State highways in North Carolina are owned and maintained by the U.S. state of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, through the

North Carolina Department of Transportation The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is responsible for building, repairing, and operating highways, bridges, and other modes of transportation, including ferries in the U.S. state of North Carolina. History The North Carolina ...

(NCDOT). __TOC__

List of primary routes

When originally established in the 1920s, the state highway system was highly organized: two-digit routes ending in "0" were major cross-state routes, other two digit routes were numbered as spurs off of the main route (that is, Highway 54 would have been a spur off of Highway 50) and lesser important routes were given three digit numbers by appending an extra "ones" digit to the two digit route it branched off of (that is, Highway 541 would have been itself a spur off of Highway 54). Since its establishment, there have been countless small changes to the state highway numbering system as routes are eliminated, combined, or renumbered. There have been four events that have forced large numbers of routes to be changed: 1933–1934 elimination of duplicate and renumbering of state routes along or that share with

U.S. Routes The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

, 1937 renumbering for contiguous routes with

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, 1940 renumbering for contiguous routes with

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and 1961 renumbering of routes that share with

Interstate highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

in the state. Because of these renumbering events, the original numbering system has been largely obscured.

List of alternate routes

North Carolina

alternate route An official alternate route is a special route in the United States that provides an alternate alignment for a highway. They are loop roads and found in many road systems in the United States including the U.S. Highway system and various state an ...

s have been utilized in a multitude of ways, including business, bypass, cut-thru and spurs. After 1960, nearly all have been decommissioned or converted to business loops, and establishing new alternate routes have been prohibited. Today, only three alternate routes are currently active in the state.

List of business loops

North Carolina

business route A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route connected to a ''parent'' numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or ...

s were first established in 1960 with the conversation of some alternate routes. All business routes in the state are set up as a loop, meaning it will separate then converge back to the main highway. Typically, they serve to connect downtown areas in cities and towns in the state.

List of other special routes

North Carolina, on rare occasion, will utilize other uniquely

special route In road transportation in the United States, a special route is a road in a numbered highway system that diverts a specific segment of related traffic away from another road. They are featured in many highway systems; most are found in the Int ...

s in the state. Listed here are bypass, connector, divided and

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back ...

routes.

References

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External links