20, 2004, the second section of the "East Belt" was opened, rerouting US 311 to I-85 Bus./US 29/US 70. On November 22, 2010, the third and final section of the "East Belt" was completed, linking Interstate 85; Also Interstate 74 was established as an concurrency of US 311 from Cedar Square Road to North Main Street. In September 2003, US 311 was extended north from Madison to NC 14/NC 87/NC 770 in Eden, via US 220 and NC 135. The extension was finally signed in August 2011. The route was approved by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in November 2012, after an initial request by officials in Eden, to be extended to US 58 in Virginia; which in January 2013, NCDOT signed off on extending the route and replacing parts of NC 700 and NC 770. US 311 was signed in the field in Virginia, from Danville south to the state line (replacing secondary State Route 863) in September 2013. Since 2003, a project called the "US 311 Connector" has been planned by NCDOT and the city of Winston-Salem. Estimated at $23.5 million (2003 dollars), the four-lane urban boulevard would connect between I-40 (exit 196) and I-40 Business (exit 8) (now US 421, exit 230), linking US 311 with US 158 (Reidsville Road); it also included a landscaped medium with walking/bicycle trails parallel to it. By 2016, the project has ceased appearing in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), though still part of the Winston-Salem 2035 Transportation Plan. In May 2018, AASHTO approved a request by NCDOT to eliminate between Randleman and Winston-Salem, moving the southern terminus from I-73 in Randleman to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Winston-Salem, as all but of this section is freeway which already has other primary designations; those non-redundant sections would be reassigned secondary North Carolina routes. In January 2019, NCDOT officially eliminated the section. North Carolina Highway 897 North Carolina Highway 897 (NC 897) was an original state highway that traversed from NC 60/NC 65, in Winston-Salem, to SR 33 at the Virginia state line. Going north on Liberty Street, from 4th Street, in Winston-Salem, it went at a northeasterly route along Old Walkertown Road and Pine Hall Road to Pine Hall. Continuing northeasterly, it connects Madison, Mayodan, Stoneville and Price, North Carolina before reaching the Virginia state line. In 1925, it was renumbered as part of NC 77.