Are you ready for some football traffic? Wolfpack game coincides with Raleigh commute
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N.C. State Wolfpack fans will be flooding the streets around Carter-Finley Stadium around rush hour Thursday for the football team’s home opener. Prepare for traffic:
The usual: Fans will be arriving all afternoon and evening.
The unusual: Construction projects on I-40 and Blue Ridge Road have many area streets closed. Expect more bottlenecks.
Be prepared, commuters: Avoid the area if you can.
Be prepared, fans: Plan to arrive early, and to wait longer than usual to leave after the game.
Thursday will be exactly 278 days since the N.C. State Wolfpack last played at Carter-Finley Stadium. That may be long enough that some have forgotten how bad the traffic can be, especially on a week night.
Kickoff for NCSU’s home opener against the Western Carolina Catamounts isn’t until 7 p.m., but people will be arriving at the stadium off Wade Avenue all afternoon and through the evening commute.
And they’ll find that, like last year, many of the roads in that part of West Raleigh are under construction.
Contractors for the N.C. Department of Transportation are still working to widen and overhaul the Beltline between Wade Avenue and Interstate 40 near Cary. That work began in 2019 and was expected to take four years. NCDOT now says it will be substantially finished by the end of this year.
The project entails reconfiguring and rebuilding the interchanges at Wade Avenue, Hillsborough Street, Western Boulevard and Jones Franklin Road. Traffic patterns have changed several times in recent years, and occasional visitors to that part of town may not recognize it. Best to be alert and pay attention to the signs.
Meanwhile, Blue Ridge Road remains closed at Hillsborough Street. NCDOT contractors are still working to build an underpass that will carry Blue Ridge under Hillsborough and the N.C. Railroad tracks near the N.C. State Fairgrounds.
Blue Ridge is four lanes wide north of the fairgrounds but now narrows to two lanes near Hillsborough, which could create a bottleneck arriving and leaving the stadium. NCDOT hopes to have the underpass open in time for the 2025 State Fair and part of next fall’s football season.
NCSU advises fans to use traffic apps, such as Waze or Google Maps, to find their way to available parking. It urges patience after the game.
“Due to capacity crowds and road construction detours, we anticipate it will take longer leaving after the game than it has in traditional years,” the university says on its parking and tailgating website.
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Are you ready for some football traffic? Wolfpack game coincides with Raleigh commute."
