North Carolina Roads - US 321/421

US 321 and US 321/421


All photos courtesy Lou Corsaro except one.


SB entering Hickory. I don't believe this generalization is always true, but if NCDOT says so, it must be.


Two-digit NC-style shield in Lenoir.


Four-laning construction on US 321 NB between Lenoir and Blowing Rock, taken March 2007.


Now in October 2007, the SB progress on cutting out a sizable section of mountain to squeeze the four lanes through, followed by more hillside devastation just for some northbound capacity.


The progress as of September 2008, northbound up to the big rock cut you saw SB above. Get your hot boiled P-Nuts while Sagebrush is still around.


Past the cut, which is almost ready to be paved, and looking back southward at it from another bend in the road about to be straightened. As construction progresses, the next step will be a bridge across the short gap currently framed by bends in US 321.


Last 9/08 NB photo.


I hope you're enjoying all these photos, because Lou sent me a bunch more from September 2009, southbound. Traffic is now on the new road in some places and the old road is being removed. In the first few photos, a former ess along the mountainside has been bypassed by a much straighter alignment on an overpass between two rock cuts. The old alignment then swung out again around the rock (rather than through it - much cheaper and easier). In the final 4 photos, the old road is being widened in place, requiring some heavy excavation on the uphill side.


NB entering Blowing Rock, the only photo of my own here.


Jumping ahead to Boone, along the US 321/421 duplex.


Mountain City is on US 421, Hampton is on US 321, and both are in Tennessee, so where's the ", TN"?


Three different font sizes (small, medium, large) and three different route number placements (center, left, and right). Is our children learning how to make signs?

Onto US 421 alone

Into Tennessee on US 321
To US 221
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