| Notes: |
Six Forks gets its name not from kitchen utensils, but from the crossroads of Six Forks, which currently is a simple intersection of Six Forks and Strickland roads but originally had two extra roads, Lead Mine and Baileywick roads, intersecting in close proximity. (Six Spoons Road and Six Knives Road, however, owe their existence to their nearby and more famous neighbor. They're simply cul-de-sacs off Ramblewood Drive just inside the Beltline.)
Originally a two lane road for most of its entire length (it has always carried four lanes inside the Beltline), Six Forks has been widened multiple times, and it now carries at least four lanes as far north as I-540. The first widening, from the Beltline north to Lynn Road took place in the early 1970s. The road was initially widened to four lanes, and in 1983 a center turn lane was added by shrinking the other four lanes. Six Forks north of Lynn Road carried two lanes until 1990, when it was widened north to Sawmill Road. In 1992 five-laning was completed between Sawmill and Strickland, and the five-lane section was extended north to I-540 when the freeway was opened in June 2001.
Originally, Six Forks dead-ended at the railroad tracks half a mile east of Wake Forest Road, leaving no good way to get from Wake Forest to Atlantic Avenue. The hole was filled in 1997 when a railroad overpass was built and Six Forks was extended east to Atlantic. Long-term plans call for an extension east to Capital Boulevard, and the first piece of this extension (currently serving as a connector to an apartment complex) has been completed.
At Bayleaf, the crossroads where Six Forks meets Norwood and Possum Track roads near Falls Lake, Six Forks (going north) makes a quick left turn that's pretty easy to miss. This turn was created out of necessity when the Neuse River was flooded to create Falls Lake. Six Forks was rerouted to avoid crossing the lake, leaving behind a pair of dead-end roads (Bayleaf Church and Old Bayleaf roads) and following the south shore of the lake to end at NC 98 two miles west of its former terminus.
|
