Have you driven on Interstate 87 yet?
(Raleigh News & Observer, Wednesday, September 6, 2017)
Drivers in the Triangle may notice some new interstate highway signs, after the N.C. Department of Transportation erected the familiar red and blue shields for Interstate 87 on the southeast corner of the Beltline and on U.S. 64/264 between Raleigh and Wendell.
I-87 will one day run from Raleigh to the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, following what are now U.S. 64 to Williamston and U.S. 17 from there past Elizabeth City to Chesapeake, Va. Upgrading the existing highways to interstate standards along the entire route could take a decade or more.
But the Beltline and U.S. 64/264 to the Wendell Boulevard exit already qualify for interstate status, so NCDOT erected the I-87 signs this week. Those routes had already been designated as Interstate 495, and NCDOT wanted to get the correct signs up, said spokesman Steve Abbott.
Economic developers says the interstate designation helps attract businesses that prize good highway access. The Regional Transportation Alliance, a business group associated with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, has pressed for the interstate designation for years, even though U.S. 64 is already a limited-access highway.
“For someone on the outside, when they hear U.S. route they may have something like Capitol Boulevard in mind,” said Joe Milazzo II, the group’s executive director. “But when they hear interstate, they know what they getting.”
Milazzo notes that I-87 has become Wake County’s second long-distance or “primary interstate,” as opposed to “auxiliary interstates” such as I-440, I-540 and I-495. The I-495 designation on U.S. 64 will be superseded by I-87.