The “Hawthorn Curve” got semi straightened out years ago. My old dentist office was right in front of it when I was a kid. There was a place called the Rose and Thistle (or something like that) right by the highway and they tore down that building to “straighten” the curve. It is still there, but less dramatic than it was in the past.
My wife and I were just in Winston this past weekend for a concert at the Ramkat. It’s a huge improvement from what it used to be. I’ve been around here long enough for y’all to know that I’d rather have seen it ripped out, but, if you’re going to maintain an urban highway, this is the way to do it.
We don’t have a urban highway in DTR, thank goodness but I would love to cap the highway between Crabtree Lake and Umstead and completely cover 440/40 in south Raleigh, especially around Lake Johnson. The noise from the highway can be heard all the way into downtown depending on traffic conditions.
Made a quick trip up to Detroit this weekend for a half marathon (State #23 of 50, woohoo). Very interesting place, tons of incredible architecture EVERHWHERE. But it was really sad to see that state of lots of their historic buildings. Some were in great condition and being kept up, but lots of buildings (churches, houses, even highrises) were crumbling. I’m sure the harsh winters up there don’t help anything, but it was really sad to see once beautiful buildings and homes in ruins. I told several folks I talked to that we would kill to have some of this historic architecture in Raleigh. Detroit boomed years ago, and we are just now getting to our boom here. Just hope we can maintain our buildingstock into the future, rather than future generations watching it waste away like in Detroit. Another observation about Detroit was the sheer number of freeways, literally EVERHWYERE. Kinda glad Raleigh is late to the highway game too. And along that vein, the condition of their roads… it was a long 13 miles of dodging potholes that could break an ankle.
From everything I’ve heard, Detroit is actually WAY better than it was say 5-7 years ago. I can’t imagine how it looked then.
I do believe they’re are looking to remove a couple freeway segments on the edge of Downtown. They’re Motor City for a reason haha
I was actually disappointed that I didn’t hear any Motown along the race course. I was looking forward to hearing some Temptations, Aretha, etc. We DID pass by the Motown Museum around mile 6 or so. On the other hand, I did hear Eminem several times along the race course.
It was a $100M project for barely over a mile of interstate that cuts downtown Winston-Salem off from Old Salem. The current parallel I-40 routing is faster, safer, and less than two miles away from Business 40, and none of the surrounding infrastructure was overwhelmed despite Business 40 being closed for TWO YEARS. I will grant that the rebuilt section is an upgrade over what was there, but imo it was a monumental missed opportunity to not tear it down and replace it with an urban road. Clearly, the city wasn’t crippled by the closure of an interstate running through downtown, and it was as good of a chance as anywhere in North Carolina has ever had to remove an aging urban freeway and see what happened. There is no reason for a limited-access freeway to be running through any downtown especially when it has long since been bypassed by a newer limited-access freeway.
I’m a roads guy as much as anyone but I actually do somewhat agree. It does appear somewhat redundant to I-40 and they could definitely function without it.
I was over at Building Bull City and there was a mock plan to turn Durham Freeway through DT Durham to a boulevard which I think is an awesome idea. Once East end connector is completed, any traffic trying to go to RTP can use what will be I-885 and the only people who need Durham Fwy between that and I-85 will be people going directly to Downtown and Duke. This is something I think can really gain traction.
Back to this project, since it is completely below the street grade the whole time, it may have actually been cheaper to fully reconstruct it like this than moving it to grade. $100,000,000 for a full reconstruction is actually pretty “cheap”
Also, they aren’t really missing anything connectivity and cut off wise since every road crosses and doesn’t cause any dead ends. As far as an urban freeway, it’s about as good as it gets and is a really cool ride at night.
Maybe one day they can cap a few of the bridges and make a park.
You know if Raleigh comes up with something impressive that really creates a hell of a concert experience, I’ll be okay losing Red Hat. But for now I’m still gonna be pissed if they get rid of Red Hat, my favorite amenity in downtown Raleigh.
