The AARoads Blog

Texas Stadium is being replaced with a new Dallas Cowboys stadium opening later this year in a suburb further west. The old stadium opened in 1971 and with it a flurry of freeways and ramps designed to allow for traffic to and from the venue. As the stadium grew up, so did Irving, the suburb surrounding it. Traffic volumes on the freeways surrounding the stadium area grew and grew and now offer gridlock for most of the day. The junctions around the stadium are sub-par by Dallas standards and feature very short merge lanes, loop ramps, and signalized intersections between some freeway ramps. In short, it’s the worst freeway design in the DFW area.

Because of the new stadium, Texas Stadium is set to be demolished and the site re-developed at some point. TxDot is using this opportunity to upgrade all of the freeways surrounding the old site. Groundbreaking took place on October 28, 2008 for a new set of stack interchanges to replace the varied old loop ramps. Today, the city of Irving agreed to lease the stadium site to the DOT for 10 years and $15.4 million. TxDot will use the stadium site as a staging area for the construction of the stacks. Additionally, while the new junctions are being constructed the local transit agency, DART, will construct the Orange Line (the region’s 5th main light rail line) through the weaving ramps. The project is set to cost more than half a billion dollars, and has already been budgeted through 2010. It’s set to open in 2011, although some ramps will be open sooner.
Take a look at the junctions now, on google maps, and below the TxDot schematics for the new junctions. Click the smaller image for a larger one.

Going further afield again, this time to China. It’s no secret that China is the world’s hottest economy right now. The Chinese are flexing that muscle in the same way that America did in the 1950s – they’re building massive amounts of freeway (known as gonglu in Chinese). By the end of the next decade, China will have more freeway miles than the United States and drivers will be able to go from North Korea to near Mount Everest without ever getting off a freeway. The amount of construction is impressive. In 1989 China had about 90 miles of freeway – in 2008, China had about 40,000 miles of freeway. Compare that to the United States Interstate System, with a total length of 46,837 miles.

 Photo used with permission, rjmcconnell from flickr.
In the past five years, China has spent more on transportation infrastructure than in the past 50 years. Numbering is a hybrid between most European systems and America’s. The lowest numbered expressways radiate out from Beijing, but other expressways are numbered according to their orientation. East/West freeways are odd numbered, and north/south are even. Almost all of the expressways in the country are tolled, and are run by private for-profit companies. This is an interesting aside to a country that has a centrally authoritative Communist government.

Map of Chinese expressways, which are in the pea green color. Most of the roads indicated on the map in red are set to be upgraded to expressway at some point. Map is courtesy of the Chinese News Agency of California, used with permission.
China is set to overtake the United States with the largest freeway network of any country within the next couple of years. This may set a precedent that other areas of the Chinese economy will follow. The new President has made some grand and eloquent statements regarding the upgrading of our American infrastructure, hopefully these will come to fruition.

Sources: USA Today, Xinhua, Chinagate.com

American cities may be attempting to be more European, what with pedestrianization and density being buzzwords in urban planning communities, but Europe is emulating the US in one way: ring roads. While some roads like London’s M25 or Paris’ Peripherique are famous – many former Warsaw Pact countries are racing to update their infrastructure to adapt to their new status in the European Union, and it seems that the first thing many countries do from an infrastructure perspective is to build a beltway around their capital. Here is a look at some of them:

Budapest’s M0 Ring Road has been around for a while, at least on the southern side of town where it is not full motorway standards. At the turn of the century, work began on the eastern half of the beltway which has since been completed. The northern side, which includes a cable-stayed bridge over the Danube opened in September of 2008. The M0 is slowly being extended westward, however the western-most side of the road is not funded as of yet. M0 is a curious number but, as it is the wheel from which most of the country’s other motorways begin, it is logical (Brussels’ ring road is also numbered 0).

The Megyeri Bridge takes the M0 Beltway over the Danube River north of Budapest. Photo: AAK Hungary
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Today I took a little jaunt up and over to US 331 to see if by chance I could find any remaining colored shields along the route. Alas, as previously told to me, none were found. Along my journey today though, I found an oddity.  I stumbled across a reassurance shield assembly located in Florala, Alabama for Alabama 55 and Florida 85, just south of the intersection with US 331.

