Interstate 42 (E)

[english si]

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but does anyone know what the finished I-40/I-42/NC 540 interchange will look like?

It's on OSM, but obviously the additional ramps are marked as under-construction.

[brian440i]

You can reach maps from the Project Site:
https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/complete-540/Pages/project-maps.aspx

I'd look at this one below.

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/67324e7937374d5ca5bb1cdb16defb53/

[jcil4ever]

Drove through Wilson's Mills westbound today. My untrained eye couldn't spot anything that wasn't done yet—all signs and road markings (including reflectors) looked to be in place (except for that one incorrect US-70 Business West sign for Exit 326B). Hopefully this is the week the covers are pulled off those 70 mph signs!

Oh, and I guess these are more common now, but I was interested to see that the VMS (visible at about :30 in the video) looks to be full color as it seemed to be in a blue screen test mode:

[sprjus4]

It does make me wonder, with variable speed limit signs, why don't they increase the speed limit up to 70 mph when they're not working?

The same thing with the completed 8-lane segments of I-95 south of here that are still "work zone" 60 mph.

[architect77]

Drove through Wilson's Mills westbound today. My untrained eye couldn't spot anything that wasn't done yet—all signs and road markings (including reflectors) looked to be in place (except for that one incorrect US-70 Business West sign for Exit 326B). Hopefully this is the week the covers are pulled off those 70 mph signs!

Oh, and I guess these are more common now, but I was interested to see that the VMS (visible at about :30 in the video) looks to be full color as it seemed to be in a blue screen test mode:

Atlanta has a few full color digital overhead signs with graphics of a green overhead sign with exit tab followed by a distance to it.

[bob7374]

Drove through Wilson's Mills westbound today. My untrained eye couldn't spot anything that wasn't done yet—all signs and road markings (including reflectors) looked to be in place (except for that one incorrect US-70 Business West sign for Exit 326B). Hopefully this is the week the covers are pulled off those 70 mph signs!

Oh, and I guess these are more common now, but I was interested to see that the VMS (visible at about :30 in the video) looks to be full color as it seemed to be in a blue screen test mode:

I don't know why they've insisted on keeping the US 70 exit number for the US 70 West/Bus. 70 exit westbound but changed the one headed east to I-42 mileage. Wouldn't it be simpler having an exit with just one number?

[jcil4ever]

It does make me wonder, with variable speed limit signs, why don't they increase the speed limit up to 70 mph when they're not working?

The same thing with the completed 8-lane segments of I-95 south of here that are still "work zone" 60 mph.

Certainly a wonder of mine!

Atlanta has a few full color digital overhead signs with graphics of a green overhead sign with exit tab followed by a distance to it.

NCDOT seems to have typically reserved them for toll roads (while rarely using the color features); maybe this is indicative of a wider rollout?

I don't know why they've insisted on keeping the US 70 exit number for the US 70 West/Bus. 70 exit westbound but changed the one headed east to I-42 mileage. Wouldn't it be simpler having an exit with just one number?

Well, they're occasionally consistent! They did the same thing at the eastern of the Goldsboro Bypass—US-70 is Exit 370 westbound and 53 eastbound.

[architect77]

The Word BUSINESS was above the shield centered to the shield. Fitting the word BUSINESS at the top of the sign pushed the group to the right which explains why it's not centered.

Huh? That's not how it's supposed to work.

[BUSINESS]
[70 EAST]
[Clayton]

are three independent blocks that should all be horizontally centered to the sign panel, which would also center them to each other. With BUSINESS removed, [70 EAST] and [Clayton] should still be horizontally centered. (They obviously won't be vertically centered anymore, but it's rare they are even when new. Margins are determined by the size of adjacent text, so this sign should have originally had a 12" top margin and 16" bottom margin.)

There are some tricky situations when it comes to centering banners, but this isn't one of them.

ETA: Okay, after writing this and then looking at the photo again, I think what you're trying to say is that [BUSINESS] was originally centered to just the US-70 shield rather than the sign panel which...is technically correct, I suppose, but it looks worse than centering it over both 70 and EAST (which would also be technically correct). Really, the lesson here is probably to not put business routes on freeways, so they don't need pull-through signs to begin with...

centerline by Stephen Edwards, on Flickr

[ElishaGOtis]

It does make me wonder, with variable speed limit signs, why don't they increase the speed limit up to 70 mph when they're not working?

The same thing with the completed 8-lane segments of I-95 south of here that are still "work zone" 60 mph.

Does this help? It mentions a warrant to reduce the speed limit if there are interchanges, uneven lanes, narrower clear zones (if any), and a few more factors. Halfway through it talks about VSLs in work zones. https://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/WZTC/Documents/Chapter%208%20Reduce%20Speed.pdf

[jcil4ever]

Drove back and forth to Durham last night. Alas, camera looses its ability to think quickly at night. It looked like all signs on 40 have now been updated. Still no removal of the variable speeds in Wilson's Mills, but I did see a small work crew on the way into town, so I'm sure they still have important work to do!

Some images of the new signs from dashcam eastbound on 40:


2 miles out. This was updated as signs were westbound: covering up the old US-70 West / US-70 East Business with just a US-70 shield, making for a seemingly oversized sign.


However, 1 mile out, they decided to just green over BUSINESS over US-70 East.


The final Exit Only warning and the actual exit sign return to just the single shield. The shield for the US-70 East duplex with I-40 is covered with a TO I-42 shield.


If you look closely, the sign for the split on the ramp has also been updated to change from US-70 East Business to just US-70 East.

[Strider]

Yikes. I hope a smaller signage is in the works in the future for that. The US-70 shield looks way out of place on that large sign (yes, I know it was used for US-70 WEST, Business US-70 EAST in the past).

[jcil4ever]

Yikes. I hope a smaller signage is in the works in the future for that. The US-70 shield looks way out of place on that large sign (yes, I know it was used for US-70 WEST, Business US-70 EAST in the past).

That was my thought too, but they did the same thing westbound. That's why I thought it was particularly interesting that they made an exception with the 1 mile overhead on 40 east. I'd think that fix would be more cost effective, but I could see it also being a bit more confusing...and off centered.