Another US 70 bypass opens Friday between the Triangle and the coast
.jpg "Signs like these will appear along the Havelock Bypass, which opens to traffic on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.")
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- NCDOT opens 10.3-mile Havelock bypass Friday to reduce U.S. 70 congestion.
- Construction cost $259 million; work began 2019 as part of future I-42.
- NCDOT gave $5.3M for land protection and set up a $2M revolving loan fund.
The drive between the Triangle and Morehead City will get a little easier on Friday with the opening of the U.S. 70 bypass around Havelock.
The 10.3-mile highway is expected to be open by Friday evening, after the N.C. Department of Transportation and state and local officials hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the morning. The highway will allow drivers to avoid a congested section of U.S. 70 outside Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
Construction of the $259 million highway began in the fall of 2019, as part of a larger effort to turn U.S. 70 into an interstate highway between Wake County and the coast.
While the bypass will open to traffic Friday, contractors still have some work to do through the spring and summer. NCDOT says some lane closures are possible, particularly where the bypass ties into existing U.S. 70 at either end.
The bypass is a piece of what eventually will be Interstate 42. For now, the Havelock Bypass will remain U.S. 70, with signs indicating that it is “Future I-42.”
The Federal Highway Administration and The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials gave North Carolina permission to gradually turn U.S. 70 into I-42 as the highway is upgraded to interstate standards.
The 10-mile Clayton Bypass in Johnston County and the 22-mile bypass around Goldsboro in Wayne and Lenoir counties are already I-42. Contractors recently finished upgrading 4.7 miles near Wilson’s Mills and are working on another 6.4-mile section between New Bern and Havelock.
The four-lane divided highway around Havelock passes through part of Croatan National Forest. Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center, objected to that routing but agreed to drop a federal lawsuit in 2018 in exchange for several concessions by NCDOT.
They included giving $5.3 million to the N.C. Coastal Land Trust to protect land in and around the national forest and establishing a $2 million revolving loan fund that could be used to protect property elsewhere in Carteret, Craven and Jones counties.
