I drove around Greensboro today (7/26) to take photos of the signs along I-40 and the Loop that have been updated since my last visit a month ago. The good news is that most, but not all, have been revised to reflect the new route number alignments. First of all, they've removed the Business I-85 and Business I-40 mile markers along the original I-40 and put back I-40 mileposts, such as this:
Also all the US 421 signage west of the Business 85 split has been removed from the roadside, though one still exists in an overhead sign:
They have also revised the exit numbers going west on I-40 for the Loop exits:
The Loop south sign has also been revised to drop the I-40 designation, though no effort has been made to include I-73 in the northbound Loop exit for now. Here's the southbound loop signage at the ramp:
There is room for a second control city, Asheboro is listed in signs at the I-85 interchange, why not here? The sign changes going east on I-40 approaching the Loop are more dramatic:
Traffic to Raleigh is directed along I-40. Since the exit mentions I-85, maybe the addition of High Point or Charlotte could be added here. The signs at the split look like this now:
Following I-73 South, all the exit numbers for Wendover Avenue now read correctly:
Though they still haven't changed the overhead 1/2 mile before the exit:
The ground mounted route signage has changed, however:
The only addition to signage on the rest of the Loop is an End(!) I-73 South sign at the ramp to US 220 (I did not notice any Begin I-73 North signage going the other way):
Signage along US 220 North, Future I-73 has been changed too. Here are how the two exits at the Loop are now signed:
Notice, there is no 'To East I-40" for Exit 78A. This may be because NCDOT hopes traffic is directed to I-40 at the Business 85 Exit.
Though the I-85 for Exit 79 is technically wrong, NCDOT apparently thinks it's important to keep for people looking to access I-85 south. (They could help by putting a south over the I-85 shield). The signage along Business 85 south has also been updated to reflect the I-40 re-routing:
There still are some unfinished projects remaining. All the shield signs along the I-85 section of the Loop still read I-40/85, and the shield signs on I-40 east of US 29 still say Business 40/85. There is the sign at Wendover as indicated above along with the remaining exit number switch for the exit after the Loop on I-40 east, they still list the the Business 85 and former I-85 exit numbers. Hopefully these will all be done by the end of July, as promised by NCDOT.













Comments
i often wonder why they don't sign the lower loop AND the upper loop all as i-840....would make a lotta sense, wouldn't it
As for US 421, up until a month ago it ran north through the Loop and up to what was then Business 40/85 then traveled along with Business 40 west then joined I-40 after it left the Loop. The new route (some still existing signs notwithstanding) place 421 North onto the Loop at I-85 Exit 126 and route it west with I-85, then north with I-73 back to I-40 where it meets the Loop west of Greensboro. The old 126B exit for US 421 North now reads just Greensboro.
As for why NCDOT chose the I-840 designation to only run on the northern section of the Loop, with originally I-40 and I-85, and later I-73 to run on the southern portion, the adding of an additional interstate was not deemed necessary. The stated goal of the Loop at that time was to remove non-Greensboro traffic from the old I-40 Death Valley alignment, an additional I-840 designation doesn't add anything for this purpose. If, from the beginning the NCDOT decided I-40 should stay on its old route, and that I-73 would not use the Loop, then maybe having I-840 on the entire Loop, like I-495 in DC, may have made more sense. It makes it easier just to have 840 as an east/west route north of Greensboro, maybe that will change once the entire Loop is completed.
Stephen
http://www.duke.edu/~rmalme/i73seg5.html