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[bob7374]

NCDOT finally got around to approving the ordinance replacing NC 147 with NC 885 between I-40 and NC 540 earlier this month on March 6:
https://connect.ncdot.gov/resources/safety/Ordinance%20Packages/2023/2023_03_06.pdf

Based on the timeline at the end of the document it appears the replacement was first proposed in July 2020.

[The Ghostbuster]

Maybe we should drop the "New" from the subject title, since it's been an official designation since June 30th of last year.

[1995hoo]

Maybe we should drop the "New" from the subject title, since it's been an official designation since June 30th of last year.

It’s still new relative to pretty much everything else around there.

[wdcrft63]

Maybe we should drop the "New" from the subject title, since it's been an official designation since June 30th of last year.

It’s still new relative to pretty much everything else around there.

Bob7374 named the thread when he launched it. That was in August 2014, which reminds us how agonizingly long it took to build this road.

[Rothman]

Maybe we should drop the "New" from the subject title, since it's been an official designation since June 30th of last year.

No.

[1995hoo]

Maybe we should drop the "New" from the subject title, since it's been an official designation since June 30th of last year.

It’s still new relative to pretty much everything else around there.

Bob7374 named the thread when he launched it. That was in August 2014, which reminds us how agonizingly long it took to build this road.

Well, I still call the parking garage on Emmet Street in Charlottesville the new garage where the bookstore is. It opened in 1994.

[TheStranger]

An interesting music/roads connection here:

reading the obituary today for former Ben Folds Five producer Caleb Southern...
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/caleb-southern-obituary?id=52422840&fbclid=IwAR0_4RQr-fP6rC9LNyC2Jf8BzQuso1D8l4oCiufhm3H0cXWs7YG1cshpAoo

Apparently he advocated for I-885 to be built:

"By the early 2000's, Caleb shifted his focus to local advocacy, playing a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Durham. He was a founding member of the Arts and Business Council of Downtown Durham, served as a board member of Downtown Durham, Inc., and then sat at the table as a Durham Planning Commissioner. Although he had no formal training in urban planning or public policy, Caleb devised a solution for a 35-year-old transportation problem by proposing a connector that preserved local wildlife and natural spaces, linking North Durham to the Research Triangle Park with the "East End Connector" (now called 1-885). In 2002, Caleb won a Citizen Award from the Independent Weekly Magazine for this solution."

Had something approximating the I-885 corridor existed on planning maps pre-2000?

[Mapmikey]

An interesting music/roads connection here:

reading the obituary today for former Ben Folds Five producer Caleb Southern...
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/caleb-southern-obituary?id=52422840&fbclid=IwAR0_4RQr-fP6rC9LNyC2Jf8BzQuso1D8l4oCiufhm3H0cXWs7YG1cshpAoo

Apparently he advocated for I-885 to be built:

"By the early 2000's, Caleb shifted his focus to local advocacy, playing a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Durham. He was a founding member of the Arts and Business Council of Downtown Durham, served as a board member of Downtown Durham, Inc., and then sat at the table as a Durham Planning Commissioner. Although he had no formal training in urban planning or public policy, Caleb devised a solution for a 35-year-old transportation problem by proposing a connector that preserved local wildlife and natural spaces, linking North Durham to the Research Triangle Park with the "East End Connector" (now called 1-885). In 2002, Caleb won a Citizen Award from the Independent Weekly Magazine for this solution."

Had something approximating the I-885 corridor existed on planning maps pre-2000?

The East End Connector is shown as a dotted line on the 1962 Durham County Map.

[wdcrft63]

An interesting music/roads connection here:

reading the obituary today for former Ben Folds Five producer Caleb Southern...
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/caleb-southern-obituary?id=52422840&fbclid=IwAR0_4RQr-fP6rC9LNyC2Jf8BzQuso1D8l4oCiufhm3H0cXWs7YG1cshpAoo

Apparently he advocated for I-885 to be built:

"By the early 2000's, Caleb shifted his focus to local advocacy, playing a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Durham. He was a founding member of the Arts and Business Council of Downtown Durham, served as a board member of Downtown Durham, Inc., and then sat at the table as a Durham Planning Commissioner. Although he had no formal training in urban planning or public policy, Caleb devised a solution for a 35-year-old transportation problem by proposing a connector that preserved local wildlife and natural spaces, linking North Durham to the Research Triangle Park with the "East End Connector" (now called 1-885). In 2002, Caleb won a Citizen Award from the Independent Weekly Magazine for this solution."

