DURHAM
People who drive the Durham Freeway through downtown or out to Interstate 85 soon will notice new exit numbers.
Exit 11, at Alston Avenue, will become Exit 2, for example. Swift Avenue will change from Exit 14 to Exit 4B.
Meanwhile, the white N.C. 147 signs are coming down south of downtown toward Research Triangle Park, replaced by the blue and red shields of Interstate 885.
The new nomenclature anticipates the opening of the Durham East End Connector this summer. The 1.25 miles of highway will connect the Durham Freeway with U.S. 70, creating a new bypass on the east side of town and giving rise to a new interstate highway.
I-885 will run from the U.S. 70 interchange with I-85 south through RTP to Interstate 40, where it will become Toll N.C. 885 down to N.C. 540 in Wake County. I-885 will run concurrently with U.S. 70 east of Durham, but N.C. 147 will cease to exist south of the East End Connector where it joins the new interstate.
While no street names are changing, the creation of a new interstate highway means a new set of exit numbers that may have some people scratching their heads.
At the southern end, 885 will begin as a toll road at N.C. 540 in Wake County and head north across I-40 (Exit 5) toward downtown Durham. It will jog east to join U.S. 70, where the Cheek Road interchange, now Exit 286, will become Exit 12.
Meanwhile, N.C. 147 will begin where the roads diverge, at Exit 9. From there north through the city, N.C. 147 will get a new set of exit numbers starting with 1 at Briggs Avenue and ending with Exit 7 at U.S. 15-501.
The new signs will begin going up next week, but it’s not clear yet exactly when the East End Connector will open. Contractors are beginning the final paving work on U.S. 70, including the lanes that lead to and from the connector. When that work is done, likely sometime in June, the connector can open.
NCDOT awarded a $142 million contract for the East End Connector project at the beginning of 2015, with a scheduled opening date in 2019.
The delay is mostly blamed on a temporary railroad bridge that carried CSX and Norfolk Southern trains over U.S. 70 near the merge with the connector. The temporary bridge was supposed to come down in 2018 but wasn’t demolished until this winter, clearing the way for contractors to finish the interchange.
This story was originally published May 05, 2022 11:59 AM.
