Route: |
Begins at Glenwood Ave, changing names from Duraleigh Rd.
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Attractions: |
Not much to speak of. Ummmm.....a railroad crossing? |
Major Intersections:
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Glenwood Ave./US 70, Leesville Rd., Creedmoor Rd., Lead Mine Rd., Six Forks Rd., Falls of Neuse Rd., Old Wake Forest Rd., Atlantic Ave., Capital Blvd./US 1. See comment on the Lynn Rd page about the roads it runs past... |
Notes: |
For such a boring road attraction-wise, Millbrook probably has more history associated with it than any other road in north Raleigh, save Wake Forest Rd.The road takes its name from the crossroads of Millbrook, at the intersection with Old Wake Forest Rd. Back in the old days of US 1A, this was halfway between Raleigh and Wake Forest, and had a couple of small bed-and-breakfast type houses for travelers. Today, the crossroads is still the home of the Millbrook United Methodist and Baptist Churches, as well as Millbrook Elementary School. The original portion of the road ran east from Falls of Neuse to Wake Forest Rd.; this section was completed by 1940 at the absolute latest. The extensions on either side, west to Six Forks and east to Capital Blvd., were done by 1970 or so. At this time, the entire road was widened to 4 (or 5) lanes. This is today's East Millbrook. (Why the directions? The numbering scheme for Raleigh holds that roads north of the Beltline are numbered from their intersection with Six Forks. Millbrook is the only east/west road that doesn't change names at Six Forks, so the east/west monikers are necessary.) Then the fun begins. In the late '80s, Raleigh realized that more people than the Beltline could handle were making the trek down Six Forks and Falls of Neuse to take the Beltline out to RTP. The city planners envisioned Millbrook running west over some existing roads to hook up with Glenwood Ave., giving commuters a reason to avoid the Beltline. (A few years later, when the westward extension of Lynn Rd. was being built, it was thought that Millbrook had been a waste of time. Not so - the roads complement each other nicely.) Construction to transform Shelley, Leesville, and Pleasant Grove Church roads (all 2-lane rural roads) into West Millbrook began in 1989 and finished in 1991. Because of the existing roads, the only sections of West Millbrook that were built on a completely new alignment were between Six Forks and Shelley Lake, and then from the existing Pleasant Grove Church intersection to Glenwood. All three roads from which the Millbrook extension took significant real estate still exist; however, especially in the cases of Shelley and Pleasant Grove Church, they are shells of what they were pre-Millbrook. The most radical change took place at the intersection with Creedmoor Rd., where in the course of a year the two intersecting roads changed from what amounted to two-lane country roads into modern 4-lane divided highways. Whew, that was fun, wasn't it? One caveat: DO NOT exceed the 35 mph speed limit between Six Forks and Falls of Neuse. Raleigh police love to use Millbrook as a cash cow, and trust me, they do. Also, trucks are prohibited on this stretch of the road. |