Rural southeast Wake County has been changing for years, as new homes and subdivisions rise amid patches of forest and fields of hay and soybeans.
Now even bigger changes are underway, as enormous piles of downed trees, rows of pipes and a 10-mile strip of bare earth mark the future path of the Triangle Expressway.
Work began last year on the final leg of N.C. 540, which will run 10 miles between Interstate 87 near Knightdale and Interstate 40 south of Garner. When this section opens in late 2028, the 70-mile outer loop around Raleigh will be complete, more than 35 years after construction began near Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Those final 10 miles of highway will cost about $737 million. The N.C. Turnpike Authority, an arm of the N.C. Department of Transportation, will pay for the road through tolls it collects from drivers who use it…