U.S. Route 158 - Route Description

Route Description

U.S. Route 158 is a parallel of U.S. Route 58. The route does not intersect its parent, instead intersecting its sibling, US 258. It currently runs for 350 miles (560 km) from Mocksville, at US 64/US 601 to Nags Head, North Carolina. A 10 miles (16 km) stretch skirts the Great Dismal Swamp.

From Mocksville, it parallels I-40 into Winston-Salem, where it merges with I-40 Business/US 421 freeway through the downtown area. Going northeast, it goes through Stokesdale then goes north around Reidsville with US 29 Business. From Reidsville, US 158 connects the northern counties of North Carolina, going through the cities and towns of Yanceyville, Roxboro, Oxford, Henderson, Roanoke Rapids, Murfreesboro, and Elizabeth City.

From NC 168 eastward, it carries traffic from the Norfolk region to the Outer Banks. Normally, the route is a four-lane undivided highway with a speed limit of 50 miles an hour in Dare County, from its eastern terminus to the Wright Memorial Bridge. Most of the route is otherwise a four-lane divided highway with a 55 miles per hour speed limit until NC 168 (which carries traffic to Chesapeake, Virginia), where it turns left at an at-grade intersection. It then returns to being undivided.

In Dare County, the highway runs in a north–south direction, although it is signed west–east. It acts as a bypass route for the Virginia Dare Trail (NC 12), which runs parallel to U.S. 158 to the east.