page_title: Interstate 73 in North Carolina
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 73 in North Carolina / History
context_page_description: Interstate 73 is a partially completed Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina, traversing the state from south of Ellerbe to near Summerfield through Asheboro and Greensboro. When completed, it will continue south towards Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and north to Martinsville, Virginia.
context_section_description: Authorized by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), Interstate 73 was established as a north-south high priority corridor from Charleston, South Carolina to Detroit, Michigan.
  In North Carolina, because several U.S. Routes were already planned for improvements in the Central Piedmont region, Interstate 73 was initially aligned to go through Rockingham, Asheboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, and Mount Airy. The route through High Point was approved in May 1993.  However, in November 1993, an organization called Job Link, made up of business leaders from northern North Carolina and southern Virginia, wanted a major highway to connect Roanoke with the Greensboro area. It could be Interstate 73, the group said, but did not have to be. In April 1995, John Warner, who chaired the Senate subcommittee which would select the route of Interstate 73, announced his support for the Job Link proposal. This distressed Winston-Salem officials who were counting on Interstate 73, though Greensboro had never publicly sought the road. But an aide to US Senator Lauch Faircloth said the 1991 law authorizing Interstate 73 required the road to go through Winston-Salem. Faircloth got around this requirement, though, by asking Warner to call the highway to Winston-Salem Interstate 74. In May, Warner announced plans to propose legislation that made the plan for two Interstates official.
  When I-73 crossed a border between two states, the federal law authorizing the road required that the two states agree that their sections meet. Originally, both Carolinas selected a route running south from Rockingham. However, North Carolina had more money to spend on roads, and on May 10, 1995, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved North Carolina's plan for I-73 to run eastward to the coast and enter South Carolina at North Myrtle Beach. Later that year, officials in both states agreed that I-73 would enter South Carolina south of Rockingham and that the other highway would be I-74. This raised the possibility of I-73 bypassing the Myrtle Beach area entirely, since I-74 would run to the Myrtle Beach area.
  In May 1997, the first section of Interstate 73 was established, a 12.6-mile (20.3 km) section from south of Candor to Ulah.  Signage of "Future Interstate 73" was also placed all along US 220, from Rockingham north to I-40 in Greensboro and south to Candor.  On January 7, 2008, an 17-mile (27 km) extension south of Candor to Ellerbe was completed; however, because NCDOT had not applied to the FHWA to add the segment to the interstate system, signage along the new stretch of freeway was listed as Future Interstate 73, thus not an "official" addition to the interstate at that time. Federal approval was granted in 2010 to make this part of the interstate system at the conclusion of work to upgrade the highway in Asheboro. The route was given interstate signage in the summer of 2013.
  The next section to be completed, and signed Interstate 73, was the 7.5-mile (12.1 km) southwestern section of the Greensboro Urban Loop, in concurrency with Interstate 40, in February 2008. The concurrency later changed to US 421 in September of same year (signage corrected by July 2009).
  The newest sections of Interstate 73 to be completed are the eight-mile (13 km) stretch of US 220 freeway in Asheboro, the remaining parts of the US 220 freeway designated Future I-73 in 1997, and the six-mile (9.7 km) section from the Bryan Boulevard interchange northward back to US 220. The Asheboro section had several deficiencies that needed to be corrected before it could be designated an Interstate. Work started on this segment from Business 220/NC 134 south of Asheboro to US 220 Business/Vision Drive North of Asheboro in 2010. Work was completed in October 2012. When work was finished Interstate 73 (and 74) shields replaced the Future I-73(and I-74) shields along this portion of US 220. NCDOT had already reached an agreement with the FHWA that they could sign the entire length of the US 220 freeway south of Greensboro to Ellerbe as Inter
caption: Future I-73 and I-74 (US 220) northbound near Asheboro, NC, signs were removed when freeway designated I-73/I-74 in 2012
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A620", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:10:28 15:54:22", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "185", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2400", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7393", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "41/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:10:28 15:54:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:10:28 15:54:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-1/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "65/16", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "65/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "80", "EXIF FocalLength": "146/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1600", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1200", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2252", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "400000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "400000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6ba3d9abfd5ee4bcdf99f3ea0e33b6db"}