Two busy Johnston Co. highways could soon have new numbers and new names. What to know.
Two highways in and around Clayton may soon have new numbers assigned by the N.C. Department of Transportation. Local officials have begun working on giving them new names as well.
NCDOT is renumbering part of N.C. 42 in western Johnston County to avoid confusion when the Clayton Bypass becomes Interstate 42. NCDOT would also like to designate U.S. 70 Business through Clayton as simply U.S. 70, the road’s name before the bypass opened.
But NCDOT has also asked local officials to consider giving names to both roads that residents and businesses can use in addresses instead of the highway numbers. State officials say names are more permanent and consistent than numbers and that the approach works well in places such as neighboring Wake County, where most people know roads such as Capital Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue by their names rather than their numbers.
Since parts of N.C. 42 and U.S. 70 Business are both in Clayton and outside town in the county, officials from both local governments will need to agree. Those conversations are just getting started, said Johnson County Commissioner Ted Godwin.
“I personally think that a new name would be in order,” Godwin said of N.C. 42. “If a name could be attached to the road, that would lessen the impact” of changing the number.
Avoiding residents, businesses changing addresses twice
NCDOT wants to eliminate a nearly 9-mile section of N.C. 42 between N.C. 50 and what is now U.S. 70 Business. That stretch includes interchanges with the future I-42 and with I-40 in the Cleveland community.
The department proposes a new N.C. 36 that would begin at N.C. 50 in the west and follow the current N.C. 42 through Cleveland to the Clayton Bypass. From there it would jog east to Ranch Road and connect back up with N.C. 42 on the southeast side of Clayton.
Part of N.C. 42 in Clayton already has a name, South Lombard Street, but only as far as Barber Mill Road. Local officials will have to decide whether to keep Lombard or pick a name that applies to all of N.C. 42 west from the center of Clayton.
NCDOT would like to renumber the roads within a year, so they can be included on new signs on the stretch of I-40 that is being widened south of Raleigh. That provides some urgency for the local governments, which wouldn’t want to make residents and businesses change their addresses twice, said Bruce Lawter Jr., head of the Johnston Board of Commissioners.
“I think we can get it worked out,” Lawter said. “I don’t want us to go to new numbers and then after a year come up with a name.”
Who needs to sign off?
NCDOT needs the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or AASHTO to sign off on renaming U.S. 70 Business. The department is asking for resolutions of support from local governments for the change before it seeks AASHTO’s approval this fall.
U.S. 70 shifted to the bypass when it opened in 2008.
The Town of Clayton has only just begun to think about a name for what is now U.S. 70 Business, said Patrick Pierce, the town’s economic development director. Pierce said town officials see the naming of the busiest road through town as a branding opportunity and will want to pick a moniker with some substance.
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Two busy Johnston Co. highways could soon have new numbers and new names. What to know.."
