There's a big rebuild of the recent big rebuild of I-40 in Southern Durham County. And as a result, commuters have been urged to use alternate routes. One of the 'detours' is along NC 147, aka The Durham Freeway. Using NC 147 is all well and good for a detour or even an alternate route for INTERSTATE 40, but US 40?. Sure, if the entire states of Maryland and Virginia were under construction. (And to some...both states are). Photo credit to Craig Zeni who came across this sign on April 18th.
There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
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