Wake’s busiest interchange often gets bogged down. Here’s NCDOT’s plan to fix it.
The intersection of two major highways at one of Wake County’s busiest shopping areas has created a complex network of exit and entrance ramps that force drivers to crisscross each other as they get on and off.
Now the N.C. Department of Transportation has unveiled plans to untangle the traffic by rebuilding the place where Interstate 40 meets U.S. 1, U.S. 64 and I-440 at the Crossroads shopping area. NCDOT is seeking feedback on the plan before turning it over to a contractor for final designs and construction in late 2025.
This highway interchange, where Raleigh and Cary meet, was the busiest in Wake County in 2015 when planning for the overhaul began. NCDOT says it now expects traffic passing through the interchange will increase by as much as 68% by 2045.
One goal of the project is to separate drivers moving between the two highways from local traffic going to and from Crossroads Plaza and other nearby shopping centers. NCDOT proposes a new way to get on and off northbound U.S. 1/64, south of Walnut Street, with new ramps that connect with Dillard Drive and Piney Plains Road, near Crossroads Ford. From there, Dillard Drive continues on to Walnut and Crossroads Plaza.
The new ramps would replace the exit from northbound U.S. 1/64 to Walnut Street and the ramps from Walnut and Crossroads Boulevard onto northbound U.S. 1/64. Drivers entering the highway on those ramps must crisscross traffic trying to get from U.S. 1/64 onto eastbound I-40.
At the highway interchange itself, NCDOT plans to build two new flyover bridges to handle the busiest movements: from northbound U.S. 1/64 to westbound I-40 and from westbound I-40 to southbound U.S. 1/64. The flyovers would eliminate a loop ramp and reduce the amount of crisscrossing required.
NCDOT says it would need to acquire 28 acres to accommodate the new ramps. While no homes or businesses would be relocated, the South Hills Mall and Plaza would lose 190 parking spaces, while the Centerview Office Park, in the northeast corner of the interchange, would lose 15 spaces.
The project is expected to cost $151.5 million.
The plan for overhauling the highway interchange is one of three options that NCDOT engineers presented to the public in May 2019. At the time, the department expected to get construction underway in 2022.
That date was pushed back as the department shifted money to pay for cleanup and repairs following hurricanes and other storms and to settle lawsuits related to the Map Act, a law the state used to reserve land for future roads without actually buying it. Then the sharp drop in gas tax revenue during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic set it back again.
The new start date means construction should begin after contractors have finished widening a four-mile stretch of the Beltline from I-40 to Wade Avenue. That’s scheduled to be done by the end of 2024.
In addition to rebuilding the highway interchange, NCDOT plans to increase capacity on I-40 east of Crossroads, by adding a lane on each side between I-440 and Lake Wheeler Road. That would widen I-40 from three travel lanes to four, with extended merge lanes bringing the total to five between the I-440, Gorman Street and Lake Wheeler exits.
No new land would be needed for the additional lanes, which NCDOT expects will cost nearly $69 million to build.
To learn more about both projects and to leave comments or questions, go to publicinput.com/40-440-us1-interchange. NCDOT will collect comments online through March 28.
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Wake’s busiest interchange often gets bogged down. Here’s NCDOT’s plan to fix it.."
