I-85 North - Charlotte - North Carolina - 4K Highway Drive

I-85 northbound through the Charlotte Metro Area. Includes Gastonia, Charlotte, and Concord.
Filmed: February 2022

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Interstate 85 (I-85) is an Interstate highway that runs from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia. In North Carolina, I-85 travels 234.6 miles (377.6 km) from the South Carolina state line near Grover, North Carolina to the Virginia state line near Wise. Despite being signed north–south, I-85 physically travels in a southwest-northeast direction across the state. The Interstate highway connects the three most populous metropolitan areas of North Carolina, Metrolina, Piedmont Triad, and Research Triangle, as well as nine of the twenty largest municipalities in the state. Outside of North Carolina, I-85 connects the state with Richmond, Virginia to the north, and Upstate South Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia to the south. I-85 parallels several U.S. Highways including US 29 between South Carolina and Greensboro, US 70 between Greensboro and Durham, and US 15 between Durham and Oxford, and US 1 between Henderson and Virginia.

I-85 enters the state from Cherokee County, South Carolina near Grover in Cleveland County, an outer suburb of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After only a few miles, the highway enters Gaston County. Near Kings Mountain, I-85 turns from a northeast trajectory to an eastward one and goes through Gastonia, where it widens from four to six lanes. It stays at six lanes until it reaches Belmont, where the highway widens again to eight lanes.

The highway crosses the Catawba River as it enters Mecklenburg County, then interchanges with I-485 as it passes north of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. After crossing I-485, it turns northeastward again, bypassing Uptown Charlotte to the west and north. While the route does not enter Uptown, several exits do provide access to the area. An interchange with Interstate 77 north of Uptown provides direct freeway access. The route through Charlotte traverses the northern portion of the city and is more suburban than urban in character, with light industry such as truck terminals, warehouses, small manufacturing facilities, and small office parks lining the highway. It also passes by the University City area and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

North of Charlotte, I-85 interchanges with I-485 a second time as it continues northeastward into Cabarrus County. In Concord, it passes through a dense commercial district and provides access to both Concord Mills shopping mall and Charlotte Motor Speedway, afterwards passing south and east of Kannapolis. As of February 2019, the highway between exit 58 (near Concord) and exit 68 near the Rowan County town of China Grove is being rebuilt and expanded from 4 lanes total (two in each direction) with no shoulders. When complete, the route will have 8 total lanes through to its junction with Business 85 south of Lexington.

Time Stamps:
Cleveland County: 0:00-0:45
Gaston County: 0:46-17:00
Mecklenburg County: 17:01-34:33
Cabarrus County: 34:34