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Coming north on I-40 west yesterday 2pm from Wilmington. Should be between 1:45 and 2 hour drive (136 miles). Everything fine until around 27 miles south of Raleigh. Signs forever saying the right lane is closed ahead. I get in the left lane, but nobody else seems to. Finally get to the CLUSTER **** and of course come to a stand-still for 40 minutes in 100 degree heat, no AC, car overheating, people losing their sh*t, driving on the shoulder, cutting across the median to turn around, slamming on their brakes, tailgating, honking.....it was one of the worst traffic backups I have ever experienced. I waited until 1pm to leave so that I would not have to deal with rush hour traffic. Searched the NC DOT traffic information / travel website and I can't find anything about this. Whatever is going on, it should be a night-only project. Had I known I would have done almost anything to avoid what I went through. I would have driven in the middle of the night, taken an alternative route - anything would have been better.
Then - I get to Raleigh and - even though I keep telling myself that I am never going to drive on Wake Forest / Falls of Neuse between the 440 and Millbrook because the lanes are insanely narrow and people like to take up several lanes at a time, I was so exhausted and soaking wet from the 40 extra minutes sitting in the direct sun, I did. I am in the center lane and someone runs a red light, and turns from my right without stopping directly into my lane forcing me to wildly swerve left, slam on the brakes, squeal the tires and everything in my car goes flying around. If there had been anyone to my left, it would have been catastrophic. What is wrong with people? Even if every other aspect of life in Raleigh was absolutely perfect and couldn't be improved-upon, the bad drivers alone are making me think of GTFO of here. I have driven all around Raleigh and Wake Co for almost 20 years and I still haven't found a worse stretch of road than that section of WF/FON - especially near that disastrous Walmart. Holy Crap.
Coming north on I-40 west yesterday 2pm from Wilmington. Should be between 1:45 and 2 hour drive (136 miles). Everything fine until around 27 miles south of Raleigh.
I drove the same route, only a couple hours ahead of you. The slow down was on the Raleigh side of I-95. Looked like they were cutting the concrete on the far right side of the road. The cones were out many more miles than they needed to (eg - no one working, no equipment in sight as far as you could see, etc). Luckily for us, the delay was not horrible, but sounds like it got much worse after we went through.
If it makes you feel better, the East/Southbound traffic looked much worse. One lane was closed for miles, yet no one was even working on that side. We guessed they were working northbound until they got to the Hwy 42 exit, then planned to head back south.
I just spent another hour searching all the projects, maps, TIMS website, selection by county region, I-40, etc.........nothing I can find on the NCDOT website. Again this was West-bound, I-40 coming towards Raleigh, past I-95 by about 5-10 miles approx 25-27 miles south of Raleigh. "Right lane closed". If someone wanted to find information about whatever this is/was/is going to be.....good luck.
An alternative for Raleigh-Wilmington commutes is taking US-264 to Wilson and following the I-795/US-117 corridor to I-40 near Faison and vice-versa. Sure, it's more mileage, but it beats the parking lot area of I-40. Unless there's a bad wreck, you won't be sitting still.
The only construction zone on that route that I'm aware of is the Country Club Road interchange project on US-117 just north of Mount Olive.
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