Heavy traffic beginning of Labor Day weekend

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The last holiday weekend brought more traffic to the Port City.

AAA is predicting a busy weekend traffic wise. AAA said that just over a million North Carolina residents will travel 50 miles or more for Labor Day.

It looked like people were getting a head start Friday evening. Highway 421 was backed up all the way to 140 and 74/76 was backed up as well.

AAA said a recovering economy and lower gas prices are to blame for the boost to nationwide travel by 1.6% this weekend.