Push is needed for I-74 in Wilmington

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, August 3, 2015.

U.S. Highway 74 is a big old tease.

Just when you think you’re in for some modern interstate-like travel, the highway reverts to its old self and at times you feel like you’re on a stretch more suitable for Mayberry than an interstate-wannabe that runs from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Wrightsville Beach.

It’s good to see the important and much-traveled highway get some attention.

If you’re headed west in the bottom half of North Carolina – especially to Charlotte – U.S. 74 remains your best bet. Some folks traveling to the North Carolina mountains from our area opt to dive down into South Carolina, where they can make most of the trip on interstate highways. We’re not sure, however, that that’s not just an excuse to stop at South of the Border.

Although U.S. 74 is much better than it was even 10 years ago, it still has a major identity crisis for a highway that crosses the entire state, including a section smack through the middle of downtown Charlotte. You do get an up-close view of Uptown Charlotte’s impressive skyline (in the Queen City they like to call their downtown Uptown), but there are moments when the speeds and lane-changing rival the action at the nearby Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Part of the identity crisis is the caliber of the highway – sections that are interstate quality mixed with old country four lane – not to mention that it shares routes and names at times with seemingly half the highways in the state.

The route was built well before the Interstate Highway System and for years now transportation officials have tried to retrofit at least parts of it to interstate quality. In our area, one plan is to extend 74 as an interstate – or at least interstate-caliber – highway along the current N.C. 211 corridor from Bolton to the South Carolina line.

A more recent proposal is, instead of jogging across the Green Swamp toward South Carolina, improving it to interstate caliber and connecting it with Interstate 140, which is nearing completion in Brunswick County.

We think that is the best – and most feasible – option on the table. There still are many, many miles of U.S. 74 that need to be upgraded, especially east of Charlotte. But many of those projects are either underway or at least in the planning stages. If U.S. 74 does become Interstate 74, it’s important for our region’s economy that it connects to Wilmington and to the port. There is also talk of U.S. 17 becoming and interstate.

As much as we like to complain about traffic and inadequate roads, significant progress has been made in the past 25 or so years with the opening of Interstate 40, four-laning on U.S. 17 (remember the old suicide passing lanes) and improvements on U.S. 74.

There’s plenty more to do, but expediency is critical. Highway dollars are as rare as gas stations between Whiteville and Lumberton.

It’s also vital that the region speak with a united voice.

That, too, unfortunately, can be a rare occurrence.

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