Redesigned Beltline signs to drop 'Inner' and 'Outer'

RALEIGH -- No more "Inner" and "Outer" for Raleigh's Beltline. Soon it will be Interstate 40 and Interstate 440, east and west.

The state Department of Transportation is about to make good on a long-standing promise to get rid of the Inner Beltline and Outer Beltline signs that get lots of motorists mad, confused and lost.

A $1 million DOT sign contract to be awarded this fall will give Beltline drivers a new sense of direction.

Since 1996, road maps and signs have applied twin names to the opposing halves of Raleigh's 24-mile freeway circuit.

The Inner Beltline runs clockwise. The Outer Beltline runs the other way.

The circular logic makes sense to highway engineers peering at their maps and to broadcast reporters gazing down from news choppers. But for drivers in the thick of traffic -- newcomers and old-timers alike -- the Beltline's yin-yang duality can spark consternation.

"Which is Inner and which is Outer?" asks Sid Sidlo, a 17-year resident of Raleigh. "Most people don't think 'clockwise' and 'counterclockwise.'

"Even living here as long as I have, I often have to sit and think about it for a minute: Which way do I want to go?"

The Beltline has been cluttered with various route numbers since the DOT built the first sections in the 1960s. Highway engineers have changed their minds about whether to route drivers through central Raleigh or around it on highways including N.C. 50 and U.S. 1, U.S. 70 and U.S. 401.

Since 1996, the entire loop has been called Interstate 440. An eight-mile stretch on the south side of town also has a second name, Interstate 40.

How signs will work

The DOT's new plan will eliminate the overlap between I-40 and I-440, and it will remove the Inner and Outer signs:

* The southern Beltline's eight miles from Exit 293 (U.S. 1 / 64 in southwest Raleigh) to Exit 301 (the I-40 split in southeast Raleigh) will be known only as I-40. "East" instead of "Outer." "West" instead of "Inner."

* The other 16 miles -- running north from Exit 293, curving past Crabtree Valley and North Hills, looping south past WakeMed and closing the circle again at Exit 301 -- will be known only as I-440. East instead of inner, and west instead of outer.

DOT engineers announced plans to make this change in 2002. But Kevin Lacy, the state traffic engineer, said the money to do the job wasn't available for several years.

Soon, a DOT contract

The new directional signs, and the plan to remove I-440 markers from the southern Beltline, are a small part of a DOT contract to be awarded in November. Most of the money will be spent to retire battered, faded freeway signs that are as much as 30 years old.

Raleigh is making its own plans for new signs to help visitors find their way around. The Inner/ Outer nomenclature created confusion between the Beltline (the city's "inner loop") and the I-540 Outer Loop, which forms a six-lane semi-circle across northern Wake County.

A consultant told city planners that some travelers thought DOT signs referred to two different freeways.

"Some assumed that the Inner Beltline was I-440 and the Outer Beltline was I-540," said Mitchell Silver, Raleigh's city planner.

Lacy maintains that many drivers have found the Inner and Outer labels helpful.

"There was a good percentage of folks who liked them, and there was also a good percentage who thought it made it more confusing," Lacy said.

Brian LeBlanc, a former radio traffic reporter, says many drivers have learned to run around town in clockwise and counterclockwise circles.

"I have a feeling that 'Inner and Outer' is probably going to stay part of the conversation," said LeBlanc, 26, who now works in advertising for the Raleigh-based Curtis Media Group.

The new markings won't make perfect sense for everybody. If you drive "east" for the full 16 miles of I-440, you'll spend part of your time heading north, south and even west before you reach the end.

Still, says Sidlo, 79, the new signs should make it easier for drivers to find their way around.

"This way would be west, and the other way would be east," he said. "End of problem."