Get a sneak peek at new I-40 exit and entrance ramps in Johnston County this month

New Interstate 40 exit and entrance ramps will open in Johnston County this month, but only temporarily.

In a preview of things to come, the N.C. Department of Transportation will provide direct access to I-40 from Cleveland Road for the first time starting at 9 p.m. April 19.

The opening coincides with paving work on the nearby N.C. 42 bridge over the highway. When the first phase of the paving work was completed April 21, the Cleveland Road ramps partially closed again until next weekend, when the process will be repeated, weather permitting.

While the N.C. 42 bridge is closed, the ramp to enter westbound I-40 and to exit from eastbound I-40 will remain open, according to NCDOT.

The Cleveland Road ramps are not expected to open permanently until mid-June. When they do, people in the area will have the option of getting on and off I-40 at either Cleveland Road or N.C. 42, which should help alleviate congestion at the interchange.

Cleveland Road is less than a mile from N.C. 42, so NCDOT is treating the two access points as one interchange. N.C. 42 will be rechristened Exit 312A, while Cleveland Road will be Exit 312B.

The overhaul of what’s known as the 40/42 interchange is part of a larger effort to widen a 13-mile stretch of I-40 south of Raleigh, which began in 2018. Contractors are adding two lanes in each direction of the highway and building a massive new rotary interchange where I-40 meets the U.S. 70 bypass and N.C. 540, the Triangle Expressway.

The junction of N.C. 42 with I-40 will become what’s known as a diverging diamond. Drivers on N.C. 42 will crisscross at either end of the bridge over the highway in a way that eliminates left turns and the amount of time drivers spend sitting at red lights.

N.C. 42 will reopen in the new diverging diamond pattern when the paving work on the bridge over I-40 is completed the month.

The first interchange of this type in the Triangle opened at Western Boulevard and Interstate 440, the Raleigh Beltline, in November 2021. Two others are under construction, at Jones Sausage Road and I-40 in Raleigh and I-40 at Airport Boulevard near Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

A fifth is planned at the I-440 Beltline interchange with Wake Forest Road, and two more are included in NCDOT’s plans to turn Capital Boulevard into a freeway between Raleigh and Wake Forest.