North Carolina Highway 68


North Carolina Highway 68 is a north-south state highway in North Carolina. It serves as a connector between Interstate 40 / U.S. Route 421 and Piedmont Triad International Airport. On its routing from Thomasville to Stokesdale, NC 68 passes through urban High Point, the western outskirts of Greensboro, and the town of Oak Ridge.

Route description

Beginning in the south with the junction with US 29/US 70, the route travels north out of Thomasville in Davidson County as National Highway, a name which referred to the former routing of US 29/70 along this segment. Crossing from Davidson County into neighboring Guilford County and the city of High Point, NC 68 is cosigned with English Road. Approximately within the city limits, NC 68 turns left onto Westchester Drive, a boulevard which bypasses the High Point downtown area. Arriving at the Main Street intersection, NC 68 continues onto Eastchester Drive. The route have direct access with I-74 with the parclo interchange, and further north, intersects with Wendover Avenue. NC 68 enters into the city limits of Greensboro, entering into the developed district in the western areas of the city
Further north, NC 68 becomes expressway-grade, with the interchange with Interstate 40/US 421, Continuing north as a divided four-lane highway, NC 68 comes to the exit with W. Market Street east of Colfax. Further north are the I-73 exits. Piedmont Triad International Airport is directly connected to this point, with ramps connecting NC 68 North to I-73 South, and I-73 North to NC 68 South for access. After the near-adjacent second I-73 exit, NC 68 downgrades to two lanes. From here, the route heads north through the heart of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, passing the Oak Ridge Military Academy at the route's intersection with NC 150. After crossing the Haw River into Stokesdale, NC 68 crosses US 158 and joins NC 65 for a short concurrency, before splitting to the northeast en route to its northern terminus at US 220 in Rockingham County. This interchange doubles as the current northern terminus of I-73 though no direct access is provided between I-73 and NC 68.

History

The first NC 68 was an original state highway that traversed from NC 60, in Millers Creek, northwest through Glendale Springs, Jefferson and Crumpler, before crossing into Virginia. By 1928, NC 68 was rerouted west of Jefferson onto new primary routing west to the Tennessee state line; the old alignment becoming NC 681. In 1929, all of NC 68 was replaced by an extension of NC 16.
The second and current NC 68 was established in 1930 as a new primary routing from US 70/US 170/NC 10, northeast of High Point, to NC 65, in Stokesdale. In 1936, NC 68 was rerouted south through High Point to US 29A/US 70A ; its old alignment, along Penny Road, became a secondary road. In 1941, NC 68 was extended north on new primary routing to US 220.
In 1952, NC 68 was extended north to its current terminus with the then new US 220 bypass, replacing part of old US 220. Between 1950 and 1953, NC 68 was extended south to English Street. In 1956 or 1957, NC 68 was extended to its current southern terminus, sharing a concurrency with US 29A/US 70A, until 1991. In 1982, NC 68 was rerouted onto a newly opened expressway connecting I-40 and new access to the Piedmont Triad International Airport, with its old alignment along Bull Road becoming a secondary road, in which a portion of the road had been removed.

Major intersections