I-26/US 74/NC 108, Columbus, NC

Scale is approximately 1 km per grid square. A rather curious twist is that north of the 'seam', contour interval is 12.192 meters (measured in units equalling 30.48 cm) while south of the 'seam', it is an even 12 meters.

I-26 comes in from the west and goes out to the south, US 74 comes in from the west with I-26 running to the northeast. NC 108 is the major 'surface' road.

The I-26/US 74 junction at Columbus, NC is a fairly normal directional connection between two major highways, except that here, there is a partial 'trumpet'/partial 'diamond' interchange piggybacked onto the freeway to freeway connection to connect US 74 to NC 108 on Columbus' west side as well as to provide a part of the freeway-to-freeway connection.

Although it is a relatively low demand routing, any traffic between I-26 (south) and US 74 (east) must use the NC 108 interchange to make the connection. The westbound US 74 to southeastbound I-26 move is expecially interesting, requiring a trip around the 'trumpet' loop and two 90 degree intersection turns at NC 108. Any traffic going in the opposite direction only has to make a quick stop at NC 108.

An interesting aside, US 74 (combined with I-26) crosses US 64 about 25 km west of here, and then is combined with US 64 about 175 km further west to cross into Tennessee.

Railfan note, the famous Norfolk Southern 'Saluda Hill' (steepest mainline railroad grade in the USA with a 4 to 5 percent) is about 10 km to the west via NC 108 and US 176.


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This page © Michael G. Koerner

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