Interstate 87 (NC-VA)

[Beltway]

What do you mean by "full-depth shoulders"?

A lot of the freeways that NCDOT built, without Federal dollars, in the 70s-90s had no or grass shoulders. Interstate standards require 10-feet of right paved shoulder and 4-feet left paved shoulder, with few exceptions. Those cost savings mean they do not meet the current Interstate standards and would need to be corrected before FHWA approves a interstate designation.

I do recall some like that, a ten foot right shoulder with four feet paved.

[jdunlop]

Full-Depth shoulders = Same pavement structure as travel lanes.

Why do that unless it is 12 feet wide and planned for a future traffic lane? Or is a flex lane (emergency use traffic lane) like in parts of the Illinois tollways?

Easier to run traffic on if construction needs a lane shift, and doesn't need replacement if road is widened to the outside (more important if road is asphalt.). I'm sure I'm missing other reasons (I was traffic, not pavement management.)

[Beltway]

Full-Depth shoulders = Same pavement structure as travel lanes.

Why do that unless it is 12 feet wide and planned for a future traffic lane? Or is a flex lane (emergency use traffic lane) like in parts of the Illinois tollways?

Easier to run traffic on if construction needs a lane shift, and doesn't need replacement if road is widened to the outside (more important if road is asphalt.). I'm sure I'm missing other reasons (I was traffic, not pavement management.)

Essentially what I was saying.

[architect77]

Looks like they finally awarded the pavement rehabilitation project for US 64 (and US 264 where concurrent) from Rolesville Road to Nash County. Notice the headline emphasizes I-87, which is at best along 1 mile of the project. They don't mention that the project will not be widening the shoulders so that the rest will not be signed as I-87 any time soon:
https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2026/Smoother-Drive-Coming-to-I-87-in-Eastern-Wake-County.aspx

Do we know for certain the project doesn't include shoulder widening? They've been spotty about doing it on some projects, then not on others. If this ends up including shoulder widening, I could see them applying to extend the I-87 designation to the US-264 split... especially if I-587 is coming in the near future.

It will include widening (see post #1946), but only 8 feet and only half of that will be paved. They could have at least made it 10 feet, even if 1/2 gravel it would be easier to upgrade that to interstate standards when needed.

Have emergency shoulders on interstates always been what looks like an inferior pavement type, always having a different appearance, or didn't get resurfaced as often as the travel lanes?

I noticed this for the first time a few years ago and thought it seemed to say, "We can barely afford the repave the travel lanes and the entire paved surface will have to be 2 toned half deteriorated, half resurfaced."

It may have always been this way and I just didn't notice. Concrete pavement has asphalt shoulders too sometimes.

This is one example of the noticeable resurfacing that didn't extend to the edge of the emergency shoulder. But if they did do that, they'd have to redo the rumble strips so that answers my question.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sanford,+NC/@35.3626759,-78.4888465,3a,90y,316.37h,88.13t/data=!3m10!1e1!3m8!1sj3568GtmrOvNQYxfobn_EQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D1.8655284939657832%26panoid%3Dj3568GtmrOvNQYxfobn_EQ%26yaw%3D316.36788554510434!7i16384!8i8192!9m2!1b1!2i16!4m6!3m5!1s0x89aca38c6e5a1cc9:0x33e094f5b0279618!8m2!3d35.4798757!4d-79.1802994!16zL20vMHloanM?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgxOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D






.

[ElishaGOtis]

Another thing of interest... https://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/Roadway/RDM/2026%20May%20RDM.pdf?#page=78

Seems like all new construction requires 10' paved shoulders for freeways with AADT ≥15,000 VPD. Wondering if any future I-87 / 587 projects will be affected by this.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.