The current-day Salem Parkway, in its origins, is the consolidation of existing expressways and full freeways in central Winston-Salem and then-south of most of Kernersville. The towns of Winston and Salem had officially formed one city in the year 1913. The newly combined city was not only a merger of local government but a joining of two different road systems. By the 1940s, Winston-Salem grew to become the largest manufacturing hub in the state, in results of companies including
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and the
P.H. Hanes Knitting Company. Notable highways had connected the city, with no direct corridor connecting one area with the other without the use of "making turns," resulting in
traffic congestion in the downtown area. From 1946 to 1956, various traffic pattern studies were performed and plans created that which the city for the coming decades.
East–West Expressway By 1955, an expressway stretch for US 421 had opened in the eastern areas of Forsyth County, spanning from Linville Road to Mountain Street. This expressway was considered in the area south of Kernersville. Work would have been underway to build the connecting new expressway, directly linking. The previous year, Winston-Salem gave the state $1 million to buy
right-of-way for what was titled as the East–West Expressway. This was built to be a fuller fledged east-west corridor for the city of Winston-Salem, with construction began that same year as the right-of-way was progressed. Though it was planned to become a new routing of
US 158, that changed two years later, when the
Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was passed and North Carolina was allocated for their share of the
Interstate Highway System; was subsequently allocated for a route from the Tennessee state line, through Asheville and Winston-Salem, to Greensboro. The expressway was slightly shifted, to become fully
controlled accessed highway, With the designation of
I-40, the East–West Expressway would become the first completed section of Interstate in the state. On January 6, 1958, the first section of the East–West Expressway was opened between Cloverdale Avenue and Main Street. Because of the novelty, local newspapers ran a series of stories and diagrams on how to use the expressway, educating the public on how on-ramps and off-ramps work. In 1960, the expressway was extended west to at NC 801 near the
Yadkin River, and east to Reidsville Road. In 1961, US 421 was rerouted from
Pfafftown and downtown Winston-Salem onto new freeway that connected directly with the expressway, then continued easterly running concurrently with I-40. In 1962, US 158 was realigned to continue along the expressway to Reidsville Road, its former alignment became
US 158 Business (decommissioned in 1970). East of Reidsville Road, I-40 was extended to the existing Kernersville expressway, where it then linked with second built section of I-40 (late 1958) and continued towards Greensboro.
Interstate 40 Business Further information is on the I-40 page. I-40 Business was established in late 1992, when I-40 was rerouted further south onto the recently opened stretch, which was mostly brand new construction. The business route spanned from exits 1-17 during its entire tenure, traversing between what was then-the western outskirts of Winston-Salem, and further east into Downtown Winston-Salem and what was then-mostly south of Kernersville. The highway was a four-lane freeway, with most of the features of a mid-20th century interstate, and it continued to serve the overall area of Winston-Salem as the key east-west corridor for the city.
Hawthorne Curve Since its opening in 1960, the Hawthorne Curve, a 10° S-curve
overpass of Hawthorne Road, became an infamous accident-prone location; typically speed related, cars and
trucks wrecking against the curve and in some cases jumping the guard rail and falling off the overpass. Blame for the curve mostly fell on then Winston-Salem Mayor Marshall Kurfees, who is believed to have ordered the curve to protect political allies who owned businesses on Hawthorne Road and First Street. Kurfees spent the rest of his life denying the allegation, stating that the engineers designed it while he had no input to the project. Over the years, several studies were done and various little fixes were made to improve the situation including a reduced speed zone, better guardrails and the installation of blinking lights and flashing warning signs. In January 1998, the first major improvement in 40 years started with the realignment of Hawthorne Curve. At a cost of $26 million, construction lasted for two years building a new overpass and reshaping the sharp curve to a more gentle one. It was completed seven months early in the middle of 2000.
Brief Greensboro extension In February 2008, I-40 was rerouted south of most of the Greensboro city limits, forming the south stretch of
Greensboro Urban Loop. The previous route which went miles south of Downtown Greensboro became the extension of I-40 Business. This also included the hidden concurrency along I-40/US 421, between exits 206 and 212. This extended the route , ending at a new terminus with
I-85/I-40, in the vicinity of
McLeansville. However, NCDOT officials received several complaints of local residents and motorists on the confusion between the new I-40 and I-40 Business. Another issue was that funding for construction and repairs on the old route was slashed since it was no longer designated as an Interstate (Interstate business routes are not officially part of the Interstate Highway System) On September 12, 2008, with permission from the FHWA, I-40 was moved back to its old route through Greensboro, decommissioning Business 40.
