History
Established as an original U.S. Route in 1927, it originally traversed from West End, through Asheboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Madison, and Stoneville, before entering Virginia and continuing to Roanoke. The alignment followed part of what was NC 70 and all of NC 77, both of which were decommissioned in 1934.
In 1933, US 311 was extended south through Pinehurst, Aberdeen, and Laurinburg, to Rowland, overlapping NC 241. A year later, US 220 was established and replaced US 311 north of Madison and south of Asheboro; sections further south were replaced by NC 2 (today's NC 211) and US 501. Later in 1966, US 311 was truncated in Randleman; by 1973, US 311 southern terminus was moved to its current location at US 220 Bypass, in Randleman.
By 1952, US 311 was rerouted west of downtown Winston-Salem, following Waughtown Road, Stadium Drive, Claremont Avenue and 7th Street, to New Walkertown Road. In the mid-1980s, US 311 was moved onto new freeway through southeast Forsyth County. In 1996, the route through Winston-Salem changed again, going west on Interstate 40 then north along US 52/NC 8 to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive then east onto New Walkertown Road.
In 1997, the first section of the "East Belt" was opened in High Point, rerouting US 311 onto the new freeway to Eastchester Drive then back into downtown High Point with concurrency with North Carolina Highway 68. The old alignment along North Main Street became US 311 Business. On November 20, 2004, the second section of the "East Belt" was opened, rerouting US 311 to I-85 Bus./US 29/US 70. On November 22, 2010, the third and final section of the "East Belt" was completed, linking Interstate 85; Also Interstate 74 was established as an concurrency of US 311 from Cedar Square Road to North Main Street.
In 2003, NCDOT extended US 311 north from Madison to its current terminus in Eden, via NC 135; however, signage to its new northern terminus didn't exist until August, 2011.
Read more about this topic: U.S. Route 311
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