Image of NC I-73 Shield, Courtesy of Shields Up! Segment 13

Image of Map showing area of I-73
		Segment 13

Where: US 74 Rockingham Bypass just east of NC 38 interchange to SC State Line

Length: Around 5 Miles

Needed: Construct New Freeway

Project to Start: Around 2035?

Segment Info

NCDOT's official I-73 corridor until early 2005 ended at the US 220/US 74 interchange. It was long proposed that I-73 would be routed to the South Carolina border from the US 74 Rockingham Bypass freeway to South Carolina along a new US 1 freeway to be constructed just to the east of the existing highway. This was shown in may NCDOT publications.1 NCDOT has a project (Number R-2501) to widen US 1 from the South Carolina line northward and build a new US 1 Bypass east of Rockingham, I-73 was thought to be routed on this highway. Design of this project started in 2003, with construction for the upgrading of the current highway up to the bypass still to be started with an estimated cost of $40.5 million.2

South Carolina, however, was never convinced the US 1 corridor would be the ultimate route for I-73. That state announced in 2004 that it was committed to building it's portion of I-73 and said it was waiting to start studying possible highway corridors west of I-95 until North Carolina made up its mind where the interstate would cross the border. SC Senator Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, warned a Horry County audience in the summer of 2004 that a speedy route choice for SC would forestall a NC congressional delegation bid to route I-73 through southeastern North Carolina rather than northeastern South Carolina.3 Though SC wanted NC to make up its mind, further routing it along US 1 would have placed the highway in some environmentally sensitive areas and added to its construction cost. SCDOT officials invited their counterparts from NCDOT to an I-73 Summit meeting on February 11, 2005 to discuss the issue after which a new official routing to the border was agreed to. Instead of using US 1, I-73 will cross the border near where NC 38 does, approximately 8 miles further east. NCDOT would help finance an SCDOT study of potential I-73 routings from US 74 to the border.4 This more easterly route reduced construction costs in both states and allowed SC to go ahead with its I-73 corridor planning activities.

On July 19, 2007 SCDOT officials unveiled their chosen alternative from among 6 potential corridors that were first unveiled in the fall of 2006 for I-73 to travel from US 74 (Future I-74) to I-95 near Latta, SC. These included two potential paths in North Carolina. Initially one ran from just west of where NC 38 hits the SC border running about 2 miles north paralleling SR 1825 (Airport Road) to the US 74 Bypass approximately 1 mile east of the NC 177 exit (this was later modified to meet Future I-74 near the NC 38 interchange). The other alternative corridor was slightly longer, indicated as 3 miles long by an SCDOT official at a public meeting, but 5 miles in the STIP, as it has I-73 crossing the border two miles east of NC 38 heading northeast, then turning to paralleling the border for about 1/2 mile then turning back north meeting US 74 just to the west of the current site of the NC 38 interchange. This routing ended up being the preferred alternative chosen (to view a map of the preferred and alternative corridors go to The SC I-73 Website). Hearings at Bennetsville, SC and in Hamlet, NC in August 2006 allowed the public to comment on the preferred alternatives, while no one objected to the chosen North Carolina routing, many South Carolina residents preferred the western corridor closer to Bennettsville rather than the chosen central corridor for economic reasons.5 On August 10, 2007 SCDOT got permission from the FHWA to build I-73 as a toll road that SCDOT would manage or through a public/private partnership where investors would pay for construction and operation and be paid back through toll revenue.6 On October 23, 2008 the FHWA and SCDOT held a ceremony in Columbia to sign the Record of Decision for the Northern route, allowing right-of-way purchasing to begin, then construction, if money is available.7

NEW-The NCDOT 2009-2015 STIP listed the project to build its portion of I-73 from US 74 to the border as Number I-4923, the entry listed for 'planning and environmental study only at the present time', thus not a priority for construction.8 Later STIP documents published after 2014 did not include a mention of the project, until the latest Preliminary scores were published for the next 2026-2035 STIP that was released in May 2024. It listed the project as: Construct freeway on new location from future I-74/US 74 near Hamlet to the South Carolina State Line. It was not given a formal number, just listed as H90013 in the project list. The cost is now estimated at $152.18 million.9 The State Priority Score however is only 49.32, meaning it's unlikely to be included in the STIP, and probably won't be until SC decides if they are going to build I-73, at least until 2035. This date could still conceivably move up if SC decides to build I-73 north of I-95, however there has been little momentum has been behind this project in that state over the past decade. Back in 2005 an article suggested construction could start by 2009 with an estimated completion date of 2012, however, that time has now long passed.10


Here are maps showing the proposed preferred alternative alignment for I-73 from US 74/Future I-74 to the South Carolina border:

Image of map of proposed I-73 interchange and routing south from US 74 Rockingham Bypass, from NCDOT


Image of map of proposed I-73 routing south of US 74 Rockingham Bypass, from NCDOT


Image of map of proposed I-73 routing south of US 74 Rockingham Bypass approaching SC border, from NCDOT