The northern and southern ends of I-795, first photo courtesy Adam Prince as I-95's emergency alternate rejoins the main route with one of those awful white-background shields. The story here is that when I-795 took over the US 117 freeway, FHWA still considered the entire thing to be US 117, such that the northern end would have also been 117's northern end. NCDOT decided it wanted US 117 back on the old parallel route as an alternate and so did not sign US 117 on the freeway at all. Years later, either FHWA relented or both sides have given up and left it as a stalemate.


The north end of I-795 (and formerly US 117) is also concurrent with US 264 WB, so you get this photo in the opposite direction. Nothing unusual here except the lack of US 117, and this photo dates to 2009 when the issue was known to be unresolved.


I-795 SB exits US 264 EB. For some reason, US 264's exit lettering runs backwards at only this one interchange. You can see the scar of the US 117 shield below the 795. The large plate on the left sign covers up the twin US 301/ALT US 117, with ALT US 117 being the designation for the original (and NCDOT's current) US 117 during the time that I-795 was signed as mainline US 117. (NCDOT's argument was that it was still a US highway so there is no concern in returning the old designation.) The plate also covers "Smithfield," the destination for US 301 SB but more easily reached by I-95 at Exit 38.

Onto US 264 alone
Modern US 117

Onto I-95
Exits 43B-A to US 301
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