Interstate 140 (North Carolina)


Interstate 140 and North Carolina Highway 140 is a freeway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Broken into 2 designations, it serves as a bypass of Wilmington; providing a direct route between the Grand Strand and I-40. Officially known as the John Jay Burney Jr. Freeway, it is also known as the Wilmington Outer Loop, Wilmington Bypass and Northern Outer Loop. I-140 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs between U.S. Route 17 near Leland to I-40 near Murraysville. NC 140 travels between I-40 and US 17 in Kirkland.

Route description

I-140 begins at a trumpet interchange with US 17 west of downtown Wilmington. From there, it heads north, meeting US 74/US 76. Turning east, it interchanges with Mount Misery Road and Cedar Hill Road. It then crosses the Cape Fear River before interchanging with US 421. Continuing past US 421, I-140 continues in a northeasterly direction where it crosses the Northeast Cape Fear River on the Dan Cameron Bridge. After crossing the river, the route travels in an easterly direction where it meets NC 133 at a folded diamond interchange in Wrightsboro. From NC 133, I-140 continues to the east en route to its eastern terminus in Murraysville at an interchange with I-40, a partial cloverleaf interchange with a flyover ramp from eastbound I-140 to westbound I-40. Here, I-140 ends and the road continues east as NC 140 through an undeveloped wooded area. After passing through the construction area for an interchange with the proposed NC 417, NC 140 ends as US 17 merges into the road from a trumpet interchange in Kirkland.
The most notable feature of the existing route is the bridge spanning the Northeast Cape Fear River. The bridge measures in length with a main span of and of vertical clearance above the river, Rat Island and adjacent marshlands. Its construction consists of precast girders with cast-in-place decks leading to the main span consisting of cast-in-place cantilevered box girder elements. In November 2005, the North Carolina Board of Transportation voted unanimously to name the I-140 bridge across the Northeast Cape Fear River in honor of former Wilmington mayor and businessman Dan Cameron.
In an effort to protect scenic viewsheds for motorists utilizing the freeway, the Special Highway Overlay District of the New Hanover County Zoning Ordinance was adopted by the County Commission in June 2001. Some of the restrictions of the overlay include the banning the construction of billboards, limiting outdoor storage and increasing setback requirements for structures adjacent to the roadway. Only nine applications for billboards along I-140 were processed and approved prior to its passage.

Dedicated and memorial names

I-140/NC 140 feature three dedicated or memorialized stretches of freeway.

Preliminary designations

may have tried two attempts to add I-140 in the state. The first appeared in the 1976 AAA map showing a proposed designation of I-140 between Beaucatcher Tunnel and I-40 in east Asheville. The following year, the designation was changed to I-240, which would continue through Beaucatcher Tunnel and replacing NC 191 to reconnect with I-40. It has not been confirmed if NCDOT actually submitted a request or not with AASHTO.
The second and confirmed preliminary designation was in 1999, when NCDOT submitted a request to AASHTO to designate of US 1 from I-40, in Raleigh, heading westerly to the future US 421 interchange, in Sanford. On April 17, 1999, the request was disapproved by the committee and has since been dropped.

Northern Outer Loop

The idea of constructing a northern bypass for Wilmington was initially identified by the North Carolina Department of Transportation as a need in 1972. The outer loop was viewed as a means to help relieve traffic congestion along Market Street and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge through central Wilmington in New Hanover County serving as both an additional crossing of the Cape Fear River and providing for better regional connectivity. However, the project was not included as part of the department's construction schedule until 1989. In 1991, NCDOT initiated the evaluation of a pair of proposed routes for the Northern Outer Loop. The northern routing was to have been approximately in length and resulted in the relocation of 19 homes, 19 businesses, traversed of wetlands, nine potential hazardous waste sites and five historic sites. The southern routing was to have been approximately in length and resulted in the relocation of 58 homes, 8 businesses, traversed of wetlands, seven potential hazardous waste sites and eight historic sites.
In November 1994, North Carolina Board of Transportation elected to move forward with the southern routing. The initial link between I-40 and US 421 was originally to begin construction in 1998 and open by 2001. Due to significant opposition by both local residents and officials, NCDOT unveiled a revised routing in April 1996 that located the route north of the initial proposal. This revised "central route" was selected as the final routing by NCDOT in April 1997. At the time of its announcement, the route was estimated to cost $126.5 million to complete and result in the displacement of 20 homes, 8 businesses, the loss of of wetlands and the loss of of farmland lost. Planning would continue through the late 1990s culminating with the first contract awarded for its construction in November 2000 for the I-40 interchange.

