Interstate 85

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Template:Routeboxint Interstate 85 (abbreviated I-85) is an interstate highway in the southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an intersection with Interstate 65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus intersects with Interstate 95 in Petersburg, Virginia, near Richmond (Map).

Length

Image:Interstate85 map.png Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

The former Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike formed the northernmost portion of Interstate 85 near Petersburg, Virginia when completed in 1958. The tolls were removed in 1992.

Interstate 85 has also been rerouted on four different occasions: in northeastern Atlanta, north of Spartanburg, South Carolina, near High Point, North Carolina, and around Greensboro, North Carolina. The former I-85 in Atlanta is now part of Georgia State Route 13, and the other three reroutings have produced three Business Loops; the High Point one is not built to freeway standards, and may have been signed as Temporary I-85.[1] Additionally, a portion of I-85 southwest of Atlanta was rerouted - and the old roadbed removed - in order to accommodate an expansion of Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in the early 1980s.

Future Interstate 785 is currently planned from Greensboro, North Carolina to Danville, Virginia; along the current U.S. Highway 29 route.

Future Interstate 285 is also planned to follow part of the U.S. Highway 52 freeway from Lexington to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In North Carolina, I-85 merges with I-40 from Greensboro to Hillsborough, just west of Durham. In Alamance County, the highway is also known as the Sam Hunt Freeway. Because I-85 was recently rerouted around Greensboro, it splits with I-40 eight miles (13 km) east of the original departure point. This is only temporary though. When the southern portion of the Greensboro Urban Loop is completed, I-40 will be rerouted around Greensboro also, which will extend the concurrency 12 miles from the current split.

Through downtown Atlanta, I-85 merges with I-75 for a short time. This strip of highway, called the Downtown Connector, is infamous for its bad traffic, and rather confusing split at the north end. The northbound lanes split and then cross over each other. Thus, to head northeast (rightward) on I-85, a driver must be in the leftmost northbound lanes before the split. To head northwest (leftward) on I-75, a driver must be in the rightmost northbound lanes before the split.

Interstate 485 was supposed to have been an east-west connector route in the Atlanta area, but it was erased due to community opposition. Part of what would have been I-485 is now GA 10. I 485 was, according to the 1972 Atlanta Regional Transportation Plan, originally supposed to connect with I-420, a spur of I-20 that would have gone north, crossing I-285 (completed in 1968) and eventually going as far north as Dahlonega, Georgia. Only the stretch north of I-285 was originally built (being called Georgia SR 400 or simply Georgia 400), with a southbound (from I-285) extension coming a year before the olympics to the current I-85 intersection northeast of Downtown Atlanta.

There is currently a plan to extend I-85 across western Alabama, where it will connect with I-20 near Cuba, Alabama. This extension is in the planning stages. This extension will roughly follow the route of US-80 via Selma.[2] This section is also envisioned by some as part of a proposed Interstate 14.

The junction between I-85 and I-77 in Charlotte is a strange configuration. When I-85 passes under I-77, the northbound lanes of I-77 are to the west (south on I-85) of the southbound lanes, and southbound I-77 is to the east (north on I-85) of northbound. The travel lanes on I-77 return to their proper positions north and south of this interchange.

Recently I-85 has been widened from four to six lanes in South Carolina between exits 19 (US 76, Clemson/Anderson) and 34 (US 29, Piedmont).

The rivalry between the NFL's Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons has been coined "The I-85 Rivalry," since Charlotte and Atlanta are directly connected by I-85.

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