East Garner Road will be closed for weeks as part of Triangle Expressway project
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A section of East Garner Road will be closed to through traffic in eastern Wake County.
- The road closure begins July 13 and will last about 45 days, with local access retained.
- Realignment shifts East Garner Road toward railroad tracks to pass under N.C. 540.
A section of East Garner Road will be closed for about seven weeks as contractors realign the road where it will pass under N.C. 540, the Triangle Expressway.
East Garner Road will be closed to through traffic between Auburn Knightdale Road and Rock Quarry Road starting July 13. There will still be access to homes and businesses along East Garner, but drivers passing through will be sent on a detour on Auburn Knightdale and Rock Quarry.
East Garner Road is being shifted closer to the North Carolina Railroad tracks so that they can together pass under the highway at a new bridge. That shift is expected to take about 45 days, in part depending on the weather.
Moving the road means the N.C. Department of Transportation won’t have to build separate bridges and the additional retaining walls that would require, said Logen Hodges, spokesman for the N.C. Turnpike Authority.
“The realignment was primarily to cut down on construction and maintenance costs,” Hodges wrote in an email.
Contractors are building the final leg of N.C. 540 in southeastern Wake County, between Interstate 87 near Knightdale and Interstate 40 south of Garner. The 10-mile section of toll road will have five interchanges, at White Oak Road, U.S. 70, Rock Quarry Road, Auburn-Knightdale Road and Poole Road.
When the final section of N.C. 540 opens in late 2028, the 70-mile outer loop around Raleigh will be complete, more than 35 years after construction began near Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
The northern half of the loop between Knightdale and Research Triangle Park became Interstate 540 and is not a toll road. In late 2005, when it appeared the state would not have enough money to build the southern loop for many years, local officials asked the Turnpike Authority to build it as a toll road.
By 2012, the Triangle Expressway, also known as N.C. 540, was open from I-40 to N.C. 55 in Apex, near Holly Springs. In the fall of 2024, another 18 miles of the toll road opened across southern Wake to connect with I-40 near Johnston County.
.png "unnamed (1).png")
