Skip to main content

A Carolinas Road Meet Preview

Bob Malme and I did a brief road trip today to scout for the upcoming Carolinas Road Meet on Saturday, May 31.

The meet will be featuring a tour of the soon to be completed US 70 Clayton Bypass. The bypass will carry US 70 around one of the more congested areas of the triangle, the town of Clayton. It will run from Interstate 40 at milemarker 310 to the current US 70/US 70 Business split west of Smithfield and Selma. Besides the two interchanges at the bypass' terminal points (I-40 and US 70 Business) there will also be diamond interchanges with NC 42 and Ranch Road.

The meet will be held at the Cleveland Draft House on NC 42 in Garner at 12:30 PM on Saturday, May 31st. The group will meet up for lunch and then head on a tour of the Clayton Bypass and perhaps a few other items. We should be done around 3:30-4 pm.

If you are interested in going to the meet, just send me an e-mail.

Since I usually never get around to taking photos the day of the meet, here are some photos from the trip today:

Overhead signs at the Western Terminus of the Clayton Bypass at Interstate 40.

Looking eastbound on US 70. The NC 42 interchange is ahead.

Line painting is taking place on soon to be US 70 East at Exit 326 - US 70 Business (The eastern terminus of the bypass)

A closer view of the Exit 326 overhead.

You'd think that the 55 mph speed limit sign here on Cole Road would have been removed.

Pretty soon this 'End' sign for US 70 Business won't be needed as it will continue west from here on the former mainline of Highway 70.

Comments

Bob Malme said…
Was glad to join in on the Meet scouting. Other items of note: According to NCDOT, the Bypass is more than 98% complete, so it's possible it could be open by the Meet. The fact that they were working on line striping on a Saturday shows there is an urgency to get the job done. They were almost finished with the eastbound side, and had not started westbound. All the US 70 signage on the route to be bypassed had hidden business banners installed. There also covered over US 70 signs on I-40, hopefully with the right directional banners.

Speaking of incorrect banners, the BGSs going east on I-40 still had not been corrected; with hidden 'Business' labels over the East US 70 signage, instead of over west 70. Hopefully this will not delay the project opening and they will notice to fix it at a prior time.
Bob Malme said…
I've put up some photos that help illustrate some of my comments in the previous post at:
http://www.duke.edu/~rmalme/
masshighway.html

Don't let the name fool you, the NC photos are toward the bottom, below the Mass. photos. They include a Jones Sausage Road sign photo as well.

Popular posts from this blog

The Tale of Tollhouse Road, western California State Route 168 and failed Piute Pass Highway

Western California State Route 168 is entirely located in Fresno County and is linked historically to the Tollhouse Road corridor.   Tollhouse Road is one of the oldest highways in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County. The corridor presently begins in at Clovis Avenue in downtown Clovis and extends northeast to Huntington Lake. In 1866 the Woods Brothers established mining claims on Pine Ridge. In 1867 Fresno County would grant the brothers a toll franchise to construct a roadway to the desirable logging areas atop Pine Ridge and near Dinkey Creek. The Woods would establish a tollhouse at the start of their franchise road and lumber mill. The lumber mill attracted settlers which led to the establishment of the mountain town of Tollhouse. Fresno County would purchase the Tollhouse Road in 1878 and make it a public highway. The county would remove the tolls and incorporate the corridor into the existing county road network. Prior to the establishment of Clovis in 1...

Old Dunlap Road (former California State Route 180 in Yokuts Valley)

When California State Route 180 was commissioned in August 1934 the alignment in took in Sierra Nevada range was very different than from today.  The original highway alignment from Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) to east Grant Grove (then part of General Grant National Park) originally followed what is now Ruth Hill Road, Dunlap Road, Pinehurst Road (modern California State Route 245), Dark Canyon Road (partially now Forest Road 14S45).  After funding fell through for the planned Kings Canyon Road the was corridor eventually picked up as a 30-mile-long cooperative project between the Division of Highways and Federal Government.  Much of current alignment of California State Route 180 bypassing Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) and Dunlap was complete by 1941.  The post-1941 alignment of California State Route 180 in Squaw Valley was shifted onto what was once Dunlap Road in Squaw Valley.  This alignment itself was later bypassed by modern California State Route...

California State Route 73

California State Route 73 is 21 mile limited access highway aligned over the Corona del Mar Freeway and San Joaquin Hills Toll Road.  California State Route 73 connects Interstate 5 near San Juan Capistrano westward to Interstate 405 in Costa Mesa.  Prior to the construction of the Corona del Mar Freeway and San Joaquin Hills Tollway California State Route 73 was a surface highway located on largely MacArthur Boulevard. Part 1; the history of California State Route 73 What became California State Route 73 ("CA 73") entered the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 184 ("LRN 184").  LRN 184 was given the following route definition: "LRN 60 near Corona Del Mar to Santa Ana via Main Street" LRN 184 was announced in the April 1933 California Highways & Public Works .   LRN 184 appears for the first time on the  1934 Division of Highways Map .   LRN 184 appears under State Maintenance from US Route 101/LRN 2 in Santa Ana south ...