I-85 Durham

[Mergingtraffic]

Does anybody have any info on I-85 in Durham?  What was the original lane confguration whe nit was first built?
What type of widening projects have taken place there?

Wikepedia has a 10-lane picture of I-85. Is that recent?

[froggie]

Original was just 2 lanes in each direction, with numerous tight ramps, and the interchange at US 70 East was only a partial interchange.  The rebuild was recent...finished in 2006.

[ReeseFerlautoI74/85]

Before it was 8 lanes, it was bottleneck like I-77

SM-G360T1

[Mapmikey]

http://www.historicaerials.com/ shows several views 1972-2002 that have the original lane configurations.

Durham was very difficult to drive through at any time of day for at least a decade before its long-overdue widening.

Mike

[bob7374]

Original was just 2 lanes in each direction, with numerous tight ramps, and the interchange at US 70 East was only a partial interchange.  The rebuild was recent...finished in 2006.

It was originally built as a US 70 Bypass before it became part of I-85, leading to the design issues described above. The US 15-501 exit was on the left side and it was always quite an effort to get over if you were entering I-85 South from the Hillandale Road exit about 1/2 mile beforehand. Traffic from Business 70 also entered from the left southbound where the Durham Freeway interchange is now.

[OracleUsr]

I remember Exit 175 (US 15/501) and Exit 172 (US 70 West) on I-85 quite well.

[wdcrft63]

What we need now is widening to 6 lanes on the west approach to Durham (I-40 split to NC 147 split) and on the east approach (US 15 at Exit 186 to the US 70 split).

[ReeseFerlautoI74/85]

What we need now is widening to 6 lanes on the west approach to Durham (I-40 split to NC 147 split) and on the east approach (US 15 at Exit 186 to the US 70 split).

How about 8 lanes? I'm the 8 lanes kind of guy!

[The Ghostbuster]

If you try to widen it to 8 lanes, the neighbors might revolt. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done.

[wdcrft63]

What we need now is widening to 6 lanes on the west approach to Durham (I-40 split to NC 147 split) and on the east approach (US 15 at Exit 186 to the US 70 split).

How about 8 lanes? I'm the 8 lanes kind of guy!

I don't think traffic counts would justify 8 lanes today. But if the road is widened to 6 lanes, the design should accommodate the additional widening.

[1995hoo]

http://www.historicaerials.com/ shows several views 1972-2002 that have the original lane configurations.

Durham was very difficult to drive through at any time of day for at least a decade before its long-overdue widening.

Mike

I lived on Erwin Road just east of Duke Hospital from 1995 to 1998. I often found on my way south into town it was faster to exit I-85 east of town onto East Club Boulevard and follow it all the way across to Ninth Street rather than fighting the Interstate.

The interchange froggie mentions with US-70 was basically a "Y" configuration–you could go from northbound I-85 towards Raleigh or from Raleigh to southbound I-85, but that was it. I've always assumed, though without any basis for it, that the assumption was that traffic between Raleigh and points north would use US-1, which connects with I-85 in Henderson.

Durham was a hassle to get around in those days. Aside from substandard I-85 and its weird interchanges, the Durham Freeway wasn't yet finished at the west end, making connections there a pain (if I were coming home from Charlotte, it was often fastest to exit west of town at that weird interchange with US-70 and then take NC-751), and the Downtown Loop was always a mega-hassle if you had to go through that area. North Carolina's stupid prohibition of left turns on red made the Downtown Loop all the more annoying. Elsewhere the street patterns sometimes seemed laid down at random with no real logic to how they joined up. We used to go to a sports bar named TJ Hoops at the Lakewood shopping center. Getting there from Duke was surprisingly more confusing than it should have been, and you couldn't really avoid going through a ghetto en route no matter how you went. (I always found it weird how the neighborhoods close to Duke tended to be crummier, unlike most other college towns, and I've always thought a major reason is that over 90% of undergrads live in university housing.) It took them FOREVER to open just the stub of the MLK Parkway between 15/501 and University Drive, so you had to go around by South Square Mall and the traffic was always worse than it should have been.

I haven't been back to Durham in years now, but I remember thinking I-85 was borderline unrecognizable last time I passed through.

[wdcrft63]

http://www.historicaerials.com/ shows several views 1972-2002 that have the original lane configurations.

Durham was very difficult to drive through at any time of day for at least a decade before its long-overdue widening.

Mike

I lived on Erwin Road just east of Duke Hospital from 1995 to 1998. I often found on my way south into town it was faster to exit I-85 east of town onto East Club Boulevard and follow it all the way across to Ninth Street rather than fighting the Interstate.

The interchange froggie mentions with US-70 was basically a "Y" configuration–you could go from northbound I-85 towards Raleigh or from Raleigh to southbound I-85, but that was it. I've always assumed, though without any basis for it, that the assumption was that traffic between Raleigh and points north would use US-1, which connects with I-85 in Henderson.

Durham was a hassle to get around in those days. Aside from substandard I-85 and its weird interchanges, the Durham Freeway wasn't yet finished at the west end, making connections there a pain (if I were coming home from Charlotte, it was often fastest to exit west of town at that weird interchange with US-70 and then take NC-751), and the Downtown Loop was always a mega-hassle if you had to go through that area. North Carolina's stupid prohibition of left turns on red made the Downtown Loop all the more annoying. Elsewhere the street patterns sometimes seemed laid down at random with no real logic to how they joined up. We used to go to a sports bar named TJ Hoops at the Lakewood shopping center. Getting there from Duke was surprisingly more confusing than it should have been, and you couldn't really avoid going through a ghetto en route no matter how you went. (I always found it weird how the neighborhoods close to Duke tended to be crummier, unlike most other college towns, and I've always thought a major reason is that over 90% of undergrads live in university housing.) It took them FOREVER to open just the stub of the MLK Parkway between 15/501 and University Drive, so you had to go around by South Square Mall and the traffic was always worse than it should have been.

I haven't been back to Durham in years now, but I remember thinking I-85 was borderline unrecognizable last time I passed through.

Your recollections are completely accurate. Durham's traffic problems were simply ignored for decades. We've waited more than 40 years for the East End Connector (Future I-855).

[Mapmikey]

The interchange froggie mentions with US-70 was basically a "Y" configuration–you could go from northbound I-85 towards Raleigh or from Raleigh to southbound I-85, but that was it. I've always assumed, though without any basis for it, that the assumption was that traffic between Raleigh and points north would use US-1, which connects with I-85 in Henderson.

The Y interchange predates the interstate system and US 15 was the route.  So the US 70 WB to US 15 NB movement would be to go to Creedmoor or Oxford, which would've been accomplished via then-US 15A (now NC 50) from Raleigh.  My assumption is the 70 WB to 85 NB ramps were added so that I-885 would be better connected to/from that direction on I-85.

We've waited more than 40 years for the East End Connector (Future I-885).

This shows up as a dotted line on the 1962 Durham County map...

Mike

[froggie]

My assumption is the 70 WB to 85 NB ramps were added so that I-885 would be better connected to/from that direction on I-85.

It's more likely that the ramps between WB-to-NB and SB-to-EB ramps were added because of FHWA's general requirement that Interstate interchanges be full interchanges.  Pre-existing interchanges are grandfathered in, but new construction and full reconstruction/upgrading can trigger the requirement, which requires a lengthy waiver from FHWA to avoid.  NCDOT's use of Federal funding for the 85 rebuild through Durham probably prompted the new ramps.