Russell Barrett reports that there's more than one way to get around the rock slide that closed Interstate 40 a month ago just east of the Tennessee border. (See today's story, with a map of NCDOT's recommended detour.)

How you get there depends on where you ask for directions. Barrett found that some online mapping services will lead you into trouble - but some give good guidance.

Here's what he found when he consulted four of them. (I've added links to the specific maps and directions.)

After reading of the continued problems with I-40 in the mountains this morning, I checked four online mapping programs to see if they were aware of the situation. I used Lake Junaluska as the starting point and Knoxville TN as the finish.

The results: they batted .500.

Yahoo and Google maps both routed around I-40. ... [MORE]

View I-40 / southern Beltline work in a larger map

Repaving work on Raleigh's southern Beltline this weekend will close lanes and send some drivers on a detour.

The state Department of Transportation will close the exit ramp from westbound Interstate 40 to the eastbound I-440 Outer Beltline from 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Monday.

A marked detour will send drivers west to the Rock Quarry Road exit, where they will be directed to loop back onto the eastbound lanes of the Outer Beltline.

Also this weekend, the Outer Beltline will be reduced to one lane from Rock Quarry to Poole Road.

A separate paving project on thenorthern Beltline will close some lanes on Sunday between Wade Avenue and Wake Forest Road, so road crews can apply permanent stripes to the pavement. The work will affect traffic between 9 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday.

You might have expected hoopla for the opening of a $25.5 million highway project in eastern Wake County -- with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and a bunch of grip-and-grin photos.

Far from it. David Bone, the Wendell town manager, buried the news in a sentence on page four of his weekly memo to the town board of commissioners:

ITEM 14. OTHER
A. The Wendell Falls interchange opened on Wednesday, November 4th.

Wendell Falls is or was a planned 1,400-acre suburb off U.S. 64/264 between Knightdale and Wendell. It was supposed to have ... [MORE]

DOT will close one lane in each direction on the I-440 Beltline this Sunday so a road contractor can put down stripes on new pavement.

That'll be welcome news for drivers who had a hard time seeing the temporary stripes. Several folks have complained to the Road Worrier. A couple of weeks ago, Trudy Kappel asked:

Do you know if the lines painted on the newly repaved section of I440 are the final work? They vanish on a dark rainy night.

Sunday's striping work will take place between Wade Avenue and Wake Forest Road, and between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Starting at 9 a.m. Friday, Wade Avenue traffic will be squeezed again into one lane each way, while DOT crews do more work at the Canterbury Road intersection.

A sewer leak at Canterbury prompted Raleigh and DOT officials to close the lanes for repair work Wednesday night. For an update on when Friday's work will end and the lanes will reopen, call 511 or check DOT's Triangle travel info site online.

DOT is repaving Wade this fall between Faircloth and Oberlin. That work is not supposed to impede rush hour traffic, weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.  

You can count on road crews to park their bulldozers on Thanksgiving and other major holidays -- but watch out when you're driving around the Triangle this Halloween.

NCDOT engineers say that, weather permitting, they'll be at work Saturday on a number of repaving and road improvement projects that could cause traffic backups.

Lane closings are likely on the I-40 widening project in West Raleigh (at the Wade Avenue bridge), and for paving jobs on:

    - I-540 north of I-40,
    - I-40 between I-540 and Wade,
    - I-440 and
    - US 64 / 264.

DOT engineers sometimes provide road work schedule updates on their travel information website and 511 phone service.  Unfortunately, DOT does not publish daily details on exactly when and where you can expect to find construction delays. 

View Wade & Glenwood repaving in a larger map

NCDOT will start work Monday on a project, funded with federal stimulus dollars, to repave Wade Avenue inside the Raleigh Beltline.

All lanes will stay open during the weekday rush hour, 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m.

But some lanes will be closed and traffic will be slowed at other times of the day and night, DOT says. Wade carries about 30,000 cars and trucks each day.

NCDOT also awarded a $1.2 million contract this summer to repave Glenwood Avenue inside the Beltline, but that job now is scheduled to start in March.

View Wade & Glenwood repaving in a larger map

NCDOT is preparing to start work this fall on long-awaited, inside-the-Beltline Raleigh repaving jobs that will smooth bumpy rides for a combined 60,000 drivers each day on Glenwood and Wade avenues.

Rea Contracting of Charlotte was awarded a $1.3 million project this week, paid for with federal stimulus funds, to mill and resurface 2.5 miles of Wade Avenue from Faircloth Street to Capital Boulevard, including the ramps from Wade to Glenwood Avenue and Capital Boulevard.

The Wade job could start as soon as Oct. 26 and is to be finished by mid-June 2010. No lanes will be closed during weekday rush hours – 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. – but traffic backups are likely on this busy road at other times of the day and night.

The same hours will apply – lane closings possible except during rush hour – when C.C. Mangum of Raleigh starts work on an $1.8 million contract to resurface 2.7 miles of Glenwood from Woman’s Club Drive to Wade Avenue.

Mangum has the option to start work as soon as next week, with a mid-June completion date. Construction schedules have not been announced.

View 540 Outer Loop - East in a larger map

Nighttime drivers on a northeastern arc of Raleigh's 540 Loop will squeeze into a single lane in each direction, starting tonight, as DOT begins concrete inspection work that had been postponed recently.

The lane closings will slow both east- and west -bound drivers on 540
between Triangle Town Boulevard and U.S. 64 Business (New Bern Avenue)
in northeast Raleigh. The work, which had been delayed because of rain and technical problems, will affect traffic only between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The work is expected
to be finished in a couple of weeks. ... [MORE]

View 540 Outer Loop - East in a larger map

DOT has to do some testing to look for possible pavement problems on a section of the 540 Outer Loop -- so drivers will be squeezed into one lane each way at night for the next couple of weeks.

The lane closings will slow both east- and west -bound drivers on 540 between Triangle Town Boulevard and U.S. 64 Business (New Bern Avenue) in northeast Raleigh. The work, postponed today to start next week, will affect traffic only between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The work is expected to be finished by mid-October.

A DOT engineer said radar waves will be used to determine whether steel connecting bars were buried deeply enough in the concrete when the road was paved in 2006. The bars connecting side-by-side travel lanes are supposed to be six inches deep. If they're too shallow, they could corrode and cause maintenance problems in the future. ... [MORE]