Drivers who rely on U.S. 64 to reach Costco, car dealerships and neighborhood shopping centers in Apex and Cary are facing a major shake-up. The North Carolina Department of Transportation plans to widen the highway from Salem Street in Apex to U.S. 1 in Cary from four to six lanes, add two new freeway interchanges, and reroute access to businesses along the corridor as part of a project now expected to cost more than $340 million.
The overhaul has been in the works for more than 15 years, according to The News & Observer, which reports that NCDOT first shared plans publicly in 2018, when the project was estimated to cost about $114 million and construction was expected to start in 2022. NCDOT now expects the bulk of construction to begin in 2031, the paper reports. The project is formally listed as U-5301 in the state's 2018-2027 State Transportation Improvement Program, according to NCDOT's public input page, which describes the scope as stretching from just west of Laura Duncan Road in Apex to U.S. 1 in Cary.
Crash Data Behind the Redesign
The push to widen the corridor stems in part from safety concerns. The stretch of U.S. 64 saw nearly 800 crashes between 2012 and 2016, nearly double the state average for similar highways, NCDOT said, according to the Raleigh paper's report. Most of those crashes were rear-end collisions in stop-and-go traffic, the report notes.
Traffic volume has also climbed. U.S. 64 west of U.S. 1 handled more than 56,000 cars and trucks per day in 2018, and NCDOT projects that figure will reach 76,000 vehicles per day by 2040, per the same report.
New Interchanges and a Rebuilt Rail Bridge
Central to the plan are new highway interchanges at Laura Duncan Road and Lake Pine Drive. NCDOT also plans to reconfigure the Edinburgh Drive intersection near U.S. 1, replacing it with a bridge that would eliminate its traffic light, according to the News & Observer's reporting. Drivers who use Edinburgh Drive to reach MacGregor Village and MacGregor Downs would instead use a new spur road off Edinburgh Drive or nearby Gregson Drive, which will keep its traffic light, the report states.
The project also calls for replacing the CSX railroad bridge over U.S. 64 between Laura Duncan Road and Salem Street. The new span will have a wider opening to accommodate the additional lanes, and work on the bridge is scheduled to begin in fall 2028, finishing before road construction begins, the outlet reports. Separately, an NCDOT project page notes that widening the highway requires extending the CSX bridge located west of Laura Duncan Road.
Costco and Nearby Businesses Lose Direct Access
The planned changes will reduce direct access to streets and businesses along the corridor. Drivers will no longer be able to access Costco and nearby businesses directly from U.S. 64, according to the News & Observer. Instead, Costco-bound traffic will use Pine Plaza Drive behind the shopping center or a new access road NCDOT plans to build off Laura Duncan in front of Costco and nearby retailers.
NCDOT also plans to build an underpass carrying Shepherds Vineyard Drive under U.S. 64, eliminating the existing intersection just west of Lake Pine Drive. Drivers traveling to or from the Eva Perry Regional Library via Shepherds Vineyard Drive will need to use the Lake Pine interchange instead, the report notes.
Further west, the intersection of U.S. 64 at Chalon Drive and the Hendrick car dealership entrance will become a superstreet, a design that favors green lights for through traffic. Drivers at that location would use traffic signals for left turns and U-turns rather than a conventional full intersection, per the same report.
How to Weigh In
NCDOT will present the plans at a public meeting from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 18 at the John M. Brown Community Center in Apex, according to the News & Observer. The agency is also accepting feedback by phone, mail and email through Dec. 17. Separately, NCDOT's public input page asks that comments on the current phase of project development be submitted before Dec. 18, 2026, and says all comments are considered throughout project development and carry equal weight regardless of how they are submitted.
Cost and schedule details beyond what NCDOT has confirmed remain somewhat murky. A snippet from the Town of Cary's project page puts the estimated cost at $342 million and anticipates right-of-way acquisition beginning in 2027, with construction starting in 2028 for the railroad bridge and 2031 for the U.S. 64 corridor — figures that align broadly with NCDOT's own current estimate but should be treated as preliminary town-level information.
A Much Bigger Vision Than 2019
The current plan is far more extensive than what NCDOT floated in 2019, when the agency described widening U.S. 64 to six lanes from U.S. 1 in Cary to near N.C. 55 in Apex at an estimated cost of $113.8 million, according to a 2019 report from newsobserver.com. That earlier version called for turning the Edinburgh Drive, Lake Pine Drive and Laura Duncan Road intersections into interchanges with ramps and bridges, and included a new road from Laura Duncan Drive into the Costco shopping center once it lost direct highway access. Construction was originally scheduled to begin in 2022, but proposed changes to the state's 10-year transportation plan at the time were expected to push the start to 2024, the 2019 report said — a timeline that has since slipped further, with NCDOT now eyeing 2031 for the bulk of construction.
