Charlotte

[architect77]

Actually I thought I-40 near RDU and I-77 through Charlotte had the highest traffic counts. I-85 is very nice, but I've never seen the section between I-485 towards Gastonia regularly grind to a halt like US1 does all day, everyday.

This I-85 project will begin with an easy short section and the rest through Gastonia will take longer as 2 railroad overpasses have to be rebuilt and the railroads are super slow to work with.

Also I-85 is still only 4 lanes between Hillsborough and Efland for 8 miles which is a real bottleneck for the deluxe I-85. No one cares about the 4-lane section to the VA border which is 40 miles or so.

[wriddle082]

I think making the transitions from I-485 either direction (especially the inner loop) to I-85 south are the biggest bottleneck, as lots of commuters from Gaston County commute to/from warehouse and other light industrial jobs in the Steele Creek and Ayrsley areas (not to mention all of the trucks heading to/from those same warehouses).  I'm not sure if they've tried temporarily dropping the rightmost lane of I-85 south just before the I-485 traffic merges in so it can seamlessly flow on, but sometimes trucks have a difficult time going up the hill through the ramp merges.  Then a couple of miles later that fourth lane drops at the NC 273 Belmont exit, going up a hill, so slow trucks end up changing lanes and slowing up traffic more.

If they had gone ahead with the "Garden Parkway" project or something else that provides another Catawba River crossing between Wilkinson Blvd. and NC 49, it likely would have relieved the commuter traffic a good bit.  I don't believe that proposal is completely off the table, but for now it's on hold.

[ARMOURERERIC]

News report that the project to widen I-85 to 8 lanes from Exit 23 to 27 was awarded yesterday.  I watched the project delayed  a good 15 times at the NCDot contract letting page and at one point was going to go south to exit 17.  But the price of the larger project jumped a good 40% to past 1 bil.

[architect77]

News report that the project to widen I-85 to 8 lanes from Exit 23 to 27 was awarded yesterday.  I watched the project delayed  a good 15 times at the NCDot contract letting page and at one point was going to go south to exit 17.  But the price of the larger project jumped a good 40% to past 1 bil.

Lucky you are. US1 in Raleigh which is only 4 lanes has had it's widening delayed until after 2031, along with 9 other Triangle road projects now scheduled for 2031-2035.

[sprjus4]

News report that the project to widen I-85 to 8 lanes from Exit 23 to 27 was awarded yesterday.  I watched the project delayed  a good 15 times at the NCDot contract letting page and at one point was going to go south to exit 17.  But the price of the larger project jumped a good 40% to past 1 bil.

Lucky you are. US1 in Raleigh which is only 4 lanes has had it's widening delayed until after 2031, along with 9 other Triangle road projects now scheduled for 2031-2035.

US-1 being four or even six lanes isn't the biggest issue, the biggest issue is the lack of controlled access and the abundance of traffic signals. The project will convert several miles into a six lane controlled access freeway.