The AARoads Blog

We pick up in Iowa, where we decide to stop heading east in order to get to New Mexico. We see flooding along the Missouri River, and catch a thunderstorm in Kansas.

Minimum maintenance road.

Flooding causes standing water. Standing water causes mosquitoes and other insects. A fresh source of food means the dragonflies grow fat and happy. This one was about three inches long, with a five inch wingspan.

We’ve got ourselves a good old fashioned lightning storm. Western Kansas.

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The longest swath of the Fourth of July trip that we’ll feature in one set of photos: about 800 miles covered in this burst. Continuing on US-212 across eastern Montana, to get to South Dakota, and then driving through the Black Hills at the time of day when they are the blackest. We then continue into Nebraska, and drive US-20 east all the way to Iowa.

Endless fields of yellow flowers are the most prominent feature of the eastern Montana landscape. All the way across the state on US-212, from I-90 eastward, featured miles upon miles of bright colors.

The Milky Way. A 90 second exposure.

Very early dawn in Nebraska. Above this house: a noctilucent cloud – one of the rarest kinds to see!

Slightly later dawn.

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East along I-80 in Nebraska, then north along I-29 into South Dakota, then westbound on I-90 – all the while looking for old signs.

First thing in the morning. US highway 30 eastbound in western Nebraska. We follow 30 for a while because it’s a mile or two away from I-80 and more likely to have old signs. It may or may not be rather cold.

Catch of the day! Over and over again, I scoured downtown Omaha for old interstate highway markers, and by the third time, I finally found one. This one was installed in 1963 or so, whenever I-480 was built through here along old US-75.

The shield was in an industrial area just south of US-275, and it was replaced in April, 2009. There is one 1957-spec interstate shield left in Nebraska that anyone knows about. It is an I-80.

The blue US-77 bridge in Sioux City. South Dakota is the far side, and Nebraska is where I’m taking the picture from.

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Here are photos from Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. I woke up in Wyoming after being awake for 80+ hours, experiencing near-total biological failure and thus getting a lease on a $26 motel room and my continued sanity.

I headed south to visit my friend Brian, then was about to turn back west to take photos of the Rockies… before noting that a Snowstorm of Usual Occurrence was blowing through and it would be at least two days before the roads were somewhat less than total failure. Thus, it became a frolic through the farmlands for a few days.

A wintry evening in Colorado.

Foggy night in farmland Kansas.

Hey look, an old sign. I happened upon this one in the middle of the night, and got the long-exposure shot out in the middle of the frosted fields.

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Spent the final day, or what I thought was to be the final day, mainly around the Elkhorn vicinity of west Omaha. We also took a short drive northwest to Fremont to document the freewayization of U.S. 275 to U.S. 30.

As I wrote about in a previous post, NDOR (Nebraska Department of Roads) is indeed upgrading all of U.S. 275 into a freeway from Fremont southeast to West Dodge Road (Nebraska Link 28B) at west Omaha. Progress is much further along than I anticipated as interchanges are already open at Blondo Street and Military Avenue, and work is partially complete at the east junction with U.S. 30 and U.S. 30 Business. Additional work is underway involving what I believe to be constructing a bridge over Luther Road and the parallel BNSF Railroad, and building a diamond interchange with Morningside Road within the Fremont vicinity. Work is expected to be completed on the Morningside Road and U.S. 30 interchanges by Fall 2007. I am unsure about the Luther Road grade separation.

West Dodge Road’s connection between U.S. 275 (240th Street) and U.S. 6 & Nebraska 31 (204th Street) is indeed signed as solely Nebraska Link 28B. Interchanges along the highway involve 228th Street (diamond) and Skyline Drive (partial-cloverleaf).

U.S. 275 overtakes the freeway from West Dodge Road (Nebraska Link 28B) via a pair of partial “Y” interchanges. West Dodge Road continues west into new suburban areas west of 240th Street. U.S. 275 continues north to the Blondo Street exit and Waterloo.

