Drivers cruising a long-dark stretch of Raleigh’s I-440 Beltline are noticing something new overhead: light. A four-mile section of the highway now glows at night, with tall masts rising at interchanges and shorter poles lining the median in between, ending decades of darkness along one of the city’s busiest commuter routes.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, the newly lit section runs a four-mile stretch between Lake Boone Trail and Cary. That description marks a shift from earlier reporting: a 2022 News & Observer report said the lighting project then underway was slated to run between Wade Avenue and Cary as part of the Beltline widening, with lights shining down from tall masts at the interchanges and from rows of shorter poles along the highway. NCDOT’s own project page for the I-440 and Blue Ridge Road improvements has said construction was underway between just south of Walnut Street in Cary and north of Wade Avenue in Raleigh, according to the agency’s website.
The lights are part of a larger overhaul of the Beltline’s oldest section. NCDOT describes the corridor between just south of Walnut Street in Cary and north of Wade Avenue as a four-lane bottleneck between six-lane sections, with congestion expected to increase. The $346.2 million project includes widening the road to six lanes, replacing pavement and bridges, and upgrading interchanges, as outlined on NCDOT’s I-440 project page…