Interstate 40 ramp at Aviation Parkway to close for up to 60 days
The exit ramp that carries drivers from eastbound Interstate 40 onto Aviation Parkway will be closed for up to 60 days starting Sunday as part of the effort to overhaul the interchange.
The ramp at Exit 285 is scheduled to close at 7 a.m. Sunday, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation. Drivers will be directed to take the earlier exit, at Airport Boulevard, and follow a detour south to N.C. 54 and back to Aviation Parkway.
The looping ramp that carries traffic from southbound Aviation Parkway onto eastbound I-40 will also be closed. In that case, drivers will take a left onto the ramp now used only by northbound Aviation Parkway traffic to get on I-40.
For this weekend only, the southern entrance to Gateway Centre Boulevard, opposite the entrance to Lake Crabtree Park, will be closed as well, from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday. The northern entrance will remain open.
The closures will allow contractors to build a new alignment for Aviation Parkway to line up with the new bridge over the highway. The reconstruction of the interchange began in the spring of 2018 and will continue through this year.
In addition to the new bridge, contractors will build a new loop exit ramp to carry westbound I-40 drivers onto southbound Aviation Parkway. That will mean the elimination of the left-hand turn that those drivers now must make onto Aviation, which will improve the flow of traffic, according to NCDOT engineers.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 11:01 AM.
