Gribblenation

A TV station has a website article and video confirming earlier newspaper reports that NCDOT expects the section of I-74/US 311 between Business 85 in High Point and Cedar Square Road in Randolph County to be open by Thanksgiving. Click on the Blog title to access the URL. Hmm, guess NCDOT wants me to return to NC to drive the new freeway when it's open. Maybe, stay tuned.

I never noticed it before -- probably because I didn't really pay much attention to the Fayetteville inset on the back of the map -- but the 2007 official NC map has the Hope Mills bypass marked as proposed, in about the same place I figured it would go (including a currently-built portion of Elk Road between Legion Road and US 301). It looks like the road will be around 4 miles long. Which begs the question: why in the world is NCDOT wasting a state route designation on (a) a four-mile long road, and (b) a road that bypasses another road that's only seven miles long in its own right (NC 59)? Is this going to start a trend of all new bypasses getting state route numbers? (Try convincing Hickory of that one; their bypass, opened last year, has a four-digit SR number.) Looks to me like NC 162 is going to fall in line with the likes of NC 112, NC 902 and NC 400 on the List of NC Highways That Serve Less Than No Purpose.

According to this story from WRAL , the new Hope Mills bypass in Cumberland County will carry the designation of NC 162. Thirty years after it was initially proposed, the Hope Mills Bypass is ready for its first traffic. The four-mile N.C. Highway 162 is expected to open by the end of the month, after crews put the finishing touches on a leg between Camden Road and Legion Road, said Tracy Pittman, a state Department of Transportation spokeswoman in Cumberland County. The state awarded the $24.6 million contract to build the highway in 1994. The four-lane, divided highway will link Bingham Drive to U.S. Highway 301, sweeping around downtown Hope Mills. It's a bit hard to figure out exactly where the bypass will go, but it seems that it will run to the north of downtown Hope Mills , but won't connect directly to I-95. Also, Hope Mills is now home to two intra-city routes, as NC 59 serves as the main street through downtown.