The AARoads Blog

The Fourth of July trip. Undertaken by Daniel Brim and me. Our usual arrangement holds – we take approximately identical photos, and try not to hit any raccoons and/or rabbits.

Our destination is sunny Union County, New Mexico – by way of Beartooth Pass, Sioux City, and various other places that call into question our ability to drive in a straight line.

We fly into Salt Lake City airport, and then make a beeline to Grand Teton National Park for sunrise.

The Grand Tetons at sunrise.

Similar view, different road.

Late dawn, with foreground lighting.

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the third day of the Gila River trip, in which I return from New Mexico back home to San Diego.

Campfire from the night before. I don’t remember why we decided that Frosty the Candle Snowman had to go, but we certainly sent him off to Valhalla in style.

An old alignment of New Mexico state route 32 yields this tilted, decrepit junction assembly. It dates to the late 1960s or so.

This grassland – just east of Springerville, AZ – burned in the Wallow Fire just a few weeks after I took these photos. But, it will grow back, as that is how these things tend to go.

Sunset through Telegraph Pass, just east of Yuma on I-8.

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A trip to New Mexico, essentially following the Gila River all the way. Part features the first day, and the morning of the second – driving from San Diego to Lake Roberts, NM.

Adventures in terrible light-post placement. There are only two known 1957-spec interstate shields in Arizona. (The other one is on this exact gantry, facing the other direction.)

Extremely pointy flower in morning light. Highway 90 between Lordsburg and Silver City, New Mexico.

Heading north from Silver City on state highway 15.

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the second batch of photos from the trip ScottB and I took to Mariposa, in the western Sierra foothills. On this day, we leave the town and head southwards, on 49 and then various county roads, before spurring off on 168 into the mountains a while.

Just a little stream, filled with floating vegetation, by the side of a county road just a mile or two from highway 41.

An oddly shaped tree. We find it at Shaver Lake, on highway 168.

It is definitely waterfall season. This one is beside old highway 168, which leads to Big Creek.

This pair of signs dates to 1953. Some of the last white porcelain guide signs left in the state! I actually found these about a year ago on a trip with Andy, but when we got there it was night, so I had to come back for a daytime shot.

This river feeds from the waterfalls into Huntington Lake.

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The first segment of the first phase of the Mid-Bay Bridge connector (Toll Florida 293) opened to traffic on May 12 from the existing toll plaza at the north end of the bridge across Choctawhatchee Bay to Florida 20. The second portion of Phase I will open later this summer and will dump local traffic onto Range Road east of Niceville. The following photos were taken May 13 by ABRoads.

Toll Florida 293 north (from U.S. 98 to Florida 20):

Florida 293 begins its ascent northward from U.S. 98 in the eastern portion of Destin. It begins as a six-lane arterial, but quickly loses lanes to become a two lane corridor by the time it reaches the Mid-Bay bridge over Choctawhatchee Bay. This reassurance marker is the only one in the entire northwest region that displays the orange outline of Florida, often seen on other toll facilities in other parts of the state.

Currently, motorists pay a $3.00 toll for the Mid-Bay bridge crossing. The toll plaza is just over 5-miles away along the north shore of Choctawhatchee Bay. The traffic signal in the background allows access to the commercial centers that align either side of Florida 293.

A quick progress report on two local projects, the Florida 85/Florida 123 interchange improvements and the Mid-Bay Bridge connector, part of the Toll Florida 293 bypass around Niceville. The Florida 85/Florida 123 project is slated to be done by summer of 2012 while the Mid-Bay Bridge connector will be completed in stages over the next three years, with a portion of the first phase opening this Thursday, as posted in today’s edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News…

Map of Niceville showing the under construction and proposed alignment of the extension of Toll Florida 293 around the eastern and northern portions of the city. The toll route will eventually end at a trumpet interchange with Florida 85 about a mile north of College Drive.

Future Florida 85/Florida 123 Interchange improvements:

A guide sign with an older style Florida 123 shield lets motorists know of the impending departure. Since a lot of traffic (regular and military) uses Florida 123 as a short-cut to get to Florida 85 northwest of Niceville, a well extended three-quarters of a mile left-turn lane exists to allow motorists the necessary room to queue for the turn. During peak hours in the afternoon this extended turn lane often fills quickly, and at times past capacity.

