Jump to US 70 Business

Route:	Enters Wake County near Brier Creek, a few miles northwest of the airport. 3 miles northwest of RDU Int'l Airport. Leaves the county immediately after splitting from I-40 at exit 309.
Major Intersections:	I-540 exit 4A-B, near Brier Creek. M-NC 50 from Crabtree Valley Mall to Garner. I-440 exit 7A-B, just past Crabtree Valley Mall. M-US 401 through downtown Raleigh. I-40/US 64 exit 298A-B, south of downtown. I-40 (again), exit 306A-B, then multiplexed to just before the county line.
History:	US 70 originally entered Raleigh via today's NC 54.  It was co-signed with the original NC 10, which ran across the state until 1934.  The routing was Chapel Hill Road through Cary; Hillsborough, Salisbury and Wilmington streets through downtown Raleigh; and Smithfield Street (now part of Martin Luther King Boulevard) and Garner Road through southeast Raleigh, Garner and points southeast. By 1949 what is today Glenwood Avenue was finished and US 70 was moved onto it. The routing in the northern half of the county hasn't changed since then. US 70A, originally routed along Leesville Road, was moved to run along the old routing of US 70. The "bypass" through Garner was built in the early '50s, at which time US 70 was moved off the Smithfield Street/Garner Road routing and instead placed on Wilmington Street to exit downtown Raleigh.  After the rerouting, Garner Road was redesignated SR 1007, a designation which it continues to hold. US 70 has been four or more lanes in the entirety of Wake County since the Garner bypass was built. For about 5 years, 70 and NC 50, which shares a lot of pavement with 70, were multiplexed on the Beltline, but they returned to their former routes through downtown in 1995.
Attractions:	For a road in a relatively flat part of the state, 70 (especially the Glenwood Avenue portion) is very hilly through Raleigh. Near the airport, a hilly stretch of 70 is the only portion of road signed at under 55 mph between Durham and Millbrook Road; lots of businesses on either side of the road (with very poor visibility) add to the fun of driving along. 70 is actually above the grade of I-540 at this point, but quickly drops down to occupy the lowest level of the three at the I-540 interchange. (Want a good roller-coaster ride? Take 70 west from Raleigh, exit onto 540 -- about a 50-foot drop here -- then get onto 540 west on a ramp that goes back up 40 feet or so.) The Glenwood South district isn't along US 70 proper, but it has become the de facto nightlife center of Raleigh, with a good number of bars and restaurants in the mile-plus strip between Peace and Hillsborough streets.
Comments:	70 covers just about every sort of territory imaginable in Wake County, from shopping malls to parkway-like stretches to large old houses (not to mention the old oak trees) to sharing pavement with an Interstate. Before I-540 was opened (1997), US 70 was a main route west from Raleigh into Research Triangle Park and northern Durham County, and the opening of 540 took a good bit of commuter traffic off US 70. That said, the area around Crabtree Valley Mall and I-440 is still a traffic nightmare, especially during peak shopping seasons. Many maps from the late '70s and early '80s imply that there was a partial interchange between Glenwood and Creedmoor Road, at the northwest corner of Crabtree Valley Mall. I had my doubts about this, and received an email1 verifying that this never existed. If you have a copy of a map from that time frame (the one I remember was a Champion '83 or '84) that shows this, drop me an email and I'll try to put it up here. (My copy has long since disappeared.)

Route:	Begins where US 70 exits to join I-40 at exit 306. Crosses into Johnston County just east of Guy Road.
Major Intersections:	I-40 (exit 306) is as good as it gets.
History:	The newest business route in Wake County doesn't actually serve many businesses in the county. US 70 Business was established in 2008 when the US 70 Clayton Bypass was completed to bypass the western Johnston County town. Not surprisingly, there haven't been any upgrades since then.
Attractions:	The three tall towers along Business 70 hold antennas for the three major local television stations, as well as a host of radio stations. The center tower, for WRAL-TV and a couple of radio stations, is 1,999' high and is a replacement for a tower that fell during a 1989 ice storm.
Comments:	Depending on traffic along I-40, Business 70 can occasionally be a faster route to Smithfield from Raleigh. A changeable message board along I-40 eastbound displays drive times along both the business and the bypass routes.