Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/August 2016

North Carolina Highway 54 (NC 54) is a 55-mile-long (89 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The highway serves the Research Triangle area, between Burlington and Raleigh, connecting the cities and towns of Chapel Hill, Durham, Morrisville and Cary. NC 54 runs from U.S. Highway 70 (US 70) in Burlington through the downtown area of Graham. Turning to the southeast the route runs through some of the outskirts of Burlington before moving through a predominantly rural area. Approaching Chapel Hill, the highway bypasses town and runs concurrently with US 15/US 501. From here, NC 54 continues to the east crossing Interstate 40 (I-40) and running through the outskirts of Durham. The road continues to follow I-40 as it enters into Research Triangle Park and Morrisville. NC 54 reaches the downtown area of Cary where it heads onto a bypass. On the eastern side of Cary, NC 54 continues east to Raleigh, where it runs through west Raleigh and along the NC State Fairgrounds. The highway ends at I-440/US 1 west of downtown Raleigh. NC 54 first appeared as an original state highway running from NC 75 in Pittsboro to Moncure. However by 1928 the route was recommissioned as a secondary road which remains today as Moncure Pittsboro Road. The current NC 54 was signed in 1929 from Graham to US 70 south of Durham. In 1930 it was further extended through Rockingham to the Virginia border, however in 1940 much of that routing was renumbered as NC 87. The route was further extended in 1953 where it ran concurrent along US 70A until reaching US 1 in Cary. The Chapel Hill Bypass was completed in 1956 and NC 56 was rerouted from its downtown Chapel Hill routing to the new bypass. The last major change to the routing occurred in 1963 when NC 54 was extended along Hillsbourgh Street to the new US 1 freeway (present day I-440).

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