North Carolina's two new future Interstates 42 and 87

North Carolina's two new future Interstates 42 and 87 - one signed, one not yet

It hasn't taken North Carolina long to start putting up signs announcing the new Interstate Highways Corridors in the Eastern half of the state. Future Interstate 42 signs are already up along US 70 from Clayton to New Bern. Two weeks ago, I grabbed this shot on US 70 East at the start of the Clayton Bypass once you get on the highway from Interstate 40.

Signs for Future Interstate 87 aren't just ready yet. For the past three weeks - these sign posts stand tall and alone on US 64 just east of Interstate 95 in Rocky Mount.

Now, this delay may be because NCDOT is wanting to erect the new signs and update the Future Interstate 495 signs at the same time; or who knows maybe a write-in campaign to protest the I-87 designation to the FHWA worked!

Comments

Steve Sobol said…

People seriously are complaining about the I-87 designation?

10:24 PM

Bob Malme said…

Mostly the Roadgeek community due to either the duplication of the number, that it's more an east-west route than north-south, or both. The hold up on installing the I-87 signs may be due to the existence of I-495/Future I-495 along the corridor from Raleigh to I-95 and the need to get the FHWA and AASHTO to sign off on the decommissioning of that route before any other route number can be put up.

11:15 PM

Anonymous said…

Yo interstate 87 end in Harlem nyc how gping have that in nc they need look for another number

10:43 AM

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