Road Worrier: To avoid Raleigh’s southern BeltlineJam, look to the north
(News and Observer – June 1, 2015)
If you’re one of 120,000 Interstate 40 stalwarts who make the grueling trek across Raleigh’s southern Beltline every day, the state Department of Transportation wants to help you find a better way.
It’s a longer way. But when the #BeltlineJam project grinds I-40 traffic into slow gear this summer, it might get you where you’re going more quickly.
“That is significantly out of the way,” said Joe Milazzo II, who directs the Regional Transportation Alliance, a business group that lobbies for transportation improvements.
“My sense is that for most trucks, most of the time, that’s not going to work for them.” Milazzo figures that I-40 truckers are more likely to join the rest of us on I-440, the northern Beltline.
Milazzo figures that I-40 truckers are more likely to join the rest of us on I-440, the northern Beltline. It certainly is a more scenic route than the dreary southern Beltline, with barbered hedges, crape myrtles pruned like poodles, and red-brick walls dripping with vines.