Gribblenation

If you live in or drive in Eastern Wake County - you'll be seeing a lot more of sign combinations like this one soon. It seems like yesterday when I blogged about new Future Interstate 495 signs that were going to be installed along US 64 along the Knightdale Bypass and along the way to Rocky Mount.  Well after just three years, Interstate 495 is officially no more .  This week NCDOT crews began to install Interstate 87 shields along the Raleigh Beltline and Knightdale Bypass from Southeast Raleigh to Rolesville Road in Wendell.  The new interstate designation follows Interstate 440 west from I-40 near Garner leaving the Beltline at the Knightdale Bypass and following US 64/264 about another 12 or so miles until the six lane portion of the Knightdale Bypass ends just beyond Business US 64. Eventually, Interstate 87 will continue east along US 64 past Zebulon, Rocky Mount and Tarboro to Williamston where it will head north and northeast along US 17 into Virginia an...

Future I-87 signs are coming to Wake, Franklin and Nash Counties. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials have recently approved North Carolina's application to remove the short-lived Interstate 495 and future I-495 from Raleigh to Rocky Mount.  This administrative move most likely will result in North Carolina signing Interstate 87 and Future I-87 on the entire corridor in the near future. Interstate 495's Future is no longer bright along the I-87 corridor . Approved in 2013, Interstate 495 was first signed in 2014 along US 64 from Interstate 440 in Raleigh to Interstate 540 in Knightdale.  The remaining segment of highway to Rocky Mount was signed as Future Interstate 495.  However, in 2016, North Carolina's congressional legislators were able to get language in the 2015 FAST ACT designating the US 64/US 13/US 17 corridor from Raleigh to Norfolk as an Interstate.  In 2016, the FHWA and AASHTO designated this entire corrid...

Well when I made predictions for the designations of the two new North Carolina Interstate corridors a few months ago, I was way off.  NCDOT has formally requested Interstate 36 to be signed along the Super 70 Corridor and Interstate 89 for the Raleigh to Norfolk corridor.  The designations are pending AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) and FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) approval.  AASHTO meets in Des Moines, IA later this month.  The FHWA - to the best of our knowledge - has both requests under review.  Both numbers would be exceptions to the standard Interstate numbering grid set in the 1950s. Interstate 36 will run North of Interstate 40.  Typically, a number higher that 40 would be assigned to this route (more on NCDOT's rationale in a moment). On the other hand, Interstate 89 has a number of exceptions. 1) It is a duplicate of Interstate 89 in Vermont and New Hampshire.  This does occur with othe...

Could these be the next two Interstates in North Carolina? It seems more than likely that NCDOT is going to petition AASHTO to approve the formal numeric numeration for the two new interstate corridors that were included in the FAST ACT.   The two corridors are US 64 from Raleigh to Williamston then continuing north on US 17 to Hampton, VA.  The other follows US 70 from Interstate 40 near Clayton eastwards to Morehead City. NCDOT is most likely going to submit an application for both routes this April for the AASHTO meeting this coming May.  Here are my predictions for the number of each route. US 70 Corridor - We know that NCDOT is planning to petition for a number between 40 and 60 .  Obviously, 40 is already taken, and there is an Interstate 44 already in place running from St. Louis to Wichita Falls, TX.  42 is possible - however - there are a few of the opinion that since NC 42 intersects with the proposed Interstate this number is out....

The highway bill known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) is passed and signed into law.  The 1,305 page bill has a lot items to it and future impacts to transportation in North Carolina are inside the bill.  This includes the creation of two new Interstate corridors and the extension of another.  As for the numbering of the new corridors, I'll discuss in a later post. High Priority Corridor 81: The first is the creation of High Priority Corridor 81 - this lists as including US 117 and Interstate 795 and runs from US 70 in Goldsboro southwards to Interstate 40 in Faison.  In short, this will extend I-795 from Goldsboro to I-40 in Faison.  North Carolina has had on their agenda for numerous years making a freeway route from I-40 northwards to I-95 in Wilson.  The current Interstate 795 is the north half of this. The southern half consists of US 117.  A number of steps are needed to make this section ...

In October 2014, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory announced that he supported a plan to build an interstate highway from Raleigh to Norfolk .  Basically this would follow US 64 from Raleigh to US 17 in Williamston and follow 17 north into the Tidewater region.  NCDOT last year took somewhat of a first step when they petitioned and was granted the Interstate 495 designation from I-440 in Raleigh to I-95 in Rocky Mount.  This hopeful interstate corridor has been promoted by the Raleigh Regional Transportation Alliance for sometime as "Interstate 44 ". But this isn't the first North Carolina to Norfolk interstate proposal.  Researching a long time ago on another item, I came across an article from the Wilmington Star-News that dates back to 1964.  Titled, " Sanford Backs New Road Plan ," the story talks about then Governor Terry Sanford's endorsement of an interstate corridor from Norfolk to Interstate 95 in Fayetteville.  This corridor which pretty muc...

NCDOT officially announced today that US 64 between Interstate 440 in Raleigh and Interstate 95 in Rocky Mount has been approved by the FHWA to be signed as Interstate 495. The section of US 64 between I-440 (Exit 419) and I-540 (Exit 423) will be signed as Interstate 495.  The remainder of US 64 (and US 264 until Zebulon) from Exit 423 to I-95 (Exit 464) will be signed as Future I-495. No word currently on when either style of the I-495 signs will be posted along US 64.  Nor is there specific plans on when projects to upgrade the US 64 freeway from Rolesville Road (Exit 430) to I-95 will occur. Improvements to inside and outside shoulders on the route east of Exit 430 along with upgrades to the Nashville bypass will be necessary for the full Interstate designation to be signed along the rest of the route.  NCDOT has unfunded plans to widen the US 64/264 freeway from Rolesville Road to the US 264 East split (Exit 436) to six lanes.  It is possible that the In...

I applied for an open records management position at the Vermont Transportation Agency (VTrans) a couple weeks ago. Last Friday I was asked to interview for the position on Thursday 7/11 (how convenient) and decided to take advantage of the situation by going up the day before and do some road tripping along the way. My trip would take me up I-93 from south of Boston to Barre, VT, just south of Montpelier off of I-89. Along the way I took a 'few' photos that I will share with you. A. I-93 Signage South of Boston I took a quick south detour on my way north to check out any progress on the sign replacement project along I-93 from Randolph to Boston. Nothing new truly to report. All the overhead sign foundations have been up between Randolph and Braintree for a at least a couple weeks. There is now apparently a lull between getting the foundations in and the signs and support structures up. This hopefully will start happening before the start of fall. As for the SE Expressway p...

Last weekend, Adam Froehlig hosted the first Washington DC roadmeet. So I decided to head up and attend the meet and visit family at the same time. For the entire meet set - head here . There's a lot going on in the Metro DC area - and the first part of the meet took a look at the recently completed Woodrow Wilson Bridge. We took a brief walk across the newly opened pedestrian and bikeway. The views of the traffic and upstream on the Potomac are impressive. The beginning of the walkway on the Alexandria, VA side. The US Capitol viewed from the bridge. Washington Monument Sailboats were out A look at the inner loop's newly opened local lanes. We did a driving tour of the Springfield (I-95/I-395/I-495) Interchange construction's final phase - HOV lane connections and of the construction of the missing piece of the Fairfax County Parkway. I was driving - and I didn't take any photos of that. Next, was a driving tour of the 495 HOT (High Occupancy Toll) construction wit...