U.S. Route 74 - Future

Future

In addition to the expected concurrency with I-74 east of Rockingham, another controlled-access facility, called the Monroe Connector / Bypass, is also in the plans for U.S. 74. The bypass will run from Charlotte to Marshville in eastern Union County, allegedly to relieve traffic on the current alignment between these two cities, but there is little proof that it will. Several environmental issues have delayed this project for a number of years. The North Carolina Turnpike Authority has awarded the project and construction is scheduled to begin in October 2012.

There are also plans to build three new interchanges on Independence Boulevard. They will be located at Sharon-Amity Road, Idlewild Road and Conference Drive. Currently, all three junctions are signalized at-grade intersections.

A bypass of Shelby (west of Charlotte) is also planned. Once completed, U.S. 74 will be a continuous freeway from Waynesville (west of Asheville) to Kings Mountain and points east, pending the completion of those projects.

A 4-Lane Expressway with a tunnel and viaduct running from Almond in Swain County to Andrews around Robbinsville is in the planning stages. The road presently runs through Nantahala Gorge and is a bottleneck with two lanes, as on each end of the Gorge is a 4-lane highway presently, and the new highway would clear the bottleneck and make Robbinsville more accessible to the outside world and Cherokee County to the rest of North Carolina. This plan has been marked with controversy, however, as it would disrupt the environment, spoil some views, and be the first four lane highway in Graham County.