Had something approximating the I-885 corridor existed on planning maps pre-2000?

The East End Connector is shown as a dotted line on the 1962 Durham County Map.

According to Wikipedia the EEC was first proposed in 1959. When the Durham Freeway was built in the early 70s the northbound and southbound lanes were spread apart in the area where the EEC would depart as a provision for the future interchange. This proved to be inadequate; when the I-885/NC 147 interchange was finally built it removed those lanes and rebuilt everything on a modern plan. But for 40+ years those separated lanes were the only indication we had that an EEC would eventually be built.

[The Ghostbuster]

Had the full freeway not been delayed for 40 years, would it still have been designated Interstate 885? 285 was approved in 2005, 485 was approved in 1991, and 685 was only approved last year.

[Dirt Roads]

Had the full freeway not been delayed for 40 years, would it still have been designated Interstate 885? 285 was approved in 2005, 485 was approved in 1991, and 685 was only approved last year.

I'm guessing that it would not have gotten a route number.  The original plan was a spine between downtown Raleigh -and- downtown Durham, with a spur around the southwest side of Raleigh and a spur around the east side of Durham.  The three sections that were built became the Wade Avenue Freeway, the Tom Bradshaw Freeway (I-40) and the Durham Freeway (originally all NC-147), and the East End Connector got postponed (over-and-over-and-over...).  (For the record, the western portion of the Tom Bradshaw got renamed as the Dan K. Moore Freeway in 1985). 

The Wade Avenue Freeway didn't get completed inside the Beltline and never got a route number (probably to discourage Durham folks from using this as the main route into downtown).  Similarly, the East End Connector would have dumped onto Miami Boulevard/US-70 Bypass which would have continued to I-85 as a fourlane highway.  It probably wouldn't have gotten a separate route number for a similar reason (to discourage Raleigh folks from using the EEC as a bypass of Durham). 

[TheStranger]

Another article on music producer Caleb Southern's role with I-885, but contemporary to when he was more involved (2002).  This specifically mentions the 1959-era roots for the project:
https://indyweek.com/guides/archives-guides/caleb-southern/

Reading through old public documents on the web, Southern discovered that there used to be—still was, actually—a plan in the state highway program for something called the East End Connector. The road first appeared on the state’s long-range maps in 1959, and as those who’ve worked with these things know, once a road gets into the long-range plan, even if it’s long forgotten, nothing short of celestial intervention can get it removed. “It was the oldest unfunded highway project in North Carolina,”  Southern says, still smiling.

The reason Southern smiled when he discovered the connector, back in April, was that it showed up exactly where he’d already decided a road ought to go—between the Durham Freeway and U.S. 70 in East Durham at the point where the two roads are only a mile apart. Very little was in the way, Southern knew, just old industrial tracts long since abandoned. In fact, the state had acquired much of the Connector corridor years ago, only to give up and turn its attention to the west when Interstate 40 emerged and U.S. 70 receded as the major Raleigh-to-Durham link.


The reason Southern’s smiling now is that the connector has won broad support in the Durham community in the seven months since. Civic leaders and elected officials have come around to the view he first expressed in a in a Herald-Sun column in May: Either the East End Connector or Eno Drive would relieve traffic congestion on I-85, a major goal of the state Department of Transportation; but where Eno Drive alone would pull development out of Durham to the north, in typical sprawl fashion, the connector would support the redevelopment of downtown Durham.

[Mapmikey]

Had the full freeway not been delayed for 40 years, would it still have been designated Interstate 885? 285 was approved in 2005, 485 was approved in 1991, and 685 was only approved last year.

Also keep in mind that there was no connection to/from US 70 and I-85 North until 2003 or thereabouts, so even if the EEC had been built 40 years earlier and received a designation, it would not likely have been an interstate.

[Dirt Roads]

Had the full freeway not been delayed for 40 years, would it still have been designated Interstate 885? 285 was approved in 2005, 485 was approved in 1991, and 685 was only approved last year.

Also keep in mind that there was no connection to/from US 70 and I-85 North until 2003 or thereabouts, so even if the EEC had been built 40 years earlier and received a designation, it would not likely have been an interstate.

Fortunately, the development of the Brier Creek area (plus traffic to/from RDU) would have still resulted in a freeway upgrade to the US-70 Bypass (plus the needed interchange to I-85 to the north).  Then the question is whether NCDOT would upgrade an older East End Connector to Interstate standards in order to get "slap happy".  (Just had to throw that in for the folks who are jealous of North Carolina).