Skip to main content

More NC Highway Oddities on the way - Hello NC 36 and a Split NC 42

Image
By

North Carolina is building a lot of new Interstates - personally, there are too many to keep track of - so we have Bob for that.  But as a result of new highways and new highway numbers, there's going to be conflict.

And that's the case with NC 42 and the soon-to-be-signed Interstate 42 in Johnston County.

Concerned about driver confusion and safety and first responder response, NCDOT has proposed that a small segment of NC 42 in Johnston County be redesignated as NC 36.  The new NC 36 designation would follow the existing NC 42 from NC 50 in Cleveland to the current US 70 Business east of Clayton.

When the US 70 corridor from Clayton east to Morehead City was approved as an Interstate nearly a decade ago, North Carolina requested Interstate 36 for the corridor.  Part of the reason was that the I-36 designation would not conflict with any existing state highways.  Unfortunately, the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) disagreed.  They recommended Interstate 42 - as the newly designated corridor would run north of Interstate 40.  NCDOT accepted the ruling, and as a result, the conflict of two routes that would intersect each other and I-40 within miles of each other.

NC 36 will be routed through Clayton bridging the two NC 42's.

The plan to renumber NC 42 through Clayton should resolve that.  However, I believe the NC 36 change should continue eastwards to Wilson.  The reason is that NC 42 and Interstate 42 will intersect Interstate 95 about 19 miles from each other.  That's close enough, in my opinion, to continue with driver confusion for long-distance travelers along I-95.  I left a comment with NCDOT with my suggestion.  Will they listen to me? Stay tuned.

More Changes:

In addition to renumbering NC 42 through Clayton, NCDOT has proposed eliminating US 70 Business through Clayton and replacing it (or re-replacing it) with vanilla US 70 - or what used to be signed through the area until the Clayton Bypass opened 15 years ago.

The signage for Exit 306 will need to change.  Business US 70 East - will now be simply US 70 East.

This change will now eliminate the bried US 70/Interstate 40 multiplex between exits 306 and 309.  Exit 309 - the Clayton Bypass - will now be only Interstate 42.

NCDOT estimates that the changes will be signed in about a year.

The Local 4042 Nominclature:

Exit 312 - known locally as '4042' - will now be for NC 36.

For nearly 40 years, Exit 312 on Interstate 40 was known as '4042' by local residents.  As Johnston County grew, the 4042 interchange area added new restaurants, hotels, services, and of course traffic.  The interchange has been redesigned a few times. A current construction project is giving the interchange a total makeover - it will now become a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) and a new interchange for nearby Cleveland Road is being built to take some of the pressure off the area.

The interchange was so well known that a local community news and information website was named after it - 4042.com.  In 2015, 4042.com became JohnstonCounty.today.

It will be interesting with Exit 309 being the new 40/42 interchange - what locals may now call Exit 312 - '4036' does work.

Sources & Links:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more