RALEIGH – It is time for food, fun, rides and traffic. The annual North Carolina State Fair gets underway on Thursday, and that means a lot of traffic heading for west Raleigh over the next 11 days. Last year’s fair drew more than 929,000 visitors.

That extra traffic means slow travel conditions in the area for I-40 and I-440, Wade Avenue, Blue Ridge Road, Edwards Mill Road, Trinity Road, N.C. 54 and Hillsborough Street. Motorists not attending the fair are encouraged to avoid the area and seek alternate routes away from the fairgrounds, if possible.

With drivers across the state going to the State Fairgrounds, the state DOT strongly recommens that motorists plan their route ahead of time so they don’t get caught in lengthy traffic jams. Heaviest traffic conditions are late afternoons into evenings and all day on the two weekends of the fair.

"We advise people to pre-plan trips well in advance, be patient, and be aware of pedestrian traffic," Lt. Jeff Gordon, with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, said.

For drivers heading to the fair from east of Raleigh or off I-95 via I-40, there is an additional matter to take into account: the Fortify Rebuild I-40 construction project. It has an already heavily traveled 8.5-mile stretch of the interstate in a three-lane work zone traffic pattern in both directions through south Raleigh.

Motorists can avoid going through the construction area by taking I-440 West (Exit 301) and going around north Raleigh to Wade Avenue west (Exit 4-B) and then using Blue Ridge Road and Edwards Mill Road exits to get to the fairgrounds area parking.

Motorists coming from the west on I-40 East should be able to avoid the Fortify work zone completely by exiting onto Wade Avenue (Exit 289) and getting on Edwards Mill Road to the fair parking lots. Drivers heading toward Raleigh on U.S. 1 from the south should remain on the highway where it joins I-440, exit at Wade Avenue (Exit 4), and turn left to access Edwards Mill Road.

For those wanting to avoid traffic and parking issues, local transit agencies and Amtrak are ready to help out with park-and-ride services from numerous locations. They include downtown Raleigh and Durham, north Raleigh, Cary and Garner. Amtrak is adding a stop at the fairgrounds on its daily Carolinian 79 and 80 routes for trips to and from Charlotte, Kannapolis, Salisbury, High Point, Greensboro, Burlington, Durham and Cary. Locations, times and additional information for the park-and-ride trips are on the State Fair website.

And on the busier weekends, those who are coming from the west and want an easier way to get to the fair, GoTriangle is offering a weekend shuttle service from parking lots at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and off N.C. 54 in Chapel Hill, and from its Regional Transit center on Slater Road in Durham off exit 282 of I-40 (Page Road). Maps and other details are on the GoTriangle website