All-way stop coming to NC 87 intersection near Saxapahaw next week
Drivers at NC 87 and Moore’s Chapel Cemetery Road will have to stop in all directions starting Tuesday, May 5, as NCDOT aims to cut crash risk near Saxapahaw.
Drivers heading through the NC 87 and Moore’s Chapel Cemetery Road intersection just east of Saxapahaw will face an all-way stop starting Tuesday, May 5, a change NCDOT says is meant to make the rural crossing safer and more predictable.
The work is scheduled at the Alamance County intersection from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with DriveNC listing a high traffic impact and no detour. The intersection will stay open during installation, but motorists should expect brief delays while crews put up the new control and adjust to the change.
NCDOT said McCain Stripping Service, Inc., of Browns Summit, will do the installation with NCDOT crews as part of the N.C. Spot Safety Program. Once the signs are in place, traffic on NC 87 and Moore’s Chapel Cemetery Road will no longer flow through on an informal crossing pattern. Every direction will have to stop, yielding the right of way in turn.
The agency says all-way stops are recommended only after a review of traffic volumes, crash history, sight distance and a field investigation. NCDOT also points to a 2023 study of 348 rural intersections that found all-way stop conversions were followed by a 55 percent drop in total crashes, a 92 percent drop in fatal and serious-injury crashes, and a 72 percent drop in frontal-impact crashes involving minor injuries.
For Saxapahaw, the change will be felt in the daily routines that run through this part of the county, from commuters and churchgoers to residents traveling between rural neighborhoods and the Haw River corridor. A stop-controlled intersection may not look dramatic, but at a place where traffic mixes with local turns and through movement on NC 87, slower speeds and clearer turns can make the difference between a routine pass-through and a close call.
The Saxapahaw project also follows another Alamance County all-way stop announcement earlier this spring at Lindley Mill Road and Moores Chapel Cemetery Road, where NCDOT set work for March 18, 2026 and planned new pavement markings and stop signs. NCDOT says a rural all-way stop project typically costs about $30,000 and can be completed in less than a year, making it one of the agency’s faster fixes when an intersection no longer feels safe enough as it is.
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