The AARoads Blog

Photos from late August of this year, when Daniel Brim and I drove from California to New Mexico … in a moving van. Always fun doing three-point turns on narrow old alignments. We stopped at Antelope Canyon along the way – and this set will not include any pictures from there, as it ends just as we get there. The next batch will be the canyon itself.

Part of the collection of someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Well, the signs are visible to anyone from the public right-of-way, so you can go find them if you want! This style of directional sign, complete with glass reflectors, was used on high speed thoroughfares from 1933 to the early 50s.

Nevada state route 167 branches off of old US-91. The road is lit from the side by a truck stop immediately behind us, that serves Interstate 15.

The truck stop, now with actual truck.

The Virgin River Gorge – Arizona interstate route 15. Whereas old US-91 went around it, I-15 was blasted straight through, saving about 30 miles.

Fires in Los Angeles result in skies like this in Utah.

One from Dan, from the same general vicinity. His pictures can be found here. Go look, as his are generally like mine, except more awesome.

(more…)

More from my New Mexico trip of November 2008, including some actual New Mexico this time.

On the mountain pass between Chama, New Mexico, and Cumbres, Colorado – both states call this one highway 17. The sky was dark blue, just after sunrise – the snow is that bright, and there is just that little atmosphere, at 10,000 feet.

Sunset over the plains of northeast New Mexico. Old US-64 (now state highway 325) near Capulin Volcano.

An undisclosed location in northeast New Mexico, home to my friend Dale. Certainly no old signs to be found anywhere.

(more…)

Time for some photos from my trip from San Diego to eastern New Mexico and back, in November 2008. This batch is from the first day of my trip, and is heavily centered around Utah. Specifically: highway 95 in southeast Utah, crossing the Colorado River in red rock country.

The only button copy sign in Nevada. This one is very, very old.

Ominous clouds over old US-91 in southern Utah.

Red rock country. Utah, everybody.

Highway 95 at sunset.

Highway 95 somewhat past sunset. This wide-angle shot (about 140 degrees field of view!) is made possible by a fisheye lens and a rectilinear conversion tool. Large version of image is 7000 pixels wide!

(more…)

Finally got my chance to take the new South Bay Expressway (California 125) toll road this month, a November 2007-opened facility connecting California 54 near Sweetwater Reservoir with California 905 (Otay Mesa Road) near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Its a sleek road, providing four lanes of concrete with sweeping vistas of desert hills and suburban sprawl. Tolls are levied at all interchanges and the minimum for Fasttrak holders is 75 cents and cash customers of $3.00. Traveling the entire length of the 8.6-mile road entails a $3.75 toll for Fasttrak holders and $4.50 for cash customers.

Heading south on California 125 near Sweetwater Reservoir.

The road is operated by the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) toll consortium, with concessions lasting until 2042. In addition to connecting California 54 and Interstate 8 to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, the toll road serves a number of developments including the Otay Ranch Town Center, Village Walk, and Eastlake Village. The road was built with these developments in mind and drivers will notice that blended landscape in places where new buildings and the road come together.

Approaching Exit 7 (Otay Lakes Road) on California 125 south.

The south end presently concludes with California 125 ending at a traffic light with California 905 (Otay Mesa Road). California 905 represents an east-west route linking Interstates 5 and 805 with the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Upgrading of the highway to limited access standards is currently underway as part of a $619-million project.

A main line toll plaza for the South Bay Expressway resides near Brown Field and the end with California 905 (Otay Mesa Road). Fastrak account holders continue through as freeway speeds while cash paying customers must depart and enter a conventional toll plaza.

Presently California 905 exists as a freeway between Interstates 5 and 805 and the POE northward to Airway Road. Work on construction a new six-lane freeway between the existing freeways was recently partitioned from Phase 1 into separate Phase 1A and 1B projects due to funding constraints.

The at-grade intersection with Airway Road was eliminated by July 2009 as crews build a new roadbed for California 905.

