Interstate 540 and North Carolina Highway 540

When completed, the beltway will total 70 miles (110 km) in length, surrounding the city of Raleigh and the towns of Apex, Cary, Garner, and Morrisville. The designation from I-540 and NC 540 happens at I-40, in Durham County, where I-540 goes east and NC 540 goes west.

The beltway is further broken down into four segments:

No portion of I-540 is tolled. All of NC 540 is tolled except the short segment between I-40 and NC 54. Tolls are implemented by electronic toll collection (ETC) and are enforced by video cameras. Several gantries are located along the route and entrance/exit ramps, where they collect toll via the NC Quick Pass or other interoperable ETC systems. Those that do not participate in the ETC program will receive a bill in the mail and will have 30 days from date on bill before additional fees and civil penalties are applied.[8]

I-540 West, near Knightdale

Planning for the highway originally started in the early 1970s; by 1976, the "Northern Wake Expressway" was added to the planning map. In the mid-1980s, realizing that the growth in western Wake County may require more roads than planned, highway planners decided to expand the project as a new beltway around Raleigh. In 1992, construction began on the first 3-mile (4.8 km) section of the Northern Wake Expressway, connecting I-40 with US 70. On January 21, 1997, the freeway opened as Interstate 540.[9][10]

In the following ten years, the now known Northern Wake Freeway (so not to be confused with the Triangle Expressway) made several extensions:

• December 11, 1999: From US 70/Glenwood Avenue (exit 4) to Leesville Road (exit 7).[11]
• December 21, 2000: From Leesville Road (exit 7) to NC 50/Creedmoor Road (exit 9).[12]
• June 29, 2001: From NC 50/Creedmoor Road (exit 9) to Falls of Neuse Road (exit 14).[13]
• August 12, 2002: From Falls of Neuse Road (exit 14) to US 1/Capital Boulevard/Triangle Town Boulevard (exit 16).[14]
• January 16, 2007: From Triangle Town Boulevard (exit 17) to US 64/US 264/Knightdale Bypass (exit 26).[15][16]

From 1999 to 2002, each additional section of the freeway was designated as Future 540, until it connected with US 1.

On July 14, 2007, a section of the loop from I-40 west to NC 54 and NC 55 was opened.[17] However, the route is signed not as I-540 but as NC 540. Officials decided to change the designation in early July at the urging of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA). Work on the western and southern portions of the beltway, if paid for by state funds, would possibly not open until 2030. At the request of several Wake County mayors, the NCTA in 2006 began studying the use of tolls to complete these portions of the Outer Loop.

The Authority concluded in early 2007 that it would be financially feasible to build the western section (along with an extended Durham Freeway, which combined would be called the "Triangle Expressway") using toll funds. The NCTA apparently never wanted an interstate designation for the Western Wake Parkway. To lessen motorist confusion about where I-540 ended, the route was truncated to the I-40 interchange. All I-540 signs that were put up along the unopened stretch between I-40 and NC 55 were taken down in early July 2007; the new section is now signed as NC 540.[18] (In addition, I-540 as a completed loop would violate the Interstate numbering convention regarding three-digit routes, as spurs begin with an odd number and loops with an even number, and at one point, I-640 — the last remaining available number within the state, as I-240, I-440 and I-840 are already taken — was proposed for the loop.)[10]

Work to build the Western Wake Freeway, which would be renamed the "Western Wake Parkway" under the toll proposal, began August 12, 2009, with the Triangle Parkway portion opening in December 2011, and Western Wake portion scheduled to open in two phases in 2012.[19][20]

In October 2008, the authority was unable to issue bonds to fund the Western Wake Turnpike project as planned due to market conditions affecting municipal bonds such as those.[21] On July 29, 2009, the Authority closed on a revised $1.01 billion bond plan, consisting of $270 million in toll revenue bonds,[22] $353 million in Build America Bonds,[23] and a $387 million loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.[24][25]

Groundbreaking was held on August 12, 2009 at the west end of Interstate 540. "A dozen dignitaries" used shovels painted gold as 150 watched.[26]

After work began on Western Wake Parkway in 2009, engineering and environmental studies began a year later for the Southern and Eastern Wake Freeways, also known as the Triangle Expressway Southeast Extension. Construction would begin in 2014 and be completed by 2019; however, it was delayed in March 2011 by the enactment of North Carolina Session Law 2011-7 (N.C. S.L. 2011-7), which forbid NCDOT to consider a few alternative routes.[27][28][29][30]

In 2010, NCDOT made an interchange improvement at I-540/I-40; adding another auxiliary lane from I-540 south to I-40 west, at a cost of $4.8 million.[31]

The completed Triangle Parkway, the first section of the Triangle Expressway, with its connection to NC 540, opened on December 8, 2011, reestablishing exit 67.[32] Collection of tolls began on January 3, 2012.[33] On August 1, 2012, the first phase of the Western Wake Freeway opened, connecting NC 55 in Morrisville (exit 66) to US 64 in Apex. The next day tolling began on the previously open section from NC 54 to NC 55.[3] The final phase of the tolled section of NC 540, from US 64 to NC 55 north of Holly Springs opened on December 20, 2012. Tolling for this section began January 2, 2013.[34] On April 3, 2017, the Veridea Parkway interchange (exit 55; formally known as Old Holly Springs Apex Road) was opened to traffic; at a cost of $20 million, it was constructed by Blythe Construction and Kimley-Horn.[35][36][37][38] An interchange with the newly extended Morrisville Parkway (exit 64) opened to traffic on February 3, 2020.[39]

A plan approved by the Raleigh city council in November 2013 includes asking for tolls for the existing highway in order to widen it to eight lanes by 2035 or 2040. This would require both state and federal approval. As a temporary solution to increased traffic on the northern section, NCDOT has installed ramp meters on some on-ramps, the first ones in the state.[40][41]

• Media related to Interstate 540 (North Carolina) at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to North Carolina Highway 540 at Wikimedia Commons
• I-540 on Wake County Roads
• NCRoads.com: I-540
• NCRoads.com: N.C. 540