Work begins soon on another piece of Interstate 42 in Eastern North Carolina
The state has taken another step toward creating a new interstate highway across Eastern North Carolina.
The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded a $242 million contract to convert a 6.4-mile section of U.S. 70 into a limited-access freeway between New Bern and Havelock.
The project is part of a gradual process to convert U.S. 70 into an interstate highway from I-40 just south of Raleigh to Morehead City on the coast. The new road will be known as Interstate 42.
The Federal Highway Administration has already approved the I-42 designation for two sections of U.S. 70: the 10-mile Clayton Bypass in Johnston County and the 22-mile bypass around Goldsboro in Wayne and Lenoir counties. The bridges, exit and entrance ramps and shoulders of these two stretches of U.S. 70 were built to federal interstate standards.
NCDOT is building another 10-mile bypass around Havelock and plans a 21-mile bypass around Kinston that will also be built to interstate standards and become part of I-42.
For most of the rest of U.S. 70, NCDOT plans to upgrade the existing four-lane highway piece by piece. That means eliminating driveways and intersections and replacing them with bridges, interchanges and new parallel service roads to reach homes and businesses.
The contract awarded last week to design and build the section near Havelock includes three new interchanges. Construction is expected to begin by early 2024 and take about four years to complete.
Last year, another contractor began converting a 5.1-mile section of U.S. 70 in James City, near New Bern, into a freeway.
And drivers in Johnston County are familiar with NCDOT’s efforts to turn 4.7 miles of U.S. 70 into a freeway from the east end of the Clayton Bypass through Wilson’s MIlls. That project, which includes new interchanges at Swift Creek and Wilson’s Mills roads, began in 2021 and is scheduled to be finished in late 2024.