Phase 1A involves building a new freeway to the south of existing Otay Mesa Road from Britannia Boulevard eastward to a merge with the existing freeway at Siempre Viva Road. Work on this project is well underway as of July 2009.

Looking south from Otay Mesa Road at construction of California 905 above La Media Road.

Phase 1B continues construction of the new freeway west from Britannia Boulevard to the Otay Freeway at Interstates 5 and 805. Additional phase to follow include Phase 2, improvements at CA-905 and I-805’s junction, Phase 3, building of a high-speed interchange between the South Bay Expressway and CA-905, and Phase 4, completion of the Heritage Interchange ramp.

Sources:

• SR 905 Fact Sheet

this is the hideous first post of the AARoads Shield Gallery blog … well, it’ll be part of AARoads’s general On the Road blog, but it’ll be the one visible by default by people who click on the “Blog” link on the shield gallery.  I will be posting photos of my driving adventures across the country (and, occasion, around the world!) – it will focus on highway shields, with the occasional excursion for scenery and old bridges.

I’ll be posting photos old and new, and here to start us off is a sample of a highway sign.  Yep, it’s painted directly on the road, somewhere around Amboy on old 66 in California.

Expansion along Interstate 15 within San Diego County continues in the form of widened Managed or HOT Lanes both in capacity and in length. The freeway project entails the freeway from the merge with California 163 (Cabrillo Freeway) northward to junction California 78. Upon completion, Interstate 15 will vary between 12 and 14 overall lanes.

Looking northward at the Poway Road off-ramp, the current one-way two-lane Managed Lanes travel down the middle of Interstate 15. Work here will require crews to expand Interstate 15 outwards to accommodate the wider median. Photo taken 11/10/08.  

From south to north, work will be completed in stages. Between California 163 and California 56 (Ted Williams Freeway), dubbed “Stage South”, initial work is underway involving the expansion of the present two reversible roadways into four overall lanes that flow in both directions. Timetables for completion of Stage South are still to be determined at this time.

Toll rates vary depending upon time of day and traffic volume for Interstate 15’s Managed Lanes. FasTrak transponders are required for patrons of the HOT lanes that are not considered to be a carpool. Carpools of two or more people are exempt from paying tolls. Photo taken 11/10/08.

Further north, between Exit 19 (California 56) and Exit 26 (West Bernardo Drive), work is further along on the building of the dual direction HOT lanes, both of which travel along the median of Interstate 15. Completion of the Managed lane project is already finished between California 56 and a point just north of the soon-to-be opened Rancho Bernardo Transit Station. Work further north on “Middle Stage A & B” will continue through next year to Exit 28 (Centre City Parkway).

Traveling northward through the future Rancho Bernardo Transit Station, a facility that will only be accessible via the Managed lanes. Note the elevated diamond interchange with full access to both directions of the HOT lanes. Photo taken 11/10/08.

“Stage North” involves the final section of the Interstate 15 Managed Lane project, from Exit 28 northward to California 78 (Exit 32) at Escondido. The familiar Oleander lined-median remains in place along the freeway through this stretch, awaiting the initial work of the HOT lane extension. The work schedule is to be determined on this phase of the work presently.

Further north near the future Del Lago Transit Station ramps. The Managed lanes will merge back onto Interstate 15 north of the elevated diamond interchange with Del Lago. Work further north has yet to commence. Photo taken 11/10/08.

Sources:

• I-15 Fact Sheet – City Council District 5, City of San Diego.

For movie buffs, you may be surprised to know that Los Angeles’ Terminal Island Freeway is used quite often for freeway or highway related scenes set in locations nowhere near Southern California. The reasons being is because of its general location from movie studios, so its easy to get to; relatively light traffic, so its easy to close for filming; and an urban/industrial landscape, so it can simulate many different settings.

