Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Clayton, NC

Many people know it simply as 40/42, the unincorporated community that has sprung up around where N.C. 42 meets Interstate 40 in western Johnston County.

But that name may soon become an anachronism. The N.C. Department of Transportation plans to eliminate nearly 9 miles of N.C. 42 southwest of Clayton, including the section through the Cleveland community where 40/42 is familiar short-hand. Part of what is now N.C. 42, between N.C. 50 and the Clayton Bypass, will be renamed N.C. 36.

The change is necessary, NCDOT officials say, to avoid confusion with Interstate 42, the new name of the highway now known as both U.S. 70 and the Clayton Bypass. I-42 will cross what is now N.C. 42, and both roads will intersect I-40, potentially befuddling visitors and others unfamiliar with the local nomenclature.

That confusion could have serious consequences if someone calling 911 doesn’t know the difference between I-42 and N.C. 42, says Kevin Lacy, NCDOT’s director of strategic planning.

“We’re thinking about how do we keep people from being lost and not being confused when they’re calling for help,” Lacy said in an interview. “Keeping it as simple as we can is our desire in these scenarios.”

NCDOT officials will explain the change and the reasoning behind it at a meeting on Tuesday, July 25, at Clayton Town Hall, from 5 to 7 p.m. The department will also collect questions and feedback online at publicinput.com/US70-NC42-Clayton through Aug. 8.

NCDOT had hoped to avoid changing the name of N.C. 42 by having the planned interstate highway from I-40 to Morehead City called Interstate 36. There isn’t an I-36 anywhere in the nation, and no highway 36 in North Carolina.

But the power to name interstate highways rests with the Federal Highway Administration, based on recommendations from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or AASHTO. The organization follows a few conventions for interstate highways, including that east-west roads are generally even numbered, while north-south roads are odd. I-36 would have been consistent with that.

Another convention is that interstate numbers get smaller from north to south and east to west (think I-95 along the East Coast, I-10 along the Gulf of Mexico, etc.). Since the new interstate across Eastern North Carolina would be north of I-40, AASHTO chose to name it I-42 instead of I-36.

Last year, the Federal Highway Administration approved the I-42 designation for two sections of the planned highway — the 10-mile bypass around Clayton and the 22-mile Goldsboro bypass in Wayne and Lenoir counties. Those two stretches of U.S. 70 were built to federal interstate standards, while NCDOT is upgrading the rest in stages, until the entire highway from I-40 to Morehead City becomes I-42.

NCDOT hopes to begin erecting I-42 signs in Johnston County within a year. But first it needs to settle on a new name for N.C. 42.

It proposes a new N.C. 36 that runs more than 10 miles. It would begin at N.C. 50 in the west and follow the current N.C. 42 through Cleveland to the bypass. From there it would jog east to Ranch Road and connect back up with N.C. 42 on the southeast side of Clayton.

NCDOT plans to rename only the one stretch of N.C. 42 in Johnston County; the highway will remain N.C. 42 west of Johnston County to Asheboro and east of Clayton to Ahoskie.

Lacy said in addition to N.C. 36, NCDOT would like to see Clayton and Johnston County give N.C. 42 a local name, such as South Lombard Street, so that residents and businesses would have an address that doesn’t rely on an NCDOT number. That approach works well in Wake County, he said, with roads such as Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) and Glenwood Avenue (U.S. 70).

N.C. 42 and the Clayton Bypass aren’t the only roads that will get new names in Johnston County. With the bypass now known as U.S. 70 becoming an interstate highway, NCDOT also plans to eliminate U.S. 70 Business through Clayton and refer to it again simply as U.S. 70.

Again the goal is simplicity, Lacy said. People won’t have to think about which U.S. 70 they’re on through Clayton. It’s also easier for NCDOT if each highway has just one route number.

“When we can get rid of duplicate names like that, we’ve been trying to do that,” Lacy said. ”It makes signing a little easier. It makes informing the public of alternate routes easier.”

U.S. 70 Business originated in 2008 when the Clayton Bypass opened and became U.S. 70. Shifting it back shouldn’t be that difficult, Lacy said. Homes and businesses along the road through town kept the same address numbers.

Eliminating nearly 9 miles of N.C. 42 will be a bigger adjustment, as addresses are changed to reflect a new route number or a new local name.

There will also be a cultural adjustment.

“The locals that call it 40/42 probably will for a very, very long time, talking to each other,” Lacy said. “They’ll know the new people who are moving in. They’ll be the people who don’t recognize 40/42 as a location name.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2023, 7:00 AM.

