North Carolina Highway 87 (NC 87) is a primary

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 ...

. NC 87 begins in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coastal town of

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

and crosses into

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 ...

at the Virginia state line five miles (8 km) north of Eden in Rockingham County. At in length, NC 87 is the second longest state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina with only North Carolina Highway 24 (NC 24) being longer. Labeled as a north–south route, NC 87 travels along a relatively straight southeast–northwest path, connecting

Cape Fear region Cape Fear is a coastal plain and Tidewater region of North Carolina centered about the city of Wilmington. The region takes its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland, as does the Cape Fear River which flows through the region and empties ...

with the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. It is also the main north-south route connecting the cities of Fayetteville, Sanford,

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

and Reidsville.

Route description

NC 87 is a four-lane, divided highway with at-grade crossings between Elizabethtown and Sanford with the exception of Fayetteville, where NC 87 is a freeway. Other sections that are four-lane, divided highways include concurrencies with US 17 and US 74/ US 76 in Brunswick County. In Sanford, it intersects US 421, on which users can travel east to Lillington, or northwest to

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

, and

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

. North of Sanford, NC 87 runs

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

US 15 U.S. Route 15 (US 15) is a -long United States highway, designated along South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. The route is signed north–south, from U.S. Route 17 Alternate in Walterboro, South Car ...

/ US 501 to Pittsboro. It then continues towards

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

as a two-lane highway. It returns to four-lanes in southern Graham, returning to two-lane in downtown Graham. The route makes a left turn one block north of the

Alamance County Alamance County (), from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved September 18, 2012. is a county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county seat ...

Courthouse, where it follows a two-lane road before making a right turn onto a four-lane street. The highway remains four-lane through downtown Burlington, returning to mostly two lanes for the remainder of its route in North Carolina, save for Reidsville, where it intersects

US 29 U.S. Route 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida to the western suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland in the Southern United States, connecting the Florida Panhandle to the Baltimore-Washington ...

, and runs on four-lane commercial corridor Freeway Drive.

History

North Carolina Highway 303

North Carolina Highway 303 (NC 303) was a primary

in the U.S. state of

. Established as an original state highway, NC 303 was routed from NC 30, in Pollocksville, west through Trenton, before ending at NC 10/ NC 11, in Kinston. In 1925, all of NC 303 was renumbered as part of NC 12. In 1930, NC 303 was resurrected as a new primary routing from NC 130 (now NC 211), near Southport, to NC 30 (became US 17 in late 1934), near

Winnabow Winnabow is a unincorporated community and census-designated place in Brunswick County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is located at It is mainly a farming community along US Highway 17. There is no large retail presence in the area, exc ...

. On October 23, 1952, NC 303 was renumbered as an extension of NC 87.

Major intersections

Special routes

Elizabethtown business loop

North Carolina Highway 87 Business (NC 87 Bus.), was established in 1997, when mainline NC 87 was moved south to bypass downtown Elizabethtown. NC 87 Business follows the original alignment along Broad Street.

Fayetteville alternate route 1

North Carolina Highway 87 Alternate (NC 87A), was established between 1940-44 as a new primary routing. It ran from US 15A/NC 87 (Hay Street) north along Robeson Street and then west along Fort Bragg Boulevard, recombining with mainline NC 87 on Fort Bragg Road. Sometime between 1945–49, it switched with mainline NC 87.

Fayetteville alternate route 2

North Carolina Highway 87 Alternate (NC 87A), was established between 1945–49, the second NC 87A in Fayetteville followed the original NC 87 alignment along Hay Street, Morganton Road, and Fort Bragg Road. The route was decommissioned between 1955-57.

Sanford bypass

North Carolina Highway 87 Bypass (NC 87 By-pass) was established in 2013 as a new primary route along existing sections of the Sanford Bypass (formally SR 9000), from NC 87 to US 1/

/ US 501. The request to establish a bypass was pushed by the Sanford City Council and Lee County. Typically, the old alignment would become a business loop, but instead the NC 87 mainline remained unchanged. The bypass is built as a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

; which shares designation with US 421.

References

External links