History
Before Business 85 was established, the route had already existed as US 29 and US 70. During the 1960s, the route from Lexington to Greensboro was signed as Interstate 85. However, NCDOT was already planning of a new bypass route south of Lexington and even built (what was called then) the "bridge over nothing," what now serves as exit 87. In 1980, this planned bypass finally began construction, at the same time signage changed to Temporary I-85. In 1984, Interstate 85 moved south to its new 6-lane freeway, bypassing the cities of Lexington, Thomasville, and High Point; the former route was then resigned as Interstate 85 Business.
In 2004, Interstate 85 was redirected southeast around Greensboro (what is part of the Greensboro Urban Loop); the old route through Greensboro was then replaced by a 13-mile (21 km) extension of Business 85 (hidden on main I-85). On February 2008, Interstate 40 was rerouted south around Greensboro, it was replaced by an extension of Business 40 from Winston-Salem. Seven months later, Interstate 40 returned to its original routing through Greensboro, making the odd concurrency of an Interstate and Business Loop permanent in Greensboro.
Also in 2004, the High Point East Belt was partially completed to Business 85, creating a temporary routing of US 311 along Business 85 from South Main Street to the new freeway in High Point. This was ended when the East Belt Bypass was completed in November 2010.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 85 Business (North Carolina)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)