Motorists tired of driving behind slow-moving vehicles along U.S. 321 between Lenoir and Blowing Rock will be getting a reprieve.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has opened three passing areas along the busy thoroughfare in the stretch of road that has been under construction since February 2005.

Two of the passing lanes are along the northbound route, while the third is on the southbound travel corridor.

"We've heard a lot of comments and complaints about not being able to pass," NCDOT Resident Engineer Frank Gioscio said. "We hope this will help with some travel problems."

Traffic in both directions has been reduced to one lane without any areas for passing in the 6.57-mile stretch of highway being widened from two to four lanes from Kirby Mountain Road to Blackberry Road, leaving many agitated drivers stuck behind slow-moving traffic all the way from outside Lenoir to Blowing Rock where the road widens to four lanes just past the Tanger Outlet.

"If you get behind a slow-moving truck, you're stuck - unless you pass illegally," Gioscio said. "That goes all the way to Blowing Rock. Now, you will be able to pass legally. This will help people get around some of that slow-moving traffic."

The first northbound passing lane is about a quarter of a mile past the Mountain Man convenience store located near the offices of W.C. English Co., the Lynchburg, Va.-based contractor performing the road construction. The second is near the northern portion of the job prior to the long straight stretch created when the S-curves were eliminated between Greene's Trading Post and Blackberry Road. In both cases, the highway will open to two lanes for a stretch before merging back to one on the northbound side.

The southbound passing lane is located between the two northbound passing zones.

Crews have been grinding the existing paint lines off the highway to remove any conflicting striping. Double yellow (no passing) and white skip lines (passing) have been put in place to notify motorists of the lane changes, and signs have been erected to show passing zone and merging areas.

"This should be a big help for people traveling through the construction zone now," Gioscio said of the implementation of passing zones.