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Started the day in west Omaha on U.S. 275 and U.S. 6 (West Dodge Road) and quickly departed for Minneapolis by way of Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Worthington, Albert Lea, and Faribault to the Twin Cities.

As written about in a previous post, the West Dodge Road freeway is now wholly complete between U.S. 275 and Interstate 680. The final portion of this project are the twin viaducts carrying U.S. 6 high above the original West Dodge Road between 132nd Street and Interstate 680. The elevated roadways are dubbed the U.S. 6 Express Lanes while the original West Dodge Road continues below as an at-grade facility, serving movements to 120th Street, 114th Street, and the Old Mill area.

U.S. 6 splits with West Dodge Road for a pair of six-lane viaducts west of the 120th Street intersection. Before construction of the elevated roadways, West Dodge Road met 120th Street at a diamond interchange. That interchange was removed and replaced with an at-grade intersection.

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Work involving the West Dodge Road project in Omaha enters the final stages… At stake is the upgrading of U.S. 6 (West Dodge Road) to a full freeway from Interstate 680 west to 132nd Street in west Omaha by replacing the surface expressway alignment with a pair of three-lane viaducts above and parallel to the original roadway.

Before construction, West Dodge Road existed as a six-lane expressway complete with east and westbound frontage roads. Interchanges included a full diamond at 120th Street and a folded-diamond interchange at 108th Street. The intersection with 114th Street was signalized among others.

The elevated express lanes will bypass 114th and 120th Streets to provide a seamless connection with the U.S. 6 freeway west of 132nd Street. Original West Dodge Road will remain in use for local traffic; frontage roads will be relocated to accommodate the new elevated structures and the 120th Street diamond interchange will be dismantled and replaced with a signalized intersection.

Ramps to the express lanes will tie into West Dodge Road west of 120th Street and east of 108th Street. The elevated lanes will descends west of 120th Street onto the preexisting freeway. Widening of that freeway coincides with the project to bring U.S. 6 up to nine overall lanes west to the 132nd Street interchange.

Work commenced in 2003 on the $100 million project that is expected to be completed this year, a full year ahead of schedule. The westbound elevated lanes opened to traffic on July 27, 2006; eastbound lanes opened to drivers on October 13, 2006. Both viaducts were originally slated for completion by August of 2007. Landscaping and other work involving completion the original West Dodge Road westbound lanes and the 114th Street intersection are all that remains on the 5-year project.

Further west, interchanges were constructed along U.S. 6 between 2005 and 2006 to bring the entire stretch of West Dodge Road between Interstate 680 and U.S. 275 up to freeway standards. Included is work involving the upgrading of U.S. 275 (240th Street) and West Dodge Road’s (Nebraska Link 28B) intersection into a full interchange.

West Dodge Road constitutes the easternmost segment of an overall freeway in the works between Interstate 680 and Omaha with Fremont to the northwest. U.S. 275 continues the limited access highway northward from Nebraska Line 28B (West Dodge Road west of U.S. 6 & Nebraska 31 (204th Street) northwest to its merge with Nebraska 64 (Maple Road). The pair continue northwest to Valley.

Various segments of the alignment between Waterloo, Valley, and Fremont exist as a freeway or a freeway in waiting. When all is said and done, the freeway will stretch east from U.S. 30 and 77 at Fremont southeast along U.S. 275 to West Dodge Road and Interstate 680.

U.S. 6 leaves West Dodge Road for 204th Street with Nebraska 31 south. The two highways venture south to Gretna. Nebraska Link 28B continues West Dodge Road to junction U.S. 275 (240th Street). Photo taken 09/05/05.

Returning eastward toward Elkhorn, U.S. 6 (West Dodge Road) nears the interchange with 180th Street, seen here under construction on September 5, 2005. The split intersection with 192nd Street was also upgraded to an interchange.

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