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Interstate highways
Interstate highways that venture through the state of North Carolina, along with auxiliary routes:
Interstate 26, traverses the state's western mountainous region
Interstate 40, spans nearly the entire state from east to west
Interstate 40 Business, business freeway loop through Winston-Salem, NC and Greensboro, NC
Interstate 140, bypass around Wilmington, North Carolina
Interstate 240, loop through Asheville, NC
Interstate 440, inner beltway around downtown Raleigh, North Carolina
Interstate 540, future outer beltway around the Raleigh, North Carolina metropolitan area
Interstate 840, future northern segment of the Urban Loop around Greensboro, NC
Interstate 73, future central North Carolina interstate mostly along US 220
Interstate 74, link between US 52 and I-77 near Mount Airy, NC and future cross-state highway traveling northwest/southeast
Interstate 274, future western segment of the Northern Beltway around Winston-Salem, NC
Interstate 77, travels mostly straight north/south through central North Carolina
Interstate 277, loops around the uptown district of Charlotte, North Carolina
Interstate 85, links the four most populous cities in the state traveling northeast/southwest
Interstate 85 Business, business freeway/expressway loop through High Point, NC and Greensboro, NC
Interstate 285, future spur from Lexington, NC to I-40 in Winston-Salem, NC
Interstate 485, outerbelt around Charlotte, North Carolina
Interstate 785, future spur from Greensboro, NC to Danville, VA
Interstate 95, traverses the state's Coastal Plain region
Interstate 95 Business, business expressway loop through Fayetteville, NC
Interstate 295, future loop around western Fayetteville, NC
Interstate 795, spur from I-95 near Wilson, NC to Goldsboro, NC
U.S. routes
Current routes
Former routes
North Carolina State Routes
Numbering
North Carolina State Highways numbered under 1000 are primary state highways,2 and numbers greater than or equal to 1000 are secondary. Secondary highways are not signed with shields; regular green or white road signs are most commonly used to designate secondary roads. On these signs, the prefix "SR" for "secondary road" sometimes precedes the road number. Nearly all secondary highways also have other names, and many primary routes are also signed with other titles. North Carolina routes may be referred to as "North Carolina Highway x", "N.C. Highway x", "NC Route x", or just "NC x", where x is the route number.
Unlike highways in the primary system, secondary road numbers may be repeated multiple times throughout the system, provided that they are not repeated within the same county. For example, SR2000 may refer to the physical roadway signed as Wake Forest Road or Falls of Neuse Road in Wake County, or it may refer to the physical roadway signed as Hickory Grove Road in Gaston County. Some road numbers are quite common. In fact, the designation SR1101 is currently used, or has in the past, been used nearly 100 times by almost every county in the state.
Secondary roads that cross a county line are generally given a new number in the new county. For example, Rustic Court is a very short road, barely one tenth of a mile in length; yet, it crosses the Durham-Orange county line. The section in Durham County (0.03 miles in length) is designated SR2397 while the section is Orange County (0.08 miles in length) is designated SR1604. The exception to this rule applies to roads designated SR10xx (where the x's represent additional digits) which are generally given to regionally significant roads or roads crossing one or more county lines, but which are not part of the primary system. For example, SR1006-Old Stage Road, is located both in Wake and Harnett Counties.
The significance of secondary road numbers is almost exclusive to NCDOT operations, generally maintenance, rather than for navigational purposes by the driving public. Certainly, the secondary road numbering system is not organized to help unfamiliar motorists find their way. Rather, this is the job of the phonetic names, which are generally established at the local level, but which often share a sign with an SR designation for convenience. In many rural areas of the state, typically in the Mountain and Coastal Plain regions, many roads lack a phonetic name, in which case they are known by the SR designation.
It is not uncommon for maintenance responsibility of secondary roads to transfer from NCDOT to particular municipalities as they increase in size due to annexation. When this occurs, the SR designations are eliminated. The SR road designation is also eliminated from physical roadways that are elevated into the primary system. For example, NC 157 (Guess Road) in Durham and Person counties was once a secondary road designated SR1008. Although it ascended into the primary system years ago, some of the old signs identifying Guess Road as SR1008 remain.
Signage
A North Carolina Highway shield has the route's number in black inside a white equilateral diamond shape. A square of black surrounds the diamond shape. The diamond shape does not alter to accommodate larger route numbers; the numbers are reduced in size to fit within the diamond.
Rules and exceptions
- North Carolina Highway numbers cannot be the same as any U.S. Highway or Interstate Highway in the state. If a new federal route is commissioned in North Carolina that has the same number as a North Carolina Highway, the NC route number more than likely will be changed. (Current only exceptions: NC 73 and NC 540)
- There are no alphabetic letters in a state route designation, nor any alternate routes in the system, except for NC 226A.