Northbound traffic along Florida 85 continues through a static green signal while traffic departing for Florida 123 north must wait for their phase of movement. The wait here can often get long during the afternoon peak as commuters leave from the Fort Walton Beach and Eglin areas heading toward Crestview and beyond. The abutments and pier of future Florida 123 north are in place awaiting the installation of the beams.

Photos from last weekend! I took a trip with ScottB to the town of Mariposa, on highway 49, in the western Sierra foothills. We explored old bridges and wildflowers and green hills and what have you, and a grand old time was had by all.

here is the first day.

By the side of a road called simply “Old Highway”. It is to the southwest of Mariposa, and branches off 140. Whether it is an old 140 alignment or not, no one knows (it isn’t 140 on my 1942 map). In any case, it is well worth driving.

“mariposa” is Spanish for “butterfly” – and here we find an example of one downtown!

A standard representative example of California’s official state flower.

Old sign find of the day. This FAS (Federal Aid Secondary) gantry dates to 1947. The Federal Aid program was used to build infrastructure like roadways and bridges, and the signs date to as far back as 1929, and as recently as the 1960s.

The suspension bridge across the Merced River. Just outside of Yosemite. While this is next to highway 140, it is not an old 140 alignment or anything – it’s just a bridge that leads to a campground.

Highway 49 north of Mariposa crosses the Merced River, after descending sharply down from the mountains.

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The newest section of freeway opened in El Paso yesterday, completing Spur 601.

Originally called the Inner Loop Freeway, Spur 601 was renamed the “Liberty Expressway” and it connects “Purple Heart Blvd” with the “Patriot Freeway” with an exit at “Constitution Avenue” for good measure. If this all sounds like the freeway system of a fictional city in the G.I. Joe Universe, it may have something to do with the fact that the road runs through the large army base of Fort Bliss and will be used by a lot of active troops. Recent base closures and realignments have meant that the number of personnel based at Fort Bliss has grown considerably. Construction on the first portion of the route began in 2007. A new method of financing called “pass-through” was used here, and it means the DOT can pay for the construction through semi-annual payments instead of entirely up-front.

El Paso’s next big freeway project will sit along Loop 375 along the Rio Grande River, and consists of adding toll lanes. Bidding for the project started last month. All of El Paso’s future large road projects, like almost all in Texas, are going to be tolled with the exception of those used primarily for the military.

Put the finishing touches on a major overhaul and update for the Maryland section of AARoads. Finally added photos dating from trips between August 2005 and July 2010, covering mostly the Interstate 95 corridor, Baltimore, Washington, and areas in between. Things updated within the Maryland Highway guides include:

• Maps covering Baltimore, Cecil and Harford Counties extracted from a geodatabase built of northeastern Maryland, including a shapefile created that covers some of the abandoned freeway proposals such as the defunct Interstate 70, the Windlass Freeway, the Jones Falls Expressway northern extension.
• A look at surface routes through Baltimore from several drives through the city during Summer 2010, including looks at Maryland 2, Maryland 25, Perring Parkway south, Maryland 129 north, Maryland 139 south, Maryland 144/Frederick Avenue west, Maryland 147 north, and various other smaller segments.
• An overhaul of all freeway pages, covering new Clearview-based sign assemblies on Interstates 83, 95, 395, 695, etc.
• New highway construction such as the I-95 Express Toll Lanes and the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
• Several road enthusiast items of interests including:

The new stack interchange between Interstates 95 & 695 east of Baltimore, including a stub for an eventual direct ramp with the new I-95 Express Toll Lanes.

A southbound look at the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

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at long last, I am back, with some photos for everyone … highway signs which showed up at Roy Reed’s gas and oil collectible swap meet, and then some scenery from the subsequent days, when I found I had some time on my hands and did a quick trip up to the Bay Area and Sacramento. enjoy!

This poor guide sign has been cut into three pieces – and one is missing. But still, this is the only ACSC diamond I have ever seen which mentions “Arizona State Highway” and, even more spectacularly, the Grand Canyon! Certainly unique.

After Roy’s, we explore many roads – not all of which go to any particular place.

Well, what do we have here? Oh, just the only known surviving cateyed sign in California! This stop sign dates to between 1934 and 1942, and is the first cateyed sign anyone’s seen since the mid-1990s. A miracle that it would survive… and it does!

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