Reassurance assembly for both Alabama 55 and Florida 85 just south of the intersection with US 331 in Florala, Alabama

I believe that the ‘SOUTH’ banner for Florida 85 should instead be a trailblazer showing ‘TO’ Florida 85, but never the less, it is signed as if it is actually cosigned along with Alabama 55 heading south into Florida. So, for all intents and purposes according to the signage, Florida 85 begins its 57 mile trek toward Fort Walton Beach at the intersection with US 331 in downtown Florala, not at the state line. It is cosigned with Alabama 55 south to the state line where the Alabama state designation ends, though there is no ‘END’ shield assembly, and continues on into Florida. This is, though, another good example of an erroneous sign error made by DOT’s and sign companies across the country. Way to go ALDOT.

Speaking of carbon copying signs, perhaps it is about time that Interstate 10 guide signs in Mobile County, Alabama reflect Biloxi and/or New Orleans? Pascagoula made sense when Interstate 10 was originally built, because the freeway defaulted onto U.S. 90 at the state line for many years before Mississippi completed its portion. Nowadays, Pascagoula makes little sense, as Interstate 10 travels through Moss Point, Pascagoula’s neighbor to the north, and U.S. 90, the route that still travels to the coastal city, is not directly accessible from the freeway anymore. Yet all these years, little thought has been given into changing the control city to something else.

1974 Alabama official highway map.

Furthermore, Interstate 10 gains the control city of Mobile along eastbound from Gulfport and Biloxi through Moss Point. There’s no mention of Pascagoula outside of exit signs for Mississippi 613 and 63.

1971 Gousha Alabama/Georgia highway map.

The same can be said for Interstate 10’s control point from Slidell, Louisiana, which features the U.S. 90 city of Bay St. Louis. When Interstate 10 ended at Mississippi 607 (Exit 2) from Louisiana, it made sense to have Bay St. Louis, since MS 607 to U.S. 90 carried motorists directly into the Hancock County city. Nowadays Interstate 10 bypasses the community well to the north.

1971 Mississippi Gousha Mississippi highway map.

Throughout the years the same cities are carbon copied without any thought to updating the signs. However it is possible to change such designations. Texas officials altered signs in 2007 for U.S. 75 leading north from Dallas that replaced Sherman with McKinney…

Every time I see a Wilmington News Journal sign tidbit such as today’s, I know that DelDOT is yet again carbon copying signs that usually don’t need replacing in their current form (but should be updated to reflect new information, which they will not be). All the while the state budget continues to run at a deficit and the economic recession continues to worsen:

Work on overhead traffic signs will require lane closures at several New Castle County locations beginning today, the Delaware Department of Transportation says.

All of the closures will be between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting:

Today

• Del. 72 and Del. 273 (the panel for DE 2B/273 westbound was replaced in 2004)

Tuesday

• James Street and Christian Street in Newport

• James Street and Boxwood Road (these were installed in the 1997 resigning/resurfacing project of Delaware 141!)

Wednesday

• Del. 62 and Kiamensi Road, Belvedere (which is nothing more than a subdivision)

• Centerville Road at Walmart (also installed in 1997 as part of the DE 141 project)

Thursday

• Del. 141 (& U.S. 202) southbound at Exit 1B/Del. 13 (U.S. 13) south ramp (these were installed during the 2004 Basin Road project)

One lane will remain open for traffic at all times.

I’m familiar with everyone of those locations (see links above). Sign crews will again replace the older rounded-edge signs with the new corrugated sharp-edge signs that will display the exact same information. The signs in Newport will continue to acknowledge Delaware 41, a route that has not traveled through Newport since the 1970s for instance.

What is for me an annual rant, here’s a few other examples of recent carbon copying’s that should have been updated or are a waste money wise:

This sign was installed in 1997 when the new alignment of Delaware 273 opened. Posted on Salem Church Road ahead of its end/signalized intersection with the state route, the sign erroneously signs the turn-lane onto Delaware 273 east as “TO DE 273 I-95″ when it should display “DE 273 East to I-95″.

11 years later, the signs above showed their age (just kidding) and were carbon copied to the new sharp-edged sign type. The light assemblies were removed and the signs were carbon copied and continue to show the same error for the eastbound ramp. All Delaware 4 signs at this junction also display the same error “TO DE 273″ instead of “DE 273 east”. Our tax dollars at work!

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