GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Greensboro Urban Loop is set to open the final section of its project near the end of January, after 10 years of construction and about $500 million.
According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the Urban Loop will be completed on Monday, Jan. 23.
The final leg that will open soon stretches from North Elm Street to Highway 29.
The highway will connect all sections of Greensboro.
It's been a long time coming.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation chose to break the loop of freeway circling Greensboro into four sections.
In 2017 NC DOT built a four-lane freeway from U.S. 70 To U.S. 29.
NC DOT then worked on the western portion of the loop where they built a 6-lane freeway from north Bryan Blvd. to Battleground Avenue connecting to US 220.
It opened in 2018.
In 2019 NC DOT connected that section of the freeway from Battleground to Lawndale Drive in northeast Greensboro.
The last section is the northern loop. Part of it opened in 2020 and connected Lawndale Drive to North Elm Street.
The last piece of the puzzle is finishing North Elm Street, Yanceyville Street, and the U.S. 29 interchanges.
"It's a huge accomplishment these big commute projects for multiple decades in the making if you go back and look at the history of some of these the original planning meetings for a lot of these projects began in the 60s and 70s for a lot of our metro," said Aaron Moody, the assistant director of communications with NC DOT.
Moody said opening this final stretch of the project will greatly improve traffic flow.
Five o'clock traffic along North Elm Street heading toward Pisgah Church Road is pretty congested.
Businesses along the road like Elm Street Grill are looking forward to this part of the loop's official opening.
Revi Khanna opened the restaurant 13 years ago.
"It's finally taking shape when we had the other exit going toward the west side it reduced the travel time. People are coming from Jamestown, they're coming from High Point, Kernersville, from Burlington so it'll cut down on the time for them so we are very excited," Khanna said.
NC DOT said this final stretch will come with a change in traffic flow starting Friday.
North Elm Street traffic coming from Pisgah Church Road will be able to use the new permanent loop ramp to access I-840 west.
The ramp will open so that contractors can make a lane shift that'll aid in the completion of the final portion of the loop.
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