Just south of the northwest–southeast state line, US 701 veers northeast to bypass Tabor City while US 701 Business follows Hickman Road parallel to the railroad toward the center of the town in Columbus County immediately to the north of the state line. The bypass intersects NC 904 (Pireway Road) before meeting the north end of the business route and NC 410 (5th Avenue) on the eastern edge of town. US 701 has a short concurrency with NC 410 before that highway splits north as Joe Brown Highway. The U.S. Highway heads northeast as James B. White Highway through the hamlet of Sydney before reaching the south end of the city of Whiteville. There, US 701 Business splits to the east as Madison Street while the mainline continues as J.K. Powell Boulevard. Just north of the business route split, US 701 meets NC 130 (Love Mill Road) and runs concurrently with the highway along a two-lane road with center turn lane. The highways cross Soules Swamp and intersects the Carolina Southern Railroad at grade, then pass through Whiteville's main street grid. West of the city center, US 701 and NC 130 intersect US 74 Business and US 76 Business (Washington Street), which NC 130 joins heading west toward Chadbourn. North of downtown, US 701 has a partial cloverleaf interchange with US 74 and US 76 (Andrew Jackson Highway), a freeway that will carry I-74 in the future.