Novo Nordisk’s shares continued to trend downward Tuesday after reports surfaced that the FDA had recently flagged manufacturing shortfalls at the Danish drugmaker’s Clayton, North Carolina production plant. The facility produces major drug ingredients like semaglutide, the molecule behind Novo’s oral diabetes drug Rybelsus.

After inspecting Novo’s Clayton facility between July 6 and July 13, 2023, the FDA officially chided the company for a pair of quality control lapses, according to a Form 483 seen by Fierce Pharma.

Specifically, the two-observation report suggested Novo failed to thoroughly investigate unexplained batch discrepancies and dropped the ball when it comes to microbial controls.

As for what those “discrepancies” were, the FDA said Novo on at least three separate occasions identified “objectionable organisms” during in-process testing of intermediate semaglutide.

Amid high demand, Novo Nordisk temporarily throttles US supply of low-dose Wegovy

In terms of controls, microbial limits “have not been established for in-process API material," in which microbes were discovered during the recovery phase, the FDA went on to say.

In an email to Fierce Pharma, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said the company doesn’t share details publicly about specific interactions with the FDA, but she noted the Clayton site is “running and producing for the market.”

"The facility cited in this letter manufactures API for Rybelsus, not Ozempic or Wegovy," the spokesperson added.

On the heels of a $2.58-billion global manufacturing investment last December, Novo in March spent $6.8 million to scoop up 104 acres of adjacent land to its Clayton site.

"For Novo Nordisk's production facilities in Johnston County, these land purchases are to ensure North Carolina remains a prime location for future potential expansion plans to improve and increase production capacity," Chad Henry, Novo Nordisk's general manager of U.S. product supply, said at the time.

Novo Nordisk had no current plans to develop the purchased land, the company told Fierce Pharma this past spring.

Novo Nordisk set to launch weight loss drugs in more countries but in constrained fashion, CEO says

Novo Nordisk began operations in Clayton in 1993 with a plant that formulates and fills cartridges and vials, assembles pen devices and packages and labels the products.

After several expansions of the 457,000-square-foot facility, which employs 1,000 people, Novo Nordisk built a $2 billion plant next door that went online in 2021. It employs 700 people and is the company’s first facility outside of Denmark to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to specify that Novo Nordisk's Clayton, NC, facility produces drug ingredients for Rybelsus, not Ozempic and Wegovy.

Fast-growing Clayton is getting a sweet treat in the form of a new bakery with a statewide following.

Burney's Sweets and More is bringing a location to downtown Clayton, according to franchise owner Jaclyn Finn. The bakery will be located at 312 East Main Street, setting up shop in the former space of Nina's Restaurant and Bar, which closed in August.

Finn, a native of the Fayetteville-Raeford area, said she has lived in Clayton for eight years. For the past six years, she and her husband have run a coffee shop, Boulevard West, at 104 West Main Street.

She told Triangle Business Journal they "have been thinking about what we can bring to downtown Clayton that we're missing and locals and visitors could enjoy," and they arrived at a bakery concept.

"Partnering with Burney's was a no-brainer," Finn said. "We've been to multiple locations and absolutely loved it. And we think their products are perfect for the area."

Burney's got its start in 2011 in Elizabethtown in rural Bladen County – located south of Fayetteville. The bakery was founded by Thomas and Doris Burney and today is owned by their son Michael and his wife, Gina.

The business has grown to 15 locations throughout North Carolina – from Charlotte to Southport –including a Raleigh location and one in Smithfield as well. The bakery sells a variety of cakes, pastries, pies and more.

Finn said she is tentatively planning to open the 2,000-square-foot Clayton store in March 2024, and she plans to employ 12 to 15 people. She didn't have estimates for renovation costs and the number of seats the bakery will contain, but said that the store will feature indoor and outdoor seating options.

According to Finn, while she focuses on the bakery, her husband will focus on the coffee shop. She said she may keep the Clayton Burney's location closed on Mondays to give her staff a break and stay open on weekends to attract after-dinner guest. Finn said she is looking into carrying gelato and sorbet, as she is talking with a vendor from Italy.

With roughly 30,000 people, Clayton is one of the fastest-growing towns in North Carolina. As such, it is attracting major residential and industrial projects. Meanwhile, retail is an area that the town is looking to grow, according to Patrick Pierce, economic development director for the Clayton.

Ben Tobin covers real estate and economic development in the Greater Triangle, focusing on the counties outside Wake and Durham. Have a tip? Reach him at btobihn@bizjournals.com or (919) 327-1012.

