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.

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Hidden California State Route 710 and the Pasadena Gap in the Long Beach Freeway

Infamous and the subject of much controversy the Pasadena Gap in the Long Beach Freeway has long existed as a contentious topic regarding the completion of Interstate 710 and California State Route 710. While the Pasadena Gap of the Long Beach Freeway effectively has been legislatively blocked the action only came after decades of controversy. While the Pasadena Gap of the Long Beach Freeway is fairly well known what many don't know is that a small segment was actually constructed south Interstate 210 and the Foothill Freeway. This disconnected segment of the Long Beach Freeway exists as the unsigned and largely hidden California State Route 710. On June 29, 2022 the California Transportation Commission relinquished California State Route 710 to the city of Pasadena. The blog cover above depicts a southward view on the completed Pasadena stub segment of the Long Beach Freeway which ends at California Boulevard. Part 1; the history of the Pasadena Gap of the Long Beach Freewa

Deer Isle Bridge in Maine

As graceful a bridge that I ever set my eyes upon, the Deer Isle Bridge (officially known as the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge) surprisingly caught my eye as I was driving around coastal Maine one Saturday afternoon. About 35 miles south of Bangor, Maine , the Deer Isle Bridge connects the Blue Hill Peninsula of Downeast Maine with Little Deer Isle over the Eggemoggin Reach on ME 15 between the towns of Sedgwick and Deer Isle . It should be noted that Little Deer Isle is connected to Deer Isle by way of a boulder lined causeway, and there is a storied regatta that takes place on the Eggemoggin Reach each summer. But the Deer Isle Bridge holds many stories, not just for the vacationers who spend part of their summer on Deer Isle or in nearby Stonington , but for the residents throughout the years and the folks who have had a hand bringing this vital link to life. The Deer Isle Bridge was designed by David Steinman and built by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville,

Paper Highways: Proposed US Route 66 Alternate to Las Vegas, Nevada

During February 1956 the State of Nevada in concurrence with the States of California and Arizona submitted a request to the American Association of State Highway Officials to establish US Route 66 Alternate to Las Vegas. The proposed US Route 66 Alternate would have originated from mainline US Route 66 in Kingman Arizona and followed a multiplex of US Routes 93-466 to Las Vegas, Nevada. From Las Vegas, Nevada the proposed US Route 66 Alternate would have multiplexed US Routes 91-466 back to mainline US Route 66 in Barstow, California. The request to establish US Route 66 Alternate was denied during June 1956 due to it being completely multiplexed with other US Routes. This blog will examine the timeline of the US Route 66 Alternate proposal to Las Vegas, Nevada. The history of the proposed US Route 66 Alternate to Las Vegas, Nevada On February 15, 1956, the Nevada State Highway Engineer in a letter to the American Association of State Highways Officials (AASHO) advising that six c

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