Ultimate Interstates:Interstate 26 Gap-Closure
The Ultimate Interstate 26 Gap-Closure is a proposed upgrade underway to upgrade a section of the US highway 23 freeway highway located north of I-240 in Asheville to Mars Hill, NC. This freeway also carries the US-19, US-25, and US-70 designations along this route. The Gap-Closure would upgrade several interchanges along the route that have tight geometry and short merging areas that currently do not meet the existing interstate highway standards. This section of the highway is already signed as "FUTURE" Interstate 26. In conjunction with this project is a major upgrade to the crossing of the French Broad river in Asheville to address a major bottleneck and weaving situation that exists at the crossing.
Purpose and Need
This project would fix the current gap problem that exists along I-26 providing route continuity for the greater I-26 route.
This project entails the following:
- I-26 Connector Project - visit NCDOT for more information.
- US-23 Upgrades to Interstate Standards from Mars Hill, NC to Asheville, NC
Grandfathering Option
One could make the argument that this segment of FUTURE I-26 should be grandfathered in, as it is already locally seen as I-26 in advance of the proposed upgrades, and that it exists as I-26 both north and south of the "gap" area. Its signing with FUTURE banners also lends credence to this as well. This would allow the route to already be officially established and then time can then be taken later on to upgrade the worst offending interchanges to improve safety while leaving other non-compliant interchanges that do not impact safety as they are. This could help reduce the cost of the gap closure by allowing the state to pick and choose which interchanges need the priority over others.
Numbering Issues
Interstate 26 creates a numbering anomaly with the interstate system. The route predominantly travels north to south, crossing from I-81 in Tennessee, through North Carolina, and then ending at Charleston in South Carolina, yet the route has an even number and is signed as an East-West route. This can create some confusion as a result. This is a situation where suffixed interstates would have been helpful in the numbering convention. In this case signing I-26 as I-77W would be a more logical option here. There are only 3 places in the interstate system that allow suffixed numbering (I-35 E/W in Texas, I-35 E/W in Minnesota, and I-69 E/C/W in Texas). But it should be allowed elsewhere where it makes sense, especially when other numbers are unavailable. One case in point is I-35 in Kansas/Missouri, A split routing would have made sense here due to the split that occurs between the Turnpike at Emporia and ends in downtown Kansas City. I-35 could have then followed the turnpike, with I-35E following the more eastern route through Olathe, Overland Park, and Shawnee-Mission. Other examples could include the New Jersey turnpike with its eastern and western routings along I-95, and I-5 in the central valley of California with I-5W following the westside freeway and I-5E following CA-99 from Mettler to Sacramento. One might argue that suffixed numbers would cause confusion, however, the evidence provided by the allowed suffixes in both the US highway system, and the Interstate system would prove otherwise.
Plausibility
Since the I-26 corridor is already marked with "FUTURE" banners, it looks like the project has a high likelihood of being completed. It remains to be seen how long it will take to reconstruct the interchanges in question.