07/02/2025
STORY ON I-40 FROM WILMINGTON, NC STARNEWS 6/30/25
As the road to Wilmington turns 35 years old, its impact is more apparent than ever.
For anyone who hasn’t been in the Port City for more than three decades, it can be difficult to imagine Wilmington as anything other than what it currently is. It’s a hotspot for big businesses, a list-topping tourist destination and a hub of all things culture. Above all else, the city is overflowing with people.
Whether or not they rode in on a highway, much of Wilmington’s growth stems from the completion of Interstate 40.
Over 40,000 cars drive the stretch into Wilmington daily. The city is booming in every sense. Leading companies like Amazon are setting up shop in New Hanover County, property values have jumped 67% in the past four years and air traffic at Wilmington International Airport has increased 40% since 2019.
Amazon held a ceremonial groundbreaking for its robotics sortable fulfillment center, located in Pender Commerce Park, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. The facility straddles the Pender/New Hanover County line. It is slated to open in fall 2026.
But on the eve of June 29, 1990, the distance between what Wilmington was and what it could be seemed as long as the interstate itself. Then, Gov. Jim Martin cut the ribbon.
Bringing I-40 to Wilmington was the only promise Martin made on the campaign trail. Reflecting back on the decision, the 89-year-old said the tactic was one of the most "hotly debated political strategies." At the time, his opponents promised a new road for every county in the state, appealing to rural voters that weren't in the direct path of the interstate.
"'Unpromised paving will be better than unpaved promises' became my integrity slogan," Martin said. "Everything was based on that promise. My campaign people thought it was a terrible mistake, but we made it an integrity issue and that played really well."
Gov. Jim Martin took the cover off the Interstate 40 sign during a ceremony held at Morton Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 1990.
The road to I-40
Without direct connection to the rest of the state, Wilmington was struggling during the late 1970s. The downtown area was largely full of adult entertainment, far from the family-friendly tourist epicenter that it is today.
Gene Merritt took it upon himself to find ways to turn it around. The longtime Wilmington resident was and still is a prominent leader of several city efforts. Much of it for him began with the Downtown Area Revitalization Effort, Inc., a public/private partnership responsible for much of the city’s business growth over the last 50 years.
DARE, which was later renamed Downtown Wilmington Inc., was just one piece of the puzzle for bolstering Wilmington’s status as a haven for commerce and tourism. Working alongside his father, Merritt served as the president of North Carolina I-40 Inc., lobbying for the extension of the interstate. Formed in 1978, the organization was early to the party. Wilmington wasn’t even part of the conversation yet.
“When we first started working on it, they had not even gotten I-40 to Benson,” Merritt said. “We had gotten the short end of the stick on a lot of things in Wilmington.”
Over the course of the next decade, Merritt talked to “everyone you could imagine” in every town between Wilmington and Raleigh. He got his message in front of city councils, county commissioners and chamber of commerce members to pressure them to prioritize getting funds for the project. The total cost was $417 million for the 122-mile stretch.
The StarNews was a key player in broadcasting that message, Merritt said. In 1983, the StarNews published an editorial piece with the headline “I-40: Can It Ever Go to Wilmington?”
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“I don’t think we could have done it without the StarNews,” Merritt said. “That support was critical to the cause.”
It didn’t take long for Wilmington to reap the benefits of I-40. Merritt estimated the area was thriving within two years. Wilmington's population doubled in the 15 years after I-40 opened. It took nearly a century to double the population before the interstate, according to the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.
Single-family home building permits also doubled between 1990 and 1995. In the same time period, employment grew 5.5%, versus the 2.5% growth that the county had in the five years leading up to the opening. In the decade following I-40's opening, tourist spending increased by 52% in New Hanover. In 2023, New Hanover accounted for over $1.1 billion in visitor spending, a 3.1% share of the state.
Aerial views of the N.C. State Port along the Cape Fear River winding through downtown Wilmington, N.C. Aug. 9, 2018.
But the booming tourism and local economy were just by-products of Martin's main motivation in completing I-40. His eyes were on Wilmington's port, which was the only port on the East Coast without a four-lane road.
"The whole region has benefitted from it," Martin said. "New Hanover is a stronghold economically. You've got a lot more going on there than just the railroads from the shipyard. I couldn't say that I could foresee all that, but I did know that there was something handicapping Wilmington."
I-40 reaches across the country 2,554 miles to Barstow, California from Wilmington, N.C.
Next stop: Passenger rail
From Benson to Wilmington, over 20,000 vehicles travel down I-40 each day. The connection has stimulated growth in the southeastern region of the state, enabling it to become one of the fastest growing areas in the country. High above I-40, air traffic has increased exponentially in the Cape Fear region. Wilmington International Airport had a $3.3 billion impact on the area's economy, according to NCDOT estimates. ILM is on track to serve 1.7 million passengers this year, 700,000 more than the terminal was built to accommodate.
While ILM is working diligently to expand its facilities, Merritt has shifted his focus to another mode of transportation. Merritt now leads Eastern Carolina Rail, a nonprofit organization rallying to bring a passenger rail to Wilmington. A corridor for the rail line to connect Wilmington to Raleigh has been identified, running through Goldsboro.
Three daily trains would carry an estimated 80,000 riders from Wilmington annually, according to data from NCDOT. The 134-mile trip would take 2 hours and 35 minutes. Still, the project has a few hurdles to jump through before it can become a reality. The total cost is estimated to be $810 million in addition to roughly $14 million in annual operating and maintenance costs. Even if the project received federal funding for construction, the state would be required to match 20% of the federal grants.
In 2024, N.C. Department of Transportation put the "Barstow, Calif. 2,554" sign on Interstate 40 just outside of Wilmington. However, the sign now includes the mileage to Benson and Raleigh. Several "Barstow, Calif. 2,554" signs had been stolen through the years.
While many Wilmington leaders including Mayor Bill Saffo have voiced support for the passenger rail, the project has largely taken a backseat while NCDOT addresses growing traffic and infrastructure concerns within New Hanover. The department is working to secure funding for a Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement, which could become a toll bridge. Still, the department is allocating millions of dollars to projects that nearby residents oppose, including an $81.4 million overpass at the intersection of Eastwood Military Cutoff roads.
As for getting funding for the projects that residents do support?
"It's a two-way street," Merritt said. "The public can also be blamed for not doing anything. They need to step up and voice if they're not getting something that they need to. It takes pushing and lobbying and politics. And I don't think that has changed at all."
Daniel Sheehan covers the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County for the StarNews. Reach him at [email protected].
