state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...
in 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 ...
. It connects
Knotts Island
Knotts Island is a marshy island and a small unincorporated community. The island is shared by Currituck County, North Carolina and Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States, bounded by the Currituck Sound, North Landing River, Back Bay, and Knotts ...
NC 615 connects the community of Knotts Island with both mainland North Carolina and Virginia. The route begins at NC 168, in Currituck, where it goes east and crosses over the
Currituck Sound
Currituck Sound () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the , via the Currituck-Knotts Island Ferry. On Knotts Island, it continues north for before reaching the
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 ...
state line. On the island, the route is well signed and borders the
Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge
was established in 1960 to provide habitat for migratory waterfowl, primarily the greater snow goose. It is located almost entirely on Knotts Island in the Currituck Sound between Back Bay in Virginia Beach, Virginia and the open sound in Nort ...
.
Ferry service, which predates the highway by one year (1962), was established originally to shorten the travel time for Knott's Island school children to their school on the mainland (in Barco). The ferry is free with year-round service with travel times of 45 minutes on average.
The highway is the northeasternmost primary route in the state. The entire route is
concurrent
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:
Law
* Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea''
* Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
with
North Carolina Bicycle Route 4
The following is a List of bicycle routes in North Carolina. These routes are designated by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Division.
State U.S. Bicycle Route 1
The North Carolina po ...
.
History
Established around 1963 as a new primary routing, NC 615 was located only on Knotts Island. At some point before 2001, the highway was extended overlapping the Currituck-Knotts Island Ferry, ending on the mainland at Courthouse Road. On April 9, 2013, it was extended northwest along Courthouse Road to end at its current southern terminus at NC 168. Justification for the extension was to connect to North Carolina Highway 168 and remove a gap.
615
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Year 615 ( DCXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 615 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...