3 Construction Projects to Tie Up I-40 Traffic

In addition to the continuing project to repave 10 miles in Durham County between U.S. Highway 15/501 and the Durham Freeway, where a botched widening job two years ago caused the pavement to fail, two other construction projects are in the works on I-40 in the Triangle.

State Department of Transportation crews closed one eastbound lane between Page Road and Airport Boulevard Friday night, and they plan to close a second lane along that stretch Saturday. The lane closures will give crews some working room for repaving to ease the flow of traffic off Interstate 540.

"That lane will become a distributor lane, which would be continuous from I-540 all the way down to Airport Boulevard," DOT engineer David Byrd said.

Crews are scheduled to begin paving Saturday morning so they can finish before the Monday morning rush hour.

The DOT also closed the outside lane of I-40 East between exits 306 and 312 at the Wake-Johnston county line Friday night to work on the Clayton Bypass. The closure wrapped up Saturday afternoon.

Drivers weren't pleased with the prospect of three traffic delays on I-40.

"I'm sure there's a good point to what they're doing. I just haven't seen it yet," driver Eric Miller said.

"You come in the morning, in the afternoon you leave. It's all backed up. It seems they can't get it together," driver Frederick Smith said.

But driver Gordon Hannah said he doesn't mind the price for progress.

"It's going to be inconvenient for them now, but it's going to be convenient for them later," Hannah said.