The Clayton Comprehensive Transportation Plan – Clayton on the Move – will identify the Town’s long-term vision for the local transportation network, including roadways, public transit, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities. This state-required plan will provide recommendations that the N.C. Department of Transportation will consider for future project funding and development.

As the Town of Clayton continues to grow, it is important to envision and plan for necessary transportation investments that will fit the community’s needs. A Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) is a planning document that will represent the Town of Clayton’s long-term vision for the local transportation network that will serve residents, employers, and visitors. The CTP will look at multiple modes of transportation, including roadways and highways, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and public transportation. The planning team will analyze these different modes, assess the existing conditions, and develop a framework with recommendations for future transportation projects to operate at a local and regional scale.

The CTP will have a 20-year horizon, meaning the planning team will look to see what investments are needed for the next 20 years to serve current and future needs. It will also provide a range of potential project types that are not fiscally constrained, meaning projects won’t have funding assigned to them as part of the CTP development process.

The development of the CTP is only one part of the transportation planning process. First, as part of the CTP process, all the existing Town of Clayton plans (such as the 2045 Comprehensive Growth Plan, the Downtown Master Plan, and the Pedestrian Plan) will be reviewed and incorporated into the vision, goals, and recommendations for the CTP. These studies that looked at transportation needs included recommendations like new roads, road widening, sidewalks, intersection improvements, and greenways. The CTP will consolidate these recommendations, identify potential gaps, and develop additional improvement recommendations.

Once the CTP is finalized, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) will use the document and other local CTPs to create a Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), a regional-based document. The MTP will develop specific projects that will be submitted to the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to have funding assigned through their Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). For more information about the MTP and TIP, you can find information on the CAMPO website.

Public involvement is a very important part of Clayton on the Move to ensure the plan considers the needs and desires of the community. Throughout the study, there will be opportunities to complete surveys to provide input, engage with the study team at events and meetings, and learn about the recommendations being considered.

As part of this effort, a Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) will be formed. Members will include leaders from a variety of communities and organizations. The SSC will help provide feedback on behalf of those they represent at key milestones.

Want to receive study updates? Sign up for the study list-serv.

We believe that the best solutions come from the people who call Clayton home. Engagement centered on introducing the planning process to the public, presenting findings from initial research, and collecting feedback on community priorities and goals. Last Fall, the planning team engaged with nearly 400 residents at six pop-up events and over 700 survey participants on topics including:

Missed our events? Sign up to receive updates.

Be sure to check out the Clayton on the Move informational video to learn more about the Comprehensive Transportation Plan and how you can participate and provide your input.

HIGH POINT, N.C., December 05, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lumos, a leading 100% Fiber Optic Internet service provider in the Mid-Atlantic, broke ground yesterday in Clayton, North Carolina, in partnership with the Clayton Chamber of Commerce, signaling the start of its construction process to build its 100% Fiber Optic Internet network. With this expansion, thousands of homes and small businesses in Clayton will have access to Lumos' ultra-fast internet.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231205413260/en/

Lumos breaks ground in Clayton, N.C., celebrating the start of its construction process to build its 100% Fiber Optic Internet network. (Photo: Business Wire)

"The partnership between Lumos, Clayton, and Johnston County is an innovative approach in providing a multitude of services to benefit the entire community," said U.S. Senator Thom Tillis. "I applaud their efforts in connecting Johnston County residents with fast, reliable internet service."

This community is the first to begin construction after Lumos announced its $50 million investment in Johnston and Harnett County. Lumos will be the first fiber internet provider for many homes in Clayton, changing families' lives through affordable access to a network advanced enough for their current and future digital needs.

Lumos' development in the Clayton area comes from partnerships with the town of Clayton, Johnston County and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce. Through these partnerships, Lumos is proactively working to bridge the digital divide by expanding its 100% Fiber Optic network into unserved and underserved neighborhoods in North Carolina.

"As society grows more digitally dependent, fiber internet becomes essential for keeping up with the day-to-day," said Lumos CEO Brian Stading. "The Town of Clayton recognizes the importance of fast, reliable internet, and we are honored they chose Lumos 100% Fiber Optic Internet to provide community members with internet built to support the future of Clayton."

"The Clayton Town Council and staff are enthusiastic supporters of expanding the availability of high-speed broadband. We are excited to hear about the investment that will be made in Clayton and our underserved communities," said Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod. "This partnership will catapult us across the digital divide and keep us competitive in terms of economic development."

Lumos’ 100% Fiber Optic Internet provides households and businesses with fast and reliable internet. Built from the ground up, the service fuels economic development by providing access to a network designed to manage all occupational, educational, health and life needs.