U.S. Route 74 Alternate
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| U.S. Route 74A |
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| Length: | 62 mi[1] (100 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1994[1] | ||||||||
| East end: |  US 74 at Forest City, NC |
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| Major junctions: |
   US 74 Bus/221A at Spindale, NC US 221 at Rutherfordton, NCBlue Ridge Pkwy near Biltmore Forest, NC   I-40/240 at Asheville, NC I-240 in Asheville, NC US 25 in Asheville, NC I-26/240 in Asheville, NC |
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| West end: |   I-40/US 19/23/74 in Asheville, NC |
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U.S. Highway 74 Alternate (US 74A) in the U.S. state of North Carolina is the only alternate route of U.S. Highway 74. It was created after mainline US 74 was directed onto the newly constructed Solon David Smart Memorial Highway, a limited access freeway, and cosigned along a portion of Interstate 26. The alternate route thus serves as the former alignment of US 74 traversing through the foothills and mountain communities of Western North Carolina. The 62-mile alternate route, like its parent, is signed east-west.
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[edit] Route description
The alignment of US 74A varies greatly from the current parent route. US 74A traverses through downtown Asheville, goes through the mountain resort communities of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, continues to Ruth, passes between the towns of Rutherfordton and Spindale, and bypasses Forest City to the south. US 74, however, joins I-40 eastbound west of Asheville, and switches onto I-26 eastbound through Fletcher, bypassing most of urban Asheville. Continuing along a southeasterly course, the parent US 74 passes by Hendersonville and splits from I-26 at Columbus; after passing south of Rutherfordton, US 74 meets the eastern terminus of US 74A.
US 74A is concurrent with US 64 from Ruth in the east through Lake Lure, where NC 9 joins, and Chimney Rock, and separates to the south in Bat Cave. NC 9 also splits in Bat Cave, but to the north; US 74A alone continues west from that point. In Asheville, NC 74A has many concurrencies; US 70 is concurrent with US 74A in east and downtown Asheville and I-26, I-240, US 19 and US 23 are concurrent with US 74A west of downtown. Near US 74A's western terminus, US 19 and US 23 are concurrent with US 74A. NC 81 shares pavement with US 74A for a short 1-mile segment in southeast Asheville.
Between Asheville and Gerton, NC 74A bears the street name Charlotte Highway. East of Gerton, the road is named the Gerton Highway until arriving at Bat Cave. Through towns and cities, the road takes various names including Main Street and Railroad Avenue.
[edit] Nearby points of interest
- University of North Carolina at Asheville - Asheville
- Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College - Asheville
- Asheville Mall - Asheville
- Chimney Rock Park - Chimney Rock
- Lake Lure - Lake Lure
[edit] Interesting facts
- US 74A meets I-240 five times and meets I-40 twice.
- US 74A, along with I-240, US 19, and US 23, has a wrong-way concurrency with I-26 in Asheville.
[edit] History
The current US 74A is the third alternate route of US 74 to be created, but the other two have been decommissioned. The first two US 74A's were commissioned in the early 1950s as the former alignments of US 74 through Shelby, North Carolina and Monroe, North Carolina; they were redesignated as business routes in 1960. The modern-day US 74A was created in 1994 when the mainline route was shifted onto a complete freeway corridor from Forest City to Asheville.
[edit] References
- ^ a b NC Roads Annex: US 74-A Robert V. Droz
