The AARoads Blog

A few updates, some rants and other observations of Delaware Roads – late 2006.

So much for the new “Delaware 141 Spur” being an actual spur. Instead the “Spur” is a relocated Delaware 141 mainline. Why is it so difficult to get the nomenclature right in the state of Delaware? If the road was an actual spur, it would not be considered the Delaware 141 mainline, especially with Delaware 141 North facing South at its end. But that is exactly how it is, despite little green street signs displaying “RT 141 Spur”. I investigated the new “interchange” with U.S. 202 and Delaware 261 on December 23 to see the results of several years of road work.

Delaware 141 now travels southeast from the intersection of Children’s Drive and Powder Mill Road over the former Rockland Road alignment to meet U.S. 202 and Delaware 261 (Foulk Road) at the new partial-interchange. Delaware 141 northbound faces southbound and enters the junction with U.S. 202 in this picture. Interests to U.S. 202 north and south are now advised to take Delaware 141 north to this interchange, rather than remaining on Powder Mill Road east. Powder Mill Road is now simply signed as “nothing”, but it still is a better way to reach U.S. 202 north from Delaware 141 north in lieu of this southward detour. I don’t get why signs do not split interests to U.S. 202 north and south between the two roadways, but perhaps it was at the request of Astra-Zenica, which owns the land both north and south of Powder Mill Road.

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Day three involved a short excursion into Charleston, North Charleston, James Island, and the Battery.

Entering Charleston via Interstate 26 eastbound, new signs for the U.S. 17 Arthur Ravenel Bridge adorn sign bridges along the freeway. Compare this image to that from 2004.

South Carolina 700 (Folly Road Boulevard) splits from U.S. 17 just west of the Ashley River. South Carolina 700 spurs southward onto James Island. South Carolina 171 ties into South Carolina 700 via Wesley Drive with the two of them sharing pavement south to Maybank Highway on James Island itself. There South Carolina 700 heads west toward Rockville while South Carolina 171 south heads south to Folly Beach. An interchange joins U.S. 17, South Carolina 61, and South Carolina 700.

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Day 2 involves a ride east to Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, North Carolina to check out the fairly new South Carolina 22 (Veterans Highway) and 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway) freeways, Myrtle Beach itself, and the new Interstate 140 in Wilmington among other things.

In Summerville, the interchange between U.S. 17 Alternate and Interstate 26 exists within a commercial district based upon big box retail. As such, the interchange garners a lot of traffic from the freeway for the services that the nearby businesses provide. Looking at the satellite image of the interchange, it’s quite apparent that the full-cloverleaf interchange was recently altered to that of a six-ramp partial-cloverleaf interchange, ala Interstate 65 at U.S. 90 and U.S. 45 in Mobile, Alabama and Interstate 385 at South Carolina 291 in Greenville, South Carolina. The addition of traffic lights to an already congested stretch of U.S. 17A does not help, but at least there are still two ramps per direction from Interstate 26.

U.S. 17 Alternate joins U.S. 521 on their final approach to Georgetown and junction U.S. 17. Just ahead of their respective ends, U.S. 17 Alternate turns onto Church Street for 1.5 blocks to its junction with U.S. 17 and U.S. 701. U.S. 521 remains straight and ends at U.S. 17 on its own. An end sign is even in place to herald the conclusion of the two-state highway.

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The journey northward took place on a warm November day interspersed with blue and milky skies. We opted for a non-Interstate routing from High Springs northward through Lake City, Homerville, Jessup, and Hinesville, Georgia. That allowed us to see some new roadways, garner a few more counties (we do that obsessive thing too!), and check out a few U.S. highway ends for Dale Sanderson’s U.S. Highway Ends

I won’t bore you with the detailed routing and rather will focus on some of the roadworthy highlights along the drive.

Lake City lies near the cross roads of Interstate 10 and 75 in north Florida. The town is the control point of Interstate 10 west from Jacksonville and east from Tallahassee. You may not think much of it by its presence on the map, but its surprisingly sprawly, especially along U.S. 90 east of Interstate 75 and U.S. 41/441 heading south of town. Downtown meanwhile retains some charm, echoing Lake City’s history as a smaller town no doubt. Pictured here is U.S. 441 (Marion Street) north at U.S. 90 (Duval Street).

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Tyler is a regional center in east Texas, with an area population of about 100,000. The city reminds me a lot of other cities – Tallahassee with its horrible loop, Wheeling with its little unexpected skyline, Kansas City with its unexpected hills. Here is a quick look at the goings-on in Tyler, Texas.

An incarnation of this sign has been sitting idly along IH 20 near Lindale for a really long time now. At least 12 years. It is announcing the pending arrival of Loop 49, which was originally envisioned as a 4-lane freeway bypass of the city. Things being what they are now, though, Loop 49 has morphed into a super-2 toll road. Here is a TxDot map. Parts of the Southern section are already open, it will not reach IH 20 for a while.

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For many years people have wondered for what the AA in AARoads.com stood? Well here’s the answer, All About Roads. Our sites strive to cover roads anywhere and everywhere, from future Interstates to rural back roads and everything in between. What started out in 1997 and 1998 respectively grew into an eight-domain website collection covering roads from Hawaii to Maine, from Los Angeles to New York, and more recently from North America to Europe. New members of the website family add local insight and knowledge to our respective areas of coverage. With them and our continued commitment to roads and highway travel, we hope to continue our expansion and growth in the years to come!

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