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Interstate 240 
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Interstate 240  8 miles
The Road: The Billy Graham Freeway. Half-loop around Asheville. Starts at I-40 exit 46; ends at I-40 exit 53.
Interchanges: 26/40/240 interchangeWeird 3-level interchange with I-40/26 at western terminus. There's no access from 240 to 40 eastbound, or from 40 westbound to 240. Also, I-240 has no exit number here. 

I-240 has four left exits, a product of its piecemeal history: 

  • The Patton Avenue interchange (exit 3A) has left exits in both directions. 
  • The U.S. 19/23/70 interchange (exit 4A) is a left exit eastbound. 
  • The "To Tunnel Road" interchange (exit 6) is a left exit westbound. 

    • "Volleyball interchange" (3-level diamond) with U.S. 70 (exit 7).
    Multilane Segments: Six lanes between U.S. 19/23/74A (Patton Avenue, exit 3A) and Charlotte Street (exit 5), except that exit-only lanes in both directions for northbound 19/23/70 drop I-240 to four lanes at exit 4A. 
    Eight lanes (!) through the Beaucatcher Cut, from Charlotte Street (exit 5) to Tunnel Road (exit 7) 
    Six lanes between Tunnel Road (exit 7) and I-40 (exit 9).
    History: The "top" part of 240, between Patton Avenue (exit 3A) and the Beaucatcher Tunnel, dates to the early 1960s. This road was part of an early U.S. 70 downtown bypass. It also carried part of U.S. 19/25, just as it does today. The stretch from exit 3A east over the French Broad River wasn't a freeway, however, until it was reconstructed in the late 1960s. 
     
    The western three miles of today's I-240, from I-40 exit 46 to Patton Avenue, was completed around 1970. About 10 years passed between completion of the central and western sections of today's 240, a fact which explains the dual left exits at Patton Avenue. 

    A few years after it was finished, the western stretch was signed as N.C. 191 north of the first exit past I-40 (see map). The "connector" between 40 and 191 was signed as "TO N.C. 191" [1]. One 1979 map shows the entire freeway from I-40 north to the Patton Avenue exit signed as an extension of I-26, but no other source corroborates this, and it was probably never so. 

    Near the end of 1980, the eastern portion of 240 was finished. The portion between U.S. 70 (exit 7) and I-40 was first, probably in 1979. 

    		    
    October 1975 AAA map, showing freeway signed as N.C. 191 
    The final segment of I-240 to open, between exits 5 and 7, features a cut through Beaucatcher Mountain (the Beaucatcher Cut). Older U.S. 70, which parallels 240 to the south, goes through a tunnel instead. Writes JL: 
    The Beaucatcher Cut is about 250' deep. The material removed from the cut was taken east and used to build many of the fills on the interstate. There was still waste, however; this was placed north of the interchange to the east of the Cut and left to grow up with vegetation. It's still there if you look carefully.
    Once the entire half-loop freeway was open (probably late 1980), the whole thing was signed as I-240. The partial N.C. 191 designation would remain for a few more years.    		  
    Comments: At least one old map shows part of 240 was to be numbered I-140 instead. Because it forms a half-loop, it is more proper to use an even-numbered prefix. 

    A rather eclectic highway; has four distinct personalities. The three-mile westernmost stretch has an old Piedmont Interstate feel: straight, undeveloped, grass median, gently rolling terrain, 1970s-era underpasses. Upon reaching Patton Avenue, all hell breaks loose with ramps, pavement and development everywhere. Then there's the parkway-like Beaucatcher stretch, with its eight lanes and landscaped median through the deep mountain cut. Finally, the countryside and the highway open up (somehow six lanes here feel more wide-open than the Beaucatcher Cut's eight) for the last couple of miles before meeting I-40 again. 

    Interstate 240, when combined with I-40 to the south of Asheville, is eerily similar in shape to I-440 around Raleigh, and about half the size. Because of the partial interchange at I-26, however, you can't "lap" Asheville like you can with Raleigh.
     
    Sources: [1] Marc Fannin
    John Lansford, for much the Beaucatcher Cut and 3-level interchange info 
    Last Update: 27 September 2002

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