I-40 in North Carolina

[ARMOURERERIC]

There will be a division let on 3/20  to rehab and widen the overcrossing at Exit 113.  The widening will be a few feet to either side to allow for a left turn lane on the bridge.

[Henry]

Those two interchanges are awesome! A DDI at US 21 and a 3/4 turbine at I-77, and C/D roads connect them both? I love it!

[cowboy_wilhelm]

The six through lanes on I-40 are a bit of overkill with the collector lanes. No one seems to be utilizing the third right lane since it ends up exiting or ending after a couple of miles, especially the tractor-trailers. I wish they'd gone ahead and widened a couple more miles west to Exit 148 and rebuilt the two sub-standard interchanges/bridges at 148 and 150.

[ARMOURERERIC]

I recall that at one point there was a 12 month item for redoing exit 148, I will go back and look.

[sprjus4]

The six through lanes on I-40 are a bit of overkill with the collector lanes. No one seems to be utilizing the third right lane since it ends up exiting or ending after a couple of miles, especially the tractor-trailers.

I wouldn't say it's overkill... building for the future. It allows traffic to have more merging space and to un-choke traffic a little bit through that interchange area.

[ARMOURERERIC]

On May 6, the bridge at exit 113 will close for 6 months for rehab.  The plans I saw showed a slight widening to provide a center turn lane as well.

[bob7374]

NCDOT announcement about more closures on I-40 for the NC 540 project. Since this was posted they moved the closure up to tonight (4/17). They could have made the notice more complicated by stating I-40 West is closed so traffic should use NC 42 (Future NC 36) East to US 70 (Future I-42) West to get back to I-40:
https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2024/2024-04-17-road-closed-i-40-west-clayton.aspx

[bob7374]

More news on I-40, new interchange is opening in Johnston County just south of the (soon to be former) NC 42 exit:
https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2024/2024-04-19-new-1-40-interchange-johnston.aspx

[The Ghostbuster]

Is the proposal to renumber a portion of NC 42 to NC 36 set in stone? I haven't seen anything on whether or not the proposal was approved. Did I miss something?

[wriddle082]

Is the proposal to renumber a portion of NC 42 to NC 36 set in stone? I haven't seen anything on whether or not the proposal was approved. Did I miss something?

I wanna say it's been mentioned in either the North Carolina or I-42 threads.  It's going to happen in order to alleviate confusion with I-42.

[bob7374]

Is the proposal to renumber a portion of NC 42 to NC 36 set in stone? I haven't seen anything on whether or not the proposal was approved. Did I miss something?

I wanna say it's been mentioned in either the North Carolina or I-42 threads.  It's going to happen in order to alleviate confusion with I-42.

I have not heard anything since the public meeting in October whether a final decision has been made. The news article about the public meeting indicated a decision would be made in less than a year, prior to I-42 being signed. So perhaps we'll find out this summer, if not next fall.

[cowboy_wilhelm]

The six through lanes on I-40 are a bit of overkill with the collector lanes. No one seems to be utilizing the third right lane since it ends up exiting or ending after a couple of miles, especially the tractor-trailers. I wish they'd gone ahead and widened a couple more miles west to Exit 148 and rebuilt the two sub-standard interchanges/bridges at 148 and 150.

I wouldn't say it's overkill... building for the future. It allows traffic to have more merging space and to un-choke traffic a little bit through that interchange area.

Which is the purpose of the C/D lanes. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar amount of traffic use the C/D lanes as the through lanes. Sure, better to widen with the rest of the project and future-proof it, but it's not really where the additional lanes are needed since so much traffic exits the I-40 main line. It's still overkill for such a short distance and lower volume when everything bottlenecks back to two sub-standard lanes after the C/D lanes merge. Like why not add 1000 feet of auxiliary lane eastbound to connect exits 150 and 151? Oh well, maybe one of these decades.

It's kind of funny how much conversation there is on here about future interstate upgrades in North Carolina when there are still so many miles of existing interstate highway in North Carolina that don't even meet modern interstate standards.

[ARMOURERERIC]

How much time can elapse before NCDot has to recalculate a design because of increasing traffic count?  I ask because after several options were presented in 2017 for the improvement to Exit 103, US 64 in Morganton, opting to go with a larger "tight diamond", the traffic at that interchange continues to increase dramatically, do mostly to the additional educational institutions that have been added to the grounds of Western Piedmont Community College.  This added traffic even more stresses the left from 64 west to 40 east.  When NCDot went with the larger tight diamond, I stated that this would be inadequate, it is even more likely so now.

[cowboy_wilhelm]

The design year traffic volume is at least 20 years from the time construction is planned to start. The design year is 2040 for this project, which is now the estimated let date. The problem is the final planning document was signed by the FHWA in 2018. Things kind of get etched into stone at that point. The final design plans can't deviate very much from what was complete when the planning document was signed without starting the planning and review process all over again. Design and planning is expensive and lead to further delays. An updated traffic forecast may still happen, but unless the forecast shows the proposed design won't operate at an acceptable level of service in the new design year, the design is unlikely to change. So, unless there are drastic changes to the land use in the area and/or significant increases in traffic volumes, the design probably won't change at this point. Traffic counts at the interchange from the past several years don't really reflect that, but the latest counts are from 2022.

I can think of several other projects off hand that have traffic forecasts that are many years old with no sign of construction starting within the next decade and have wondered if they will remain unchanged or not.

I still don't know why a SPUI wasn't considered for this location and why NCDOT doesn't build them now. They specifically cited the right-of-way limitations at this interchange as a reason for not going with a different design than what was selected. It's been several years (decade?) since a SPUI was constructed in North Carolina, and I only know of one that is still proposed at Glenwood Ave./Brier Creek Pkwy. in Raleigh. Yeah, they're expensive, but it seems like these types of locations would warrant the compact design and associated cost.