Airport Boulevard is an arterial thoroughfare running through northwestern Wake County, serving as one of two major roads connecting to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Route Description

Airport Boulevard currently exists in two segments, beginning at Davis Drive in Morrisville and traveling due northeast. The four-lane median divided roadway travels through a residential area, ending at a dead end east of Garden Square Lane no less than half a mile away. A five-lane undivided segment begins at NC 54 and turns to the north, passing through a commercial area. This longer segment has major junctions with McCrimmon Parkway and Perimeter Park Drive before turning to the west. The roadway then has an interchange with I-40 and another with Aviation Parkway, after which it serves as the main thoroughfare connecting to both terminals or the airport as well as airport parking.

Projects

In 2021, NCDOT announced plans to connect the two segments of Airport Boulevard with a new extension project that will be executed in two phases. The first phase connects Garden Square Lane to Church Road, while the second extends from Church Road to NC 54 (Chapel Hill Road). Both phases will construct the roadway as a four-lane median-divided facility with a sidewalk on one side and a multi-use path on the other. Phase I will begin is scheduled to begin construction in summer 2022 while Phase II is currently undergoing further study.

Also in 2021, NCDOT began work on converting the I-40 interchange to a diverging diamond interchange, one of several planned for the Triangle (alongside the I-440/Western Boulevard interchange in Raleigh and the I-40/NC 42 interchange in Clayton). This project is expected to be completed in 2023 and also includes the addition of auxiliary lanes along I-40 from the newly improved Aviation Parkway interchange to I-540.