Signage makes new interstate official in Wake County
(Triangle Business Journal, Wednesday, September 6, 2017)
With new I-87 signs installed Tuesday, Wake County receives a connectivity boost and Wendell has its first interstate. That's according to officials celebrating what the signage could mean for economic development in the Triangle.
Last year, the feds gave the state approval to designate the U.S. 64/17 corridor, which runs from Raleigh through Rocky Mount, Williamston and Elizabeth City, as a future interstate. The hope is to have the interstate one day connect Raleigh to Norfolk, Virginia.
And the signage starts in eastern Wake County.
The newly designated interstate stretch follows portions of I-440 in southeastern Raleigh and U.S. 64 to the Knightdale Boulevard/Wendell Boulevard/Rolesville Road interchange. The segment, which stretches more than 12 miles, serves as the western-most extent of the future I-87, which will one day reach coastal Virginia.
Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance business coalition, calls the designation “an economic development driver” for Wake County.
“When you say it’s an interstate, it’s a level of quality, it’s the highest level of highway in the country,” he says, noting that, until the designation, Wake County had just one primary interstate: I-40. “[I-87] is now a major interstate.”
And Wendell may be the big winner when it comes to this particular stretch, he says, as it’s the town’s first interstate.
“If you are coming from Raleigh and you are going to eastern Wake County … you can simply tell them to take I-87 North,” Milazzo notes.