Airport Boulevard exit and entrance ramps at I-40 near RDU close for three months
Drivers who use the Airport Boulevard interchange with Interstate 40 near Raleigh-Durham International Airport may encounter detours over the next few months.
NCDOT is scheduled to close one exit ramp and one entrance ramp starting at 8 p.m. Friday so contractors can rebuild them.
The exit from westbound I-40 and the entrance to eastbound I-40 are expected to remain closed for three months.
Signs will direct westbound drivers to the next interchange at N.C. 540, where they can turn around and head back to Airport Boulevard. Those wishing to get on eastbound I-40 will be directed to use Aviation Parkway or McCrimmon Parkway.
The closures are part of a larger project to replace the bridges that carry Airport Boulevard over the highway and to overhaul the interchange. The current traffic pattern will be replaced by a diverging diamond, which is designed to improve safety and traffic flow by eliminating left turns across traffic.
When it’s completed next year, Airport Boulevard will be one of the Triangle’s first functioning diverging diamonds. One is in place where Western Boulevard meets the Raleigh Beltline, and others are under construction at the Jones Sausage Road and N.C. 42 interchanges along I-40 south of Raleigh.
Contractors will soon set girders for the second overpass at Airport Boulevard and will complete the new ramps by the end of the year. But the new diverging diamond traffic pattern won’t be in place until next summer, according to NCDOT.
Work on the Airport Boulevard interchange began in 2020, as contractors were finishing up a similar project on nearby Aviation Parkway.
This story was originally published July 21, 2023 at 10:23 AM.
