I-73 PROVIDES FIRST GLIMPSE OF BOOM SUPERSONIC SITE IN N.C.

If you are driving along Interstate 73 near Greensboro, N.C.’s Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI), you will find the shoulders of the freeway closed for a construction project that started Oct. 3.

And what you will see are the first publicly visible indicators that crews are building Boom Supersonic’s manufacturing facility at PTI.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has closed the shoulders of the interstate in both directions for the next two years as it constructs access roads funded by a state development grant for Boom, officials told WGHP-TV, based in nearby High Point.

Although the work between I-73’s Mile Markers 109 and 111 might not directly or routinely interfere with traffic flow, construction vehicles and workers will be in the area until late summer 2024 as they build roads on both sides of the highway and a new overpass to connect them.

Jet Could Be First Supersonic Since Concorde

Last January, Boom Supersonic, headquartered in Denver, Colo., announced plans to build a manufacturing facility for its supersonic Overture passenger jet at the Greensboro airport, which also serves the cities of Winston-Salem and High Point.

Boom has contracts to deliver the Overture, which is designed to cruise at 60,000 ft. and reach a speed of Mach 1.7 (or roughly 1,304 mph) while using 100 percent “sustainable aviation fuel” to fly for American and United Airlines by 2029.

If the jet is successfully flown with passengers, it would be the first supersonic to do so since the last the British-made Concorde flew in 2003.

Although the official groundbreaking for the Greensboro jet factory has not yet occurred, dirt is being turned for the construction, PTI Executive Director Kevin Baker told WGHP-TV in an email Oct. 3.

In August, when Boom signed a 40-year lease for 61 acres at PTI, it took an option on an additional 61-acre parcel on what Baker described as “the other side of I-73,” which would be to the north of the highway.

“Yes, the roadwork is for Boom, but will also serve any and all other tenants we might have on that part of the airport,” he told the television station.

An NCDOT map shows that there are no new access ramps on I-73, but there are adjacent roads on both sides of the interstate. The state agency said these roadways will extend east and west around the jet overpass that was built several years ago to connect the PTI property to its large parcel of undeveloped land north of the interstate.

Additionally, the map displays a newly drawn overpass further east that an NCDOT spokesperson indicated was a planned connecting overpass for the two frontage roads, according to WGHP.

BOOM photo $130 million — to inspire Boom to invest $500 million in the next five years and hire 1,761 employees at an average annual salary of at least $68,000. Company officials have said that the workforce could grow to 2,400 at PTI by 2032. Those employment figures do not include contractors and suppliers that might move to the Triad.

The state’s $106.7 million from a Job Development Investment Grant includes building new hangars at the airport as well as the required road improvements. The PTI’s Baker confirmed that those dollars are paying for the construction currently under way along I-73.

“Other ongoing work is the grading of the site for Boom,” he explained. “The building pad itself is nearly complete but grading for less schedule-critical areas of the site will continue over the next few months.”

In total, PTI has more than 1,000 acres available in several large parcels of land, most of it to be used by the roads now under construction.

WGHP reported that at PTI’s August board meeting, Chairperson Paul Mengert mentioned the airport had also received queries from other aerospace companies that could join HondaJet, HAECO, FedEx and others already working at PTI. 

By Chuck MacDonald

CEG CORRESPONDENT

U.S. 58 in southwestern Virginia carries traffic through picturesque scenery, like Jefferson National Forest and topping Lover’s Leap Mountain.

Although the scenery can be impressive, the curving twolane roads with steep downhills can test motorists’ patience and nerves and is problematic for truckers.

Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has partnered with Branch Civil to fix some of these difficulties on a 7.4-mi. stretch that includes the road over Lover’s Leap Mountain. The state intends to widen the road from two lanes to four, enhance access to the Lover’s Leap overlook and remove some of the anxiety from the steep downgrades.

The $300 million design-build project began in 2021 and will be completed in 2026.

In addition to widening Route 58, plans for the project include building wider shoulders, improving secondary road connections, enhancing the intersection with Route 8, adding turn lanes at secondary road connections, and providing two truck escape ramps and a truck brake check area. The Lover’s Leap Overlook, now just a pull-off, will have increased parking and turn lanes for safely entering and exiting the overlook from U.S. 58.

The project will have three components.

Western segment: Four lanes with raised, grass median (18 ft.), also will provide the width for left-hand turn lanes to make secondary road connections.

Central segment: Four lanes with wide separation between eastbound and westbound lanes. Two new eastbound lanes will be constructed. The new construction will provide gentler downhill grades.

Eastern segment: Two lanes in each direction with a 4ft. paved median that connects to the existing Stuart Bypass.

The job is part of a larger 36-mi. corridor improvement program beginning southwest of Hillsville and continuing east through Carroll, Floyd and Patrick counties to approximately 1 mile west of Stuart. The Route 58 Corridor from Hillsville to Stuart is the last remaining section to complete the widening of Route 58 from Virginia Beach to I-77. The Lover’s Leap section is the fourth and most critical section out of the six sections to be constructed between Hillsville and Stuart with Branch Civil being the Design-Builder for these first four sections.

The current project begins just east of Vesta and ends at the existing four-lane Route 58 Stuart Bypass.

Transforming a steep and winding two-lane mountain road into a flatter and straighter four-lane highway, complete with shoulders and guardrails, means that workers and their equipment will have to take some huge bites out of existing hills and mountains and fill existing deep hollows.

Cut sections can be as much as 500 ft. in height and fills as much as 300 ft. deep. The total excavation will be enormous — approximately 11 million cu. yds. “I’ve been doing construction all my life and it’s the largest earthmoving project I’ve ever been associated with,” said Jeff Humphreys, design-build project manager of Branch Civil.

A project of this size has large needs for permanent materials. • 429,000 tons of crushed aggregate • 168,000 tons of asphalt • 7,800 ft. of large-diameter pipe for deep drainage • 37,000 ft. of small-diameter pipe for surface drainage • 92,000 ft. of guardrail. • Nine precast box culverts

Humphreys believes truckers will love this project when completed.

“We are taking a lot of curves out of the road,” he said. “Also, the existing road has 9 percent grades, while the new roadway will have a maximum 7.4 percent downgrade. The new roadway lanes also will be 12-feet wide, with shoulders. The old lanes are a foot narrower with very narrow or no shoulders.”

see VDOT page 61 The Route 58 Corridor from Hillsville to Stuart is the last remaining section to complete the widening of Route 58 from Virginia Beach to I-77.

The total excavation will be about 11 million cu. yds.