In the most recent episode of the hit NBC series Heroes, a freeway scene was shot where the character “Nathan Petrelli” and his wife are driving in a convertable at night. First Petrelli and his wife are talking when a black suv approaches from behind. As the camera angles shift, a large lift-bridge appears in the background. The next scene sees the two get rear-ended by the SUV, with Petrelli ascending unexpectedly to safety. Following that dramatic event, the convertable caroms into a freeway off-ramp gore point, with his wife still in the car. The camera pans outward revealing a button copy overhead with “New Dock Street” on it. Heroes moves on to a hospital scene next…

This was the gore point hit by Nathan Petrelli’s convertable in Heroes.

The “New York City” freeway in question from Heroes was actually that of the Terminal Island Freeway, otherwise numbered California 47. Tell tale signs of the Terminal Island Freeway in movies start with the Shulyer F. Heim Bridge. The Helm Bridge is a lift bridge with steel superstructure that spans the harbor between Terminal Island and the city of Los Angeles. Its dark steel is similar to that of Interstate 280 in Newark, New Jersey, and just a handful of other freeway bridges throughout the country. So thats giveaway number one.

. Tell tale signs of the Terminal Island Freeway in movies start with the Helm Bridge. The is a lift bridge with steel superstructure that spans the harbor between Terminal Island and the city of Los Angeles. Its dark steel is similar to that of in Newark, New Jersey, and just a handful of other freeway bridges throughout the country. So thats giveaway number one.. Tell tale signs of the Terminal Island Freeway in movies start with the Helm Bridge. The is a lift bridge with steel superstructure that spans the harbor between Terminal Island and the city of Los Angeles. Its dark steel is similar to that of in Newark, New Jersey, and just a handful of other freeway bridges throughout the country. So thats giveaway number one.Giveaway number 2 is the industrial background that seems to repeat with each scene. That is because the freeway is just 3.7 miles in length between the south end at Ocean Boulevard and the north end at Willow Street. There are only so many segments of Terminal Island Freeway between exits that can be filmed without catching glimpses of the freeway guide signs.

In movies and tv, signs are almost rarely shown to add to the illusion of location. So you just have to recognize buildings, landscapes, bridges, interchanges, etc to truely recognize an area. That is how you go about recognizing the Terminal Island Freeway in film, such as Being John Malkovich. In that 1999-film, the the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 95 signs props used in the movie were posted ahead of the Helm Bridge. However during Heroes, the recognition was made easier by panning far enough out to show the New Dock Street exit sign and off-ramp, which L.A. freeway experts knows is the last exit of the Terminal Island Freeway southbound before it ends at Ocean Boulevard.

A story for another time is California 47’s Vincent Thomas Bridge, a suspension bridge made equally famous from films. That bridge connects Terminal Island with the 110 at San Pedro…

We’ve all heard of U.S. 50 in Nevada as the loneliest road in America (even though some might argue that certain other federal highways in Nevada — such as U.S. 6 or U.S. 93 — are more deserving of this title), and we all know that one of the busiest freeways in the country is Interstate 10/Santa Monica Freeway just west of downtown Los Angeles. However, did you know that only 140 miles north of downtown Los Angeles lies a highway that can gain the mantle of busiest and loneliest two-lane highway in the state? The highway I am talking about is California 58, which is busy as any freeway (including the two-lane sections near U.S. 395) between California 99 and Interstate 15. But the section of California 58 west of Interstate 5, especially west of McKittrick, takes the opposite prize: loneliest. On a recent summer evening around 4:30-5:00 p.m., California 58 eastbound from California 229 to California 33 was so empty of cars that I only passed 11 in the other direction… a distance of nearly 70 miles! No other state highway in California carries less traffic for that great distance in my journeys… and trust me, I’ve driven quite a few state routes in California. Even the routes in Death Valley carried more traffic, as do many county routes in the Central Valley. While the central section of California 58 through the Carrizo Plain is long and straight as an arrow, the mountains on either side of it offer some winding, twisting driving that probably keeps the average driver from enjoying this desolate yet beautiful stretch of road. For the hardy, California 58 is a winner. If you are eager to see photos of California 58, write me, and I’ll think about moving it higher on the priority list. Cheers!

This is the first, test, post. It is categorized under California and West Coast