Gribblenation

I took a (hopefully) final trip south of High Point to check on progress on building the new I-74 freeway between Exit 79 (Cedar Square Rd) and Exit 86 (I-73/US 220 North) before I returned to the Boston area. I was joined by Bill Travers, my local source for updates on the construction project. (Fortunately, nothing happened with the car on this trip.) We traversed the I-74 construction area from Cedar Square Road south to US 220, including a couple stops I hadn't made in the last couple of years. Approaching the I-74 interchange on I-85 South-- I realized I had not taken any photos of this interchange since it was opened in 2010. Here's the signage approaching the start of the C/D ramps-- I had time to go west on I-74 to the Business 85 interchange and back before meeting Bill. I had already taken photos of most of the signage along the route. 1. Cedar Square Road A new photo of the approach to the current end on I-74 heading west on Cedar Square--  A closer loo...

The second phase of the Triangle Expressway from NC 55 near Apex southwards to US 64 opened on August 1st.  It was the only free day for the new highway as tolls on the new highway would go into effect the following day Thursday, August 2nd.  So we had an impromptu Triangle Road Meet and six of us met up at Trali in Brier Creek to check out the new road.  Not bad for 48 hour notice! We had a small surprise when we got to I-40.  First Lady Michelle Obama was in town and we just caught her motorcade getting onto I-540 East headed back to RDU.   Here's the temporary roadblock at the ramp from 540 East to 40 East. So now lets get back to touring Phase II of the Triangle Expressway. Some of the signs on the now truncated NC 540 (Free) approaching the NC 54 interchange.  This is the only free interchange south of I-40.  If you look closely enough at the bottom of the second photo, you will seen an 'END' sign for the free portion of NC 5...

I took another I-73/74 Trip this past Saturday. Having visited the Randleman and Asheboro areas a couple times, I thought this trip should cover the southern part of the corridor from Rockingham east. Perhaps getting as far as to view progress on the US 74/NC 242 interchange project, which according to the NCDOT Contruction Progress Report was more than 99% complete on July 15. With this destination in mind I headed south on NC 751 to its end at US 64, then continued straight through the intersection to eventually connect to US 1 South. Where There's Smoke.... I made good time on US 1 through Sanford and onto the Vass Bypass. (Will they ever upgrade this to a complete freeway bypass without interchanges mixed with the occasional at-grade intersections? I know they were hurrying to complete this for the US Open, will another one have to come to fully complete this?) Just after the NC 24-27 interchange I began hearing a strange noise from the back of my car. I planned to pull over...