The road less traveled.

• Author: Bailey, David
• Position: Interstate-40 segment between Wilmington and Raleigh, North Carolina

The last stretch of I-40 accelerated growth around Raleigh and Wilmington, but in between it's running on empty.

In his 1984 campaign for governor, Jim Martin vowed he would make the completion of Interstate 40 from Raleigh to Wilmington "the single most important project in the entire state because of the port."

In June 1990, Martin made good his campaign promise with the opening of the last piece of highway that now stretches from the marshes of the Cape Fear to the Mojave Desert in Barstow, Calif. Of course, when Martin was stumping for governor, the right of way for the interstate had already been purchased under his predecessor, Jim Hunt.

Still, says Larry Goode, the chief project engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation, "it was put as a very high priority" back in 1985.

And all the while, politicians and DOT officials touted to the towns in between the capital and the port the benefits of having a big road in their back yards. "I think that providing industrial development for a wide corridor of Eastern North Carolina was always a plus," Goode says, "but access to the ports and tourism were two other priorities that went with that."

People east of Raleigh had plenty of time to anticipate those benefits. The eastern end of I-40 got left off the interstate wish list submitted to the federal government in 1956. It wasn't until 1972 that the Board of Transportation approved the I-40 segment from Benson to Raleigh that linked I-95 to the capital. In 1978 the board approved the remaining portion to Wilmington.

By the time the $367 million, 120-mile segment was completed, cities and towns along the way had developed great expectations about this pathway to prosperity. And why not, considering the retail outlets, gas stations, restaurants and motels that had sprung up along I-95 not so far away?

But now, nearly three years later, the counties and towns along I-40 are still waiting for a great influx of jobs and development. That's especially true in Sampson and Duplin, two rural counties in need of a little interstate commerce.

Just stop off at either of the Newton Grove exits -- N.C. Highway 50 or U.S. 701 -- and look around. Besides the "Commercial Property For Sale" signs that have sprung up like spring onions in the fallow fields, about the only evidence of progress is a faded sign that's been at the Highway 50 exit since it opened. "Coming Soon: Texaco Food Mart," it says.

How soon? "That's not something we're ready to commit to right now," says Owen Gwyn, president of Durham-based Tops Petroleum Corp., which owns the 10 acres behind the sign. Tops owns five Texaco stations and manages five more. "The demographics aren't there right now," Gwyn says. "Maybe they will be, but I'm not a pioneer."

And yet Newton Grove, with its one coming-soon sign and imminent sewer service, has more going for it than many of the other communities with exits at any distance from Raleigh or Wilmington.

The exception is Warsaw, the site of the only substantive development in the 80-some miles between Clayton and Burgaw. There, residents brag about the three new convenience stores and a fast-food outlet.

"It's been beyond slow in land sales in that corridor," says Carlton Midyette, president of...