Skip to main content

I-74/US 74 Freeway Now Open Eastbound from Maxton to Lumberton

Since Duke wasn't playing today and I figured all the Raleigh people may want to stay and watch the NC State-ECU game, I decided to take a tour to see the progress of the I-74 freeway in Robeson County. Since there had been no publication about an opening date I assumed the best I would find was a change in exit numbers based on an e-mail I sent to the project's engineer earlier this year in which he acknowledged the numbers were wrong. I thus was surprised when I got to (still) Exit 320 on I-74/US 74 and noticed traffic no longer had to get off the highway to proceed on the interstate eastbound. When I got to Exit still numbered 226 I had another surprise....
The road was open beyond the exit. Thus curious, I decided to proceed on. The next exit as listed in the plans should be Dew Road, Pembroke. It was, but notice the exit number...


It is now 203, 27 miles less than it should be and equal to the number for the milepost I sent to the NCDOT earlier in the year when I noticed the exit numbers were too large. The remaining exits match my mileposts (as posted in my I-74 Exit List) almost exactly:
Exit Plan Mile # Malme Mile # Actual Exit #
Dew Rd, Pembroke 230 203 203
Back Swamp Rd 234 207 207
I-95/US 301 235A/B 208A/B 209A/B
Alternate US 74 237 210 210
I assume as part of completing the project the rest of the exits starting in Laurinburg will be changed as well, I will post what those numbers should be on my exit list. I am assuming that NCDOT will not force the traveling public to use two sets of exit numbers on one continuous freeway.

Continuing on, here are some other photos of some of the signs along the eastbound route:

The speed limit is 70 mph, though they have not adjusted up the speed around the Exit (for now) 320 interchange which is still 55.
Here's the next exit eastbound Back Swamp Road, there's no obvious reason for an interchange here, development will occur, I guess, eventually.
Here's the first sign for the upcoming I-95/US 301 interchange, the only ground mounted sign.
The remainder are overhead assemblies, with separate ramps for north and southbound. The freeway becomes 3 lanes in each direction at that point.

Here's the overheads at Exit 209B. Coming back around I took the ramp that leads to C/D ramps paralleling I-95.

All is ready except opening the ramp and removing the cover on the I-74/US 74 West sign. The east signs on the C/D ramps were uncovered, but the interchange was not open and all I-74 signs on I-95 going south were covered as well.

Here's the last exit currently with a number, US 74 Alternate, there is one more exit, NC 41, but the signs haven't been updated there yet. They still have to do work to complete this final 2 mile section to bring it up to interstate standards, update the signs and close the former left turn ramps. The traffic on US 74 west still uses the old route alignment. The still need to fully grade between the old and new highways before this section can be open. The section west of I-95 was being worked on and appeared almost ready to open.

After turning around and using the existing US 74, I accessed the Dew Road interchange by taking Chicken Road off of US 74 to confirm all the westbound ramps were still not open to the east of NC 710. The eastbound signs were up, as expected, the one control city listed was Wilmington. The western ramps were closed and all the signs for the westbound roadway were up, but covered.

I believe construction could be totally finished in the next few weeks. I'll wait until an official announcement to make another tour, other interested parties are invited.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bob Malme said…
NCDOT will open the rest of the freeway (at least west of I-95) after a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday Sept. 26 at 10AM.
Bob Malme said…
The road is now open in both directions according to this NCDOT press release:
https://apps.dot.state.nc.us/pio/releases/details.aspx?r=1869s

Hopefully more photos of the route will be up soon.

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the s...

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...

The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and temporary Hawaii Route 11

The 1959 Gousha Road map of Hawaii features two largely unknown references in the form of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11.  Both corridors are shown running from the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park east to Glenwood via Volcano Village.  At the time Hawaii Route 11 was using the so-called "Volcano Road" which was constructed as a modernization of Mamalahoa Highway during 1927-1928.  This blog will examine the two map references and will attempt to determine what they might indicate.  The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11 Hawaii Route 11 is part of Mamalahoa Highway (the Hawaii Belt Road) and is the longest Hawaiian State Route at 121.97 miles.  The highway begins at the mutual junction of Hawaii Route 19 and Hawaii Route 190 in Kailua-Kona.  From Kailua-Kona the routing of Hawaii Route 11 crosses the volcanic landscapes of southern side of the Big Island.  Hawaii Route 11 terminates at Hawaii Route 19/Ka...