Until the breakline, all photos below are courtesy Lou Corsaro.


US 70 with US 25, WB/NB and EB/SB. The highway in the second photo will be I-26 EB, even though it's facing south and slightly west (since Johnson City is actually slightly east of Asheville), but it wasn't quite up to standards yet. You wouldn't see this now, or else there would be that one additional shield on it.


I-240 EB around Asheville; future I-26 will take over the first four miles before splitting northward. Expwy is a real helpful control city, huh? The hyphenated route shield is NC standard.


US 70/74-A WB entering Asheville on Tunnel Rd. This is the Beaucatcher Mountain Tunnel.


Business US 64/70 split outside downtown Morganton, W. Union St. at Burkemont Ave. The intrigue is that from Burkemont Ave. NB (the signs behind the pole), which is Business US 64 EB, it appears that the route you're following magically goes both ways!


Above that same intersection, again facing west, indeed taken from the very same photo, a yellow yield sign hangs above the intersection. Since there is a traffic signal here, either the sign predates the signal, or the signal has been here since at least the 1960's, and this is just the equivalent of what everyone else in the country knows a standard green ball means.


EB in Claremont and near Statesville. Old distance signs, including one that's flipped itself over another, are atop a standard secondary route marker.

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WB entering Greensboro until US 70 hops onto US 29 (see big link at bottom) and US 220. This is my favorite way of signing future Interstates, because all NCDOT has to do is remove one sign and they're done. Any other treatment requires replacing a shield in the end.


EB past the old Institute is in Sedalia.


Gra. Hopedale: Grain? Gravlax? Grasshopper? No, Graham. Better off just abbreviating it as "G."


Continuing east into Mebane, where I then hop onto Business US 70 into Durham (see link at bottom).


WB in Durham and choosing the "By-Pass", first photo courtesy Lou Corsaro. The overheads aren't button copy, but they're every bit as old and in need of replacement.


EB through a pair of brand-new interchanges between Durham and Raleigh. Although the MUTCD now asks for exit numbers on all freeways, it's stretching the definition to call two closely spaced, linked interchanges with a mainline underpass a "freeway." But that's what NCDOT decided, leading to the only non-Interstate exit numbers on US 70.


EB and WB at I-440/US 1. It's not marked here because the US 1 shields were removed (quite obvious on the EB Ridge Rd. sign, for 440/1 SB) when I-440 was designated in 1991, but NCDOT never got around to putting up Interstate shields at a few intersecting roads on the west side of Raleigh. There appears to be room for several routes on the I-440/US 1 NB sign, and that's because US 70 and NC 50 used to ride the Beltline all the way around from here to I-40 and west (yes, US 70 EB heading due west for three miles) to I-40 Exit 298, just to avoid downtown Raleigh. That explains why there are no shields on the Glenwood Ave. reassurance, too.


My last photo, Wade Ave. EB after picking up US 70/NC 50 from Glenwood Ave. That 1950's overpass happens to be carrying Glenwood, so you may have guessed those routes follow a loop from above to below.

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Photos resume being all courtesy Lou Corsaro.


NC 42 exiting from the US 70-NC 42 westbound multiplex in Clayton; US 70 won't have exit numbers here, but this looks too much like one. By now, this is just the Business 70 multiplex, because the Clayton Bypass has opened.


Eastbound photos of the construction of the Clayton Bypass. It is being brought into the US 70 interchange with its old alignment (Business US 70) west of Wilsons Mills. In the middle (third) photo you can see that the Business US 70 exit is closed, and then the final photo shows you that the existing single-roadway overpass is being twinned. That explains the need for the new overpass seen in the first two photos.


Another white sign EB on the Business route (former mainline) in Smithfield.


Have some more construction, EB at the New Bern bypass that will carry US 17 around the south side of that city. At this time, only the interchange was being built, but the rest of the highway is gradually taking shape.


One more white sign, EB in Morehead City in a rare case of a route split by a railroad.

Onto US 29 and US 70/29
Business I-85 (and US 70/29)
To I-85 and US 70/29/I-85
Onto NC 62 and US 70/NC 62
Onto US 401 and US 70/401/NC 50
Onto Business US 70, Durham

Onto US 23
Onto regular US 74
Onto Future I-840
Onto NC 98
Onto I-540
Exit 292 to I-40
Exit 292 to US 1
Onto I-440
To US 64
Onto NC 42
Onto US 17
Back to North Carolina Roads
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