Future 495) as Interstate 87. (NCDOT had applied for Interstate 89 along this route.)

It is currently unknown when the Interstate 495 signs will be taken down and replaced with Interstate 87. When first signed, Interstate 87 will be slightly longer than Interstate 495 was. The designation will run from where Interstate 40 and 440 meet in Southeast Raleigh along Interstate 440 West to Exit 14 where I-495 begins today. Interstate 87 signs will then be on the entire length of the Knightdale Bypass to where Interstate highway standards end at Rolesville Road (Exit 430). There are no currently scheduled plans to upgrade US 64 from Exit 430 to Interstate 95 in Rocky Mount to Interstate standards.

Comments

Bleriot Ferry - Alberta

Alberta operates six ferries scattered throughout the province. Roughly twenty to twenty-five kilometers up the Red Deer River from the town of Drumheller is one of the most scenic ferry crossings in all of Wild Rose Country, the Bleriot Ferry. Using the North Dinosaur Trail (Alberta Highway 838, or AB 838), the Bleriot Ferry provides a scenic river cruise of sorts in the Canadian Badlands. The Bleriot Ferry started operating in 1913 as the Munson Ferry when a few bridges crossed the Red Deer River. The ferry was started by Andre Bleriot, the brother of famed early aviator Louis Bleriot, who became famous for being the first person to fly over the English Channel. At the time, the Alberta provincial government commissioned local residents to run the ferries. There were several ferries along the Red Deer River, and not only did they serve as vital transportation links, but they also served as local social hubs, since everyone had to take the ferries to go places. Over time, as the...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates Year in Review 2024

Welcome to another annual review of progress in constructing North Carolina's New and Future Interstate routes. While 2024 was not too exciting, with no new segments of major routes opening, there was 1 new interstate signing, another proposed new interstate route, and the near opening of a new segment for 2 routes. As tradition, I will start off with a review of what happened with I-73 and I-74 and then move on to the major news of the year about the other new and future routes. Work continued on the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass through the year. The last few months have been hoping for news of its opening before 2025, without luck. Signs of its near completion included the placement of new signs, many with interstate shields uncovered, along the Bypass and intersecting roadways. For example, these went up along US 74 East: Overhead signage at Business 74 exit which contains the future ramp to I-73 North/I-74 West. Signage was also updated heading west on US 74 approaching the unop...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog