North Carolina Highway 132

Route description

NC 132 begins at US 421 on the border of Myrtle Grove and Silver Lake. The road begins to follow the four-lane College Road to the north, with businesses on the western side of the road and multiple neighborhoods along the eastern side. After an intersection with Greenbrier Road, College Road runs through a primarily residential area of Wilmington. While there are many neighborhoods branching off of the road, multiple apartment complexes become apparent, primarily on the western side of the highway. Nearing 17th Street, College road passes by Cape Fear Academy, an unaffiliated private school. At the 17th Street intersection, several businesses appear on the side of the road including a CVS Pharmacy, Zaxby's and Walgreens. After passing Bragg Drive, the surrounding area reverts back to primarily residential. NC 132 provides access to Pine Valley Country Club to the west. After passing by Holly Tree Road, College Road runs east of the Longleaf Shopping Center and John T. Hoggard High School. Immediately after passing the shopping center, NC 132 intersects Shipyard Boulevard (US 117). US 117 turns to the north to begin a concurrency with NC 132 which will last for the rest of its routing.

Leaving the Shipyard Boulevard intersection, the road passes to the west of Hugh MacRae Park and to the east of Roland-Grise Middle School. Through this section, the road widens from a four-lane to a six-lane divided road. The road also approaches Oleander Drive (US 76), leading it into a commercial area. After crossing over Oleander Drive, NC 132 and US 117 continue through a commercially active section of the city, with multiple shopping centers, restaurants and small stores along the route. After passing Hurst Drive, NC 132 runs along the western border of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, providing multiple accesses to the university. After crossing over Randall Parkway, NC 132 runs between the busy shopping centers of University Commons-Wilmington and University Centre. The road continues to see multiple stores after passing New Centre Drive. Just north of New Centre, College Road uses an interchange with US 17 Business, and begins to parallel MLK Parkway (US 74). Nearing an intersection with US 74, College Road passes just east of a Costco and passes to the west of a factory for Corning Inc. The road meets up with US 74 at a four way intersection with Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Immediately following the intersection, College Road runs through a very residential section of northern Wilmington, providing access for multiple neighborhoods. After Kings Grant Road, the median of the highway widens to prepare for the beginning of I-40. NC 132/US 117 run a very brief concurrency with I-40 for about one-half mile (0.80 km) before both highway exit off at exit 420B.

NC 132 merges onto a four-lane divided road, named College Road (the same as the rest of the highways routing). The road passes several small stores, however no shopping centers are present alongside the highway. As the highway leaves Wilmington, it passes by Emsley A. Laney High School. College Road provides several entrances to a large neighborhood to the west of the highway. College Road passes an industrial park situated between it and I-40. As the road progresses further north, it passes over I-140 and US 17, which leads the road from its suburban surroundings to more rural ones. Passing Cape Fear Community College, the road is lead in a heavily forested area, however as the road gets closer to Castle Hayne, more neighborhoods become apparent off the sides of the road. As NC 132 nears its northern terminus, it passes by a quarry and then makes a turn to head directly north. NC 132 ends at a roundabout with NC 133 just south of Castle Hayne. NC 133 and US 117 continue together to the north on a separate concurrency.

History

NC 132 was created in 1958 as new routing running from US 421 south of Wilmington along College Road to US 117 in Castle Hayne. In 1983 NC 132 was rerouted along new freeway from the present day I-40 interchange to US 117 near Wallace. The routing NC 132 left behind into Castle Hayne became a secondary road. In August of 1984, NC 132 was removed from the freeway routing, and reinstated on its previous routing along College Road to Castle Hayne. The freeway was subsequently renumbered as a part of Interstate 40. On March 17th, 2003, US 117 was removed from its routing south of Castle Hayne to downtown Wilmington. Instead it was routed along NC 132 south to Shipyard Boulevard. A roundabout replaced an at-grade Y-intersection at NC 132's northern terminus in August 2015.

Major intersections

The entire route is in New Hanover County.