Spent the morning in west Minneapolis and then headed west to Fargo and south to Sisseton, South Dakota. Heavy rains washed out the majority of the afternoon as I returned east along state highways and U.S. 12. As usual, some highlights and photos are found below.
While Minnesota 100 is a full freeway now, elements of its past as a lesser route remain in the form of old overpasses with no shoulders. One such span remains in place at the Minnesota 7 & Hennepin County 25 full-cloverleaf interchange. After a series of accidents, some fatal, Mn/DOT restriped the freeway mainline to provide limited acceleration lanes in place of a narrow shoulder at the overpasses, thus improving the situation from a safety standpoint. Before this improvement, drivers would come to a complete stop from the adjacent on-ramp, thus necessitating fast acceleration to freeway speeds while also dodging exiting traffic onto Minnesota 7 & Hennepin County 25.
Interstate 394, similar to a handful of other urban freeways, includes tunnels underneath buildings and other structures at downtown Minneapolis. Pictured here is the east end/beginning and one such building tunnel. Other freeways, such as the Cross-Bronx Expressway, Interstate 395 in Washington, D.C., Interstate 5 in Seattle, and the Georgia 400 Toll highway travel under such infrastructure.
(more…)
