Gribblenation

Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina.  Two cities - roughly twenty miles apart.  Both are growing, have their own identity, and a little bit of a rivalry.  The major international airport is Raleigh-Durham, but don't tell anyone from Raleigh or Durham that they are the same city. There are a variety of different yet similar things in both cities.  One example is two separate bridges - both carry trains, eat trucks annually, and are beloved in their unique way. Raleigh's Peace Street Bridge and Durham's Can Opener Bridge (located at South Gregson at West Peabody) are both low-clearance Norfolk Southern railroad overpasses that for decades have taken out numerous unsuspecting tractor-trailers.  Each bridge resides near their respective city's downtowns - Durham's Brightleaf District and Raleigh's Glenwood South.  Over the years, the two bridges have generated media attention and a social media following. Durham's Can Opener Bridge: The bridge opened in 1940 ca...

North Carolina's passenger rail system had a record year in 2022.  Quickly bouncing back from the drastic drop in ridership during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Raleigh-to-Charlotte service saw a record of over 522,000 riders in 2022.  The four-times daily route (three on the Piedmont service and one on the Carolinian that continues to New York City) also had a record-breaking month of 55,493 travelers in October.  The overall ridership numbers within the state do not include passengers that utilized stations on other intercity lines that run through the state. (Silver Star, Crescent, Palmetto, and Silver Meteor) A Southbound Piedmont Train approaches the Durham Train Station.  More riders used the NCDOT-sponsored Piedmont service in 2022 than any other year prior. NC by Train celebrated the completion of the first phase of Charlotte's Gateway Station.  The first test runs to the Uptown Charlotte station occurred in November.  The new station will not be ready...

GoTriangle - The Research Triangle (NC) Public Transit Authority - is seeking public input on commuter rail between Clayton and Durham.  The proposed 37 mile heavy rail system would run concurrent along the existing North Carolina Central Railroad tracks.    The proposed Triangle Commuter Rail (GoTriangle.Org) The proposed plans would utilize existing Amtrak stations in Durham, Cary and the newly built Union Station in Raleigh.  One of the current draft plans include an additional 12 stations along the route.  The rail line would not have a station directly with Raleigh-Durham International Airport but would utilize shuttle busses from most likely the proposed Morrisville Station. The public input survey runs through November 6th and can be accessed here -  https://goforwardnc.org/commuterrail/ .

Two years ago, I shared some older North Carolina and Virginia photos that were sent to myself and Mike Roberson.  I forgot that there was another photo from this collection that was from the intersection of Wake Forest Road and Louisburg Road just north of Downtown Raleigh prior to the construction of Capital Blvd. Wake Forest Road at Louisburg Road sometime between 1948 and 1954.  Louisburg Road (following the NC 59 arrow) runs north through the center of the photo and into the distance. The sign for US 1A is for traffic that would continue on Wake Forest Road. It appears that this photo was most likely taken after 1948 but before Capital Boulevard was constructed in the early to mid 1950s.  According to Mike Roberson's NCRoads website, US 1 had ran on Wake Forest Road and US 1A along Louisburg Road .  However, in 1948, the two designations swapped with US 1 joining NC 59 north out of the city along Louisburg.  US 1A was moved to Wake Forest Road....

I promised in my earlier post that I'd put additional photos in a future entry regarding signage changes along I-40 in Raleigh. These changes are taking place with the re-designation of I-440 as an East-West route across the top of Raleigh and its discontinuance on I-40. NCDOT had a press release last week saying they had completed the I-440 re-signing. Here are some photos taken in January showing examples: This is on Wade Avenue approaching the I-440 interchange, the previous 'Inner' and 'Outer' designations have been replaced by 'East' and 'West.' Here's a closeup of the second sign in the interchange. Another 3 control city sign. The trivia about this sign is that only 1 of the cities (Wake Forest) does either of these routes go to. The other destinations might be more appropriate on a I-40 US 64 sign, since you need to get on 64. This is signage along the roadway itself, all that was done here is place an 'East' panel over the I-440 ...