The official grand opening of the Urban Loop is Monday, Jan. 23 at 11 a.m.
And if you would like to be one of the first to take a 39-mile trip around Greensboro on the entire Urban Loop, the last section between North Elm Street and US 29 is supposed to open to the public about noon on Monday, Jan. 23.
Officially, the Urban Loop involved 49 miles of construction, but that includes interchanges and collector roads.
The Urban Loop was originally called Painter Boulevard, named for Greensboro’s first city manager, Pennell Churchman Painter. It was originally proposed over half a century ago. At the time the plan was for a road more in keeping with Cone Boulevard or Wendover Avenue than the interstate highway that will open on Monday.
While Painter Boulevard was first proposed in 1967, not much got done for the first few decades. The 1977 Greensboro thoroughfare plan included the Urban Loop and was the first official adoption of the plan.
But it wasn’t until 1995 that the “record of decision” was approved that made construction possible. But even with that approval, construction didn’t take off. The first portion of the Urban Loop opened in 2002 and it was only a 2.2-mile section between I-40/85 and US 70.
The first major portion of the Urban Loop opened in 2004 and was a 12.9-mile segment that served as the southeast bypass for I-85.
It was four years before another section of the Urban Loop opened and that was an 8-mile segment in the southwest.
The 8-mile segment of the I-840 Western Loop from Bryan Boulevard to US 220/Battleground opened in April 2018. The last segment of the Western Loop from US 2020/Battleground to Lawndale Avenue was completed in December 2019.
A 2-mile segment of the final portion of the Eastern Loop from Lawndale Avenue to North Elm Street opened in December 2022.
The final segment of the Urban Loop from North Elm Street to US 29 is the portion that will open on Monday, Jan. 23.
The entire Urban Loop has cost $1.04 billion and taken 56 years to complete.
I’m assuming it will take another 56 years to complete bike path from Target on Lawndale Dr to the downtown area
My understanding is that planners continued with the original position of the loop rather than moving it outward to be more in line with the City growth in all directions. Typical morons!
19 years for completion. Sound like 19 years of dithering, fumbling, and hovering to me.
With the job Donald Trump did on the Ice Rink at Rockefeller Plaza in less than a year (after years of Democrat fumbling), The Donald should have done this deal, too.
We need an experienced businessman in the White House.
Amazing how this rag always brings out the MAGA nuts. Only reason Trump got anything done was because he lied and cheated his way to completion. Anyone who dealt with the Creep knows this. He is no businessman and your ignorance fits in well with this sorry excuse for a news source.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90696000/trump-let-this-beloved-ice-rink-fall-to-pieces-a-new-partnership-is-bringing-it-back-to-life
Thanks for your comment. If you don’t like it he Rhino don’t read it stick to cnn, msnbc or the local democrat fishwrap for all the news you love
But he got it done!!
I speak-a-da facts. I’m not insulting anyone to make a point.
Apples and Oranges my guy. I mean, c’mon, it’s a dinky skating rink. Any halfway decent construction person would have been able to build the damn thing in the same amount of time. the project was largely complete by the time TFG took over. The city, not Trump, paid for the actual reconstruction…..
AND it was not @ Rockefeller Center.
I think you missed the point. It’s not about who paid for it, it is the fact the Donald got it done in less than a year in contrast to Democrat years of dithering and fumbling.
Hurrah!
It’s about time Greensboro had a Ring Road.
This is almost funny. Wrapped up just as Greensboro announced it wants to be vehicle free by 2040 and have everyone dependent on public transportation. The idiot that Fox8 interviewed me tinned how wonderful it would be to not have a car payment. Consider this – 1. Why have a car if it isn’t paid for? 2. Are you stupid enough to believe you won’t be making up for that payment and then some with the tax hike you’ll be hit with for public transportation & all the other baloney they were proposing? 3. You idiots haven’t gotten the bill for your nearly $2 Billion in bonds for the Government Ran LGBTQ, Social Justice, & Libtard Indoctrination Centers for the children yet. 4. Someone has to take away the money printing machines and pay for every dollar that has spilled out of them at the behest of the idiots in Washington. That goes for every ARPA project, every penny in orger made up grants and fluff added to every piece of pork legislation slid through congress. 5. Yes, Democrats suck, but they aren’t the only ones who need to go. Encourage other parties who aren’t already bought and paid for by the same old fraternities that ruin everything you know and love. A politician will kiss a lodge brother’s rump before they’ll do anything for we the people.
Yes..Dinald Trump is the answer to every problem in the world today…ALL HAIL THE DON!!!! May he rest in prison
Rhino, please do an article explaining the loop’s Road numbers. I am parricularly interested in why they don’t have a single number for the entire circumference (I-840, for example) and then give the portions that are part of a through -road the appropriate through-road number.
What exits will there be past Elm?
Exit 11- Yanceyville Rd.
Exit 14- I-785/US 29
Exit 17- Huffine Mill Rd
Exit 18- US Highway 70/Wendover Ave/Burlington rd
Exit 21- I-40/I-85