Kernersville While the I-40 Business designation, had been in effect for over 20 years during this period, existed the long-term planning of the need to reconfigure one of the earliest exits on the route. In the town of Kernersville, The half interchange with Mountain Street (exit 16), was the former eastern terminus of the then new US 421 "Bypass." This junction had been notably substandard by the early 2010s and direct east from the NC 66/150 exit (exit 15). The need to address this, was aligned with another highway project nearby, the
Kernersville Loop. Construction began in June 2013 on the first phase of a project to extend Macy Grove Road around the east side of Kernersville. Macy Grove Road, which previously passed over Business 40 with no interchange and ended with the at-grade intersection with Old Greensboro Road, was upgraded to expressway standards and extended to a temporary terminus with the
one quadrant interchange with East Mountain Street, and further south; the recent-day designed
diamond interchange built connecting Macy Grove Road to Business 40. This was completed and opened in May 2015, which replaced the previous partial interchange with East Mountain Street directly east of what was then the
NC 66/
NC 150 interchange, in which the partial interchange was closed and demolished and the westbound roadway through the former interchange was rebuilt to be realigned closer to the eastbound roadway. In October 2020, NC 150 was removed from its concurrency with NC 66 through Downtown Kernersville, and rerouted onto the Macy Grove Road east of downtown, as the route was further extended to
limited access standards, to its recent intersection with North Main Street, which allowed NC 150 to run concurrently with US 421 for around one extra mile further east.While not directly related; the Salisbury Road bridge over Business 40 was rebuilt during this period, tailoring to Downtown Kernersville.
Salem Parkway In 2006, the
North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) commenced the rebuilding of the stretch between Fourth Street and Church Street, which covers most of the original section of the East–West Expressway from 1958. For the next ten years, NCDOT made several studies and a series of public meetings before awarding a design-build contract with Flatiron Constructors, Inc./Blythe Development Company Joint Venture and HDR Engineering, Inc., in September 2016, to complete the final design and construct the project. Considered as a $100 million do-over, the project included: replacing the existing roadway pavement, modernizing entrance and exit ramps, replacing nine vehicular bridges, adding two pedestrian bridges, lengthening the acceleration and deceleration lanes between ramps and widening existing roadway shoulders and adding new ones. NCDOT had also decided that once construction was completed, that I-40 Business would be decommissioned and a new name would be given to the route, alongside the existing US 421 designation. The rationale was the continued confusion locals and travelers have between I-40 and I-40 Business. In November 2015, the residents of Winston-Salem metro area were allowed to submit a nomination for a new name, with a January 30, 2016, deadline. A selection committee, which included appointments from Winston-Salem and Kernersville, whittled the list to just four for another public vote. The eventual four finalist names were:
Golden Leaf Parkway, alluding to the region's tobacco-growing and processing heritage;
Innovation Highway, showing the high-tech aspirations of the area;
Piedmont Corridor, identifying geographic location in a highly developed part of the state, and
Salem Parkway, which refers to the
Moravian settlement founded in 1766. On October 21, 2016, Governor
Pat McCrory announced, at the project's ground breaking event, the new name, which had been chosen to be
the Salem Parkway; which was the overwhelming favorite, receiving 53% of the vote. Interstate 40 Business remained the designation of the freeway during the rest of the 2010s. Salem Parkway billing, took place when the highway reopened on February 2, 2020,
Downtown reconstruction First phase of construction was focused on and around Peters Creek Parkway (NC 150), which included lowering the roadway to establish a minimum vertical clearance of at the new Fourth Street two-lane bridge and at the new seven-lane Peters Creek Parkway bridge. After two years of intermittent closures, the new Peters Creek Parkway bridge was opened on November 12, 2018. On November 17, the second phase began with the complete shutdown of Business 40 between Peters Creek Parkway and John Gold Memorial Expressway (US 52/US 311/NC 8); three alternate routes were set up through the downtown area for locals while travelers are encouraged to remain on mainline I-40. During construction, Business 40 was lowered to establish a minimum vertical clearance of for the new Marshall, Cherry, Main and Church Street bridges; Spruce Street bridge was removed and Liberty Street changed from an underpass to an overpass as a result. The Broad Street interchange was permanently closed and removed, the Cherry Street interchange would had been modified with Marshall Street, and the Main Street interchange was modified to have only a southbound on-ramp and a northbound off-ramp. Two pedestrian bridges would also be completed, one of which would replace Green Street Bridge, and a Strollway Bridge adjacent to Liberty Street. On August 30, 2019, the section east of Main Street was opened. Reconstruction of the downtown segment was completed February 2, 2020. ==Exit list==