Repaving N. C.’s Main Drag
Л
four-lane liijiliuay. iiiueli of il in new
links, is building from llaleigli lo Gasloii
through the great textile belt.
N'o matter what the Highway num¬
bers say. a combination of roads from
Raleigh to Grover, in Gaston County
is the main street of North Carolina.
It taps the greatest industrial area,
serves the most people, moves the
most goods, and incidentally provides
us with our most pressing highway
traffic problems.
Main Street is being rebuilt into a
four-lane boulevard. Sooner or later
both passenger car and truck drivers
will move over il in larger numbers,
with more rapidity and (it is fervently
hoped) more safety. While there is no
recognized master plan for this Main
Street, the gradual forging of the links
— both old (but improved) highways,
and brand-new routings and by-passes
— will result in a super highway
through the Piedmont belt of the state
— the longest 4-lanc road in the state.
The links now are in various stages.
Some arc already modernized and in
use. Some arc being widened, some re¬
located. Some entirely new roads will
Kft KILL siiakpi:
be worked into the '‘street.’’ In one in¬
stance at least the plans still are mere¬
ly in the minds of engineers.
But the map will give you an idea of
what some day will be the route most
of us will be traveling into the great
Southern Piedmont section.
Tapping the highway will be other
arteries of heavy traffic, including
U.S. I , 501, 15, 421, .111, 64 and 21.
But highway engineers add two prongs
to the map as regional super roads —
that is, roads of four-lane calibre.
These include U.S. 29 coming down
from Danville to Rcidsville, thence to
Greensboro, where it joins our main
street.
The other is
158-Л
from Henderson
to Oxford, then U.S. 15 into Durham,
when it joins the street.
While the route as shown by no
means touches every large Piedmont
point or larger industrial center, it does
a pretty good job. It enters eleven
counties, all of them populous except
Orange, and all of them heavily indus¬
trialized save Wake and Orange. With
the exception of Durham, textile
manufacturing dominates industrial
activities of each county (in Durham
it is tobacco).
The road is anchored on the east by
Raleigh, with a population of 65,679,
on the west by Gastonia, population
23,069. In between lie cities which in
a state of moderate communities are
pretty big — Charlotte, with 134.042.
Greensboro, 74.389. Durham. 71.311.
and High Point 39,973.
A feature of the road appealing to
the driver of both passenger and com¬
mercial vehicles is the plan to avoid
city congestion while at the same time
linking the most popular travel goals.
By-passcs cither arc already built or
are planned for most places. Eventual-
( Continued on page 19)
THK STATE. Vol. XX; No. 9. Entered a* second-claw matter. June 1. 193J. at the PoWofTlce at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the act of
March J, I SI 9. Published by Sharpe Publlihlng Co., Inc., Lawyer» Illde., Raleigh, N. C. Copyright. 19S?. by the Sharpe PublUhlng Co.. Inc.