I-140 designation

In 1997 local officials initially stated that an interstate designation was sought for the bypass. In September 2002, the Federal Highway Administration announced that it would grant NCDOT's request and designate the Northern Outer Loop as Interstate 140. The designation was to apply to the initial western segment constructed between I-40 and US 421 and the initial eastern segment constructed between I-40 and US 17. At the time of its announcement, the designation was touted as a significant means to enhance economic development opportunities along its route in addition to potentially serving as a tie-in for moving the proposed eastern terminus of Interstate 74 from Myrtle Beach to Wilmington. Later that month, it was announced the segment east of I-40, would be named the John J. Burney Freeway after the state senator and trustee of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
The initial $36.7 million contract for construction of a segment of the eastern leg was awarded by NCDOT to Barnhill Contracting Company in November 2003. Its construction had been delayed due to several conflicts including the handling of stormwater runoff into Futch Creek and a slight redesign of an off-ramp at the Porters Neck Road interchange to avoid a 450-year-old oak tree. Construction of the eastern segment commenced on December 29, 2003. As late as May 2005, NCDOT remained undecided as to whether or not to open only a portion of the road prior to completion of the elevated section due to the bridge section running behind schedule. By summer NCDOT decided to open the first segment of I-140 to traffic on August 22, 2005. Formally dedicated with Governor Mike Easley and U.S. Representative Mike McIntyre in attendance, the segment was located between I-40 and NC 133.
In June 2006, NCDOT announced two additional segments of the I-140 project would open by the end of the month. Costing $187 million to complete, the US 17 expressway segment between Porters Neck Road and I-40 and the segment between NC 133 and US 421 both opened to traffic on June 30, 2006. Concurrent with its opening, the routing of US 17 through Wilmington was also moved to the newly opened expressway. The previous routing of US 17 through Wilmington was changed to U.S. Highway 17 Business, and the US 17 Truck designation was removed from Military Cutoff Road and Oleander Drive upon the opening of the bypass with through trucks being directed to utilize the newly constructed freeway.

Brunswick County construction

Originally, the freeway was scheduled to be extended from its current terminus at US 421 to US 74-76 first. Construction began on this leg in 2014 and is scheduled to be the final segment of the route to open in 2017. The route was opened on December 15, 2017.
In 2009, NCDOT announced plans to complete the southern portion of the western leg instead of the central portion requiring construction of a bridge across the Cape Fear River. In response to this decision, city leaders from the town of Navassa filed a discrimination complaint against NCDOT claiming the town is frequently denied funding for infrastructure improvements and other projects. Planning for future construction continued, and in March 2010 NCDOT awarded an $81.7 million contract to Barnhill Contracting Company. The project involved the construction of the segment between the US 74/76 intersection and US 17 south of Leland. Construction of the segment began in March 2010 as a result of receiving partial funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
As part of the expansion into Brunswick County, NCDOT designed several wildlife crossings to allow for the black bear and other animals to safely cross the corridor in the vicinity of the Battle Royal Natural Heritage Site. The crossings included the extension of four bridges to provide some upland areas from animal crossings along water bodies and the construction of a by wildlife tunnel just north of the US 74-76 interchange. This section of freeway was opened to traffic in September 2014.

NC 140 designation

With the opening of the Brunswick segment, a new designation appeared, North Carolina Highway 140. On January 14, 2015, the Certification of Rulemaking was released confirming the establishment of the new designation along, not only the Brunswick segment, but all existing and future sections of the Wilmington bypass. The justification in the paperwork for using NC 140 was it would serve as a temporary designation until the entire bypass was complete and the remaining segments could be submitted to AASHTO approval as I-140. The other rationalization was to provide an alternate designation for the entire Bypass if a proposal by NCDOT to return US 17 to the streets of Wilmington was enacted since only on the New Hanover segment is I-140 concurrent with US 17. NCDOT officials in the summer of 2014 called for returning US 17 to its original routing through Wilmington on Market Street, with the exception of placing a part of it on Military Cutoff Road and Oleander Drive, due to traffic volume on these roads being large enough to merit a route designation, which neither of these roads had. The proposal was endorsed by the Wilmington area Transportation Advisory Committee in August 2014. AASHTO's Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering approved the request on May 14, 2015. On May 17, 2017, US 17 was officially rerouted through Wilmington again.

Leland-Wrightsboro segment

On December 15, 2017, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the final section of I-140 between US 74/US 76 and US 421. However, the segment of road did not officially open to traffic until December 19, 2017, due to the road requiring final construction and cleanup, officially completing I-140 around Wilmington. The section cost $204 million and included two bridges over the Cape Fear River, with of stone and of fill material. Once completed, I-140 was extended west to replace NC 140 between US 17 and US 74/US 76.

Future

In 2002, the North Carolina Board of Transportation appropriated $10 million for the construction of an interchange at Blue Clay Road. The interchange would serve in providing better access to both Wilmington International Airport and the Cape Fear Community College North Campus, and will be constructed sometime in the unspecified future.
An interchange is currently being constructed with the proposed NC 417 as part of the extension of Military Cutoff Road. Construction began in 2017 and the interchange is expected to open to traffic in 2022, serving as the northern terminus of NC 417. Work is also slated to begin in 2020 on a northward extension of NC 417 from this interchange as the Hampstead Bypass, concluding in 2025.

Exit list