Photos of New I-73/I-74 Segment Through Asheboro

The new section of I-73/I-74 through Asheboro was completed last week. I was e-mailed some photos from a follower of my website, JC Austin, and thought I would post them here first before putting them on my I-73 Segment 8 page.

First, the new overhead signage at the US 64/NC 49 interchange (only the support poles were up when I was last there in early August):

Do you think they should have Winston-Salem as one of the control cities for North I-73/West I-74? Maybe they'll change it after the I-74 freeway is completed by next April.

Here are some examples of the new Interstate signage replacing the Future I-73/74 shields (for North I-73/West I-74 anyway) at the new Exit 68 for Business 220 and NC 134:

Above approaching the southbound on-ramp and below, the northbound ramp:

Here are some of the new overheads on the highway itself, here northbound at US 64/NC 49, new Exit 72):

And here are the overheads for the left-hand NC 42 exit heading south, Exit 74:

Last, we have one of the new I-73 mile markers to make the new exit numbers official (the last new number northbound, for now, is 76) before the Presnell Drive exit:

Hopefully, I will be able to check this out in person some time in the coming months.

Comments

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926. Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California. The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant. However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes. The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield. In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range. ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida. One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region. For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate. Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century. Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area. The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog