When completed, 140 will form about a 120-degree loop through Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties. 

The portion from U.S. 421 east to I-40 is under construction now, and is scheduled to open in late 2004. East of I-40, the 140/17 freeway is scheduled to open in 2005. 

The certification of this entire freeway as an Interstate was granted by the Federal Highway Administration in late September 2002. The state had expected that only the portion of this road west of I-40 would receive Interstate certification, but the Feds must have been in a good mood. 

When completed, 140 will especially facilitate travel between the Triangle area and Myrtle Beach, as one will be able to avoid the city of Wilmington completely. [1]
 

The AAA map released in October, 1976 shows I-140 starting east of the Beaucatcher Tunnel on U.S. 70 and running southeast to the current junction of I-240 with I-40. This designation lasted only one year; the previous year's AAA map doesn't show any proposed freeway at all in this area, and the following year's map calls the road I-240. The maps at the right tell the story. 

Note that I-140 was shown as starting east of the tunnel and east of the already-existing U.S. 70 freeway. Also, by this time the western half of what we now call I-240 had been built; part of it at the time was signed as N.C. 191. So if this 140 had been built as shown, it probably would have been disjointed with the rest of Asheville's freeways. (Also, I-240 today bypasses the tunnel to the north, a routing the maps don't imply.) Perhaps this was the reason an odd first digit was chosen; in addition 140 would have been North Carolina's first 3-digit Interstate anywhere. 

No official state map from the era shows any proposed 140, but the 1977 state map shows a proposed I-240 following its current route, including the northern bypass of the tunnel. 

One more interesting thing about these maps: the "volleyball interchange" between 140/240 and U.S. 70 is shown in great detail -- even though it wouldn't exist for years! Unfortunately, AAA stopped showing interchange detail on its inset maps in the early 1980s. Not all changes are for the better.