U.S. Route 29 (US 29) is a United States highway that runs for from the South Carolina state line, near Blacksburg, to the commonwealth of Virginia, near Danville. It is signed with north–south cardinal directions, but is actually a north-east and south-west diagonal highway throughout the state. The route serves the North Carolina Piedmont, including the cities of Charlotte, Salisbury, High Point, and Greensboro. From Salisbury to Greensboro, US 29 spends roughly a third of its length in the state being concurrent with US 70.
Route description
US 29 starts in Grover as a two lane rural road where it intersects with NC 226 shortly after. It then turns into a four lane boulevard as it heads to Kings Mountain briefly overlapping with NC 216 as it merges into Interstate 85 sharing a concurrency with the interstate. It then exits Interstate 85 at Exit 10A running together with US 74. US 29/74 then overlaps with NC 274 for two miles as the three routes head towards Gastonia. In downtown Gastonia, US 29/74/NC 274 intersects with US 321 with NC 274 splitting off on South Broad Street. US 29/74 then meets NC 279 before going into Lowell, McAdenville, and Belmont where US 29/74 meets NC 7 and then Interstate 485 before going to Charlotte. US 29/74 offers access to Charlotte Douglas International Airport before intersecting with Billy Graham Parkway. Here, US 29/74 is named Wilkinson Blvd. At Morehead Street, US 29 splits from US 74 where US 29 briefly overlaps with NC 27 and then intersects Interstate 77. Afterwards, US 29 splits from NC 27 where it meets NC 49 as the two routes go around the Bank of America stadium, and go along Graham Street through Uptown Charlotte.
Afterwards, US 29/NC 49 turns into a boulevard going east on Dalton Avenue, and then north on Tryon Street. Eventually, US 29/NC 49 intersects Old Concord Road where the Lynx Blue Line runs between the northbound and southbound lanes. At University City Boluevard, NC 49 splits from US 29 with NC 49 going around the southern part of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus, and US 29 going around the west. Here, the Lynx Blue Line goes under the northbound lanes of US 29 to offer access to UNC Charlotte while US 29 continues as a boulevard towards Concord. Before doing so, it intersects with Interstate 485 once again. Before heading towards Concord, US 29 offers access to the Charlotte Motor Speedway before meeting at an interchange with George Liles Parkway. It then briefly overlaps with US 601 and NC 73 in western Concord before US 601 splits to run concurrently with I-85 and NC 73 splitting to head towards downtown Concord. From here, US 29 runs north through Kannapolis. US 29 then goes through Landis and China Grove briefly overlapping with NC 152 east of China Grove.
US 29 then heads towards Salisbury where, west of downtown Salisbury, it beings to run concurrently with US 70 serving as Salisbury's Main Street. After going through downtown Salisbury, US 29/70 offers access to both Spencer and East Spencer before crossing over the Yadkin River. Afterwards, US 29/70 then merges into I-85/US 52 as the four highways all run together for roughly two miles. At exit 87, US 29/52/70 splits from I-85 with and briefly joins I-285 and I-85 Business. West of Lexington, US 52 and I-285 split away from US 29/70/I-85 Business where US 29/70/I-85 Business goes around the northern edge of Lexington where the three routes briefly overlap with US 64 before heading towards Thomasville.
Exiting Thomasville, US 29/70/I-85 Business then goes south of High Point and north of Trinity and Archdale before intersecting I-74 southeast of High Point. Following this, US 29/70/I-85 Business once again runs together with I-85 proper before splitting at the interchange with I-73/US 421. US 29/70/I-85 Business then merges into I-40 running together with US 220 south of Greensboro. The now five, simultaneously running highways (US 29, US 70, US 220, I-40, and I-85 Business) go around southern Greensboro before US 29/70/220 splits from I-40/I-85 Business going north around eastern Greensboro as a controlled access highway named O. Henry Blvd. As US 29/70/220 intersects Wendover Avenue, US 70 and US 220 split from US 29 with US 70 going east along Wendover Ave, and US 220 going west.