At the request of both municipalities, the N.C. Department of Transportation is re-designating State Route, North Carolina 59, which consists of only about 8 miles and courses through portions of Hope Mills and Fayetteville.

The designation will change from N.C. 59 to Secondary Route 1596. However, the route’s street names will remain the same – Main Street within Hope Mills, and Hope Mills Road within Fayetteville.

Locally elected officials passed resolutions a year ago requesting this change with the hope that the adjustment would redirect commercial truck traffic, which prefer using state or U.S. highways. The goal of the two cities is to make this route less congested and safer for pedestrians.

“We are happy to work with our local partners, who suggested this change to help make this route more neighborhood friendly,” said NCDOT's Division 6 engineer Drew Cox in a press release. “We evaluated their recommendation and agreed this highway designation is no longer necessary.”

NCDOT’s traffic services unit began removing about 40 “NC 59” signs this week. Work removing the signs is expected to be completed sometime next week. 

Commercial trucks will continue to use N.C. 162 and Interstate 295 to better navigate this area of the county.

“...roads evolve—roads in terms of how they're updated and how they're used in growing areas. Some roads that used to be one highway route become something else over time and in this case, this state highway is obsolete as a primary route. We don't really need it as a primary route, and we just hope that will help reduce some truck traffic over time,” shared Public Relations Officer for the NCDOT Andrew Barksdale. 

Barksdale clarified that the DOT is not aware of any plans by the cities to mark this as a No Truck Route. The hope is that by removing NC 59 from maps, commercial trucks in the future will be less inclined to use the road, unless they are local and familiar with these routes already.