Clusterfucked interchanges

[LM117]

Nothing to really speak of regarding Danville, but I hate the NC-147/US-15/501 interchange in Durham, NC. I have to commute there a lot since our primary care doctor is at one of Duke's clinics on Pickett Road.

....

That entire area was always a pain in the arse. I lived on Erwin Road just east of Anderson Street from 1995 to 1998 and getting from I-85 to my apartment was a perpetual nuisance, with the portion south of Durham (heading to or from Charlotte) being the worst because NC-147 ended at 15/501 back then and everything else right around there required going through too many traffic lights. I know it's better now.

The worst part about that interchange (besides the weaving involved) is that very sharp curve at the end of the ramp going from NC-147 South to 15/501 South. There are no signs there warning people about that sharp curve and I almost flipped over when I went through there for the very first time last year. I was practically standing on the brake pedal. Scared the shit outta me.

That's the only thing I dread about my trips to Durham...well, other than the mind-numbing drive on NC-86 between Danville and Hillsborough since I usually get stuck behind a convoy of trucks more often than not.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Minneapolis's worst is I-94/35W. That interchange has sharp curves on both ends of I-35W, several messy left exits and entrances with short acceleration lanes, the traffic on the NB 35W-WB 94 ramp frequently backs up all the way onto the mainline, and this spills over onto the adjacent city streets.

[silverback1065]

every exit on 279 and 376 in the pittsburgh area

[broadhurst04]

Nothing to really speak of regarding Danville, but I hate the NC-147/US-15/501 interchange in Durham, NC. I have to commute there a lot since our primary care doctor is at one of Duke's clinics on Pickett Road.

....

The worst part about that interchange (besides the weaving involved) is that very sharp curve at the end of the ramp going from NC-147 South to 15/501 South. There are no signs there warning people about that sharp curve and I almost flipped over when I went through there for the very first time last year. I was practically standing on the brake pedal. Scared the shit outta me.

That's the only thing I dread about my trips to Durham...well, other than the mind-numbing drive on NC-86 between Danville and Hillsborough since I usually get stuck behind a convoy of trucks more often than not.

I just looked at that interchange on Google Street View. Looks like they tried to fit a cloverleaf in where there wasn't room for one.

[LM117]

Nothing to really speak of regarding Danville, but I hate the NC-147/US-15/501 interchange in Durham, NC. I have to commute there a lot since our primary care doctor is at one of Duke's clinics on Pickett Road.

....

The worst part about that interchange (besides the weaving involved) is that very sharp curve at the end of the ramp going from NC-147 South to 15/501 South. There are no signs there warning people about that sharp curve and I almost flipped over when I went through there for the very first time last year. I was practically standing on the brake pedal. Scared the shit outta me.

That's the only thing I dread about my trips to Durham...well, other than the mind-numbing drive on NC-86 between Danville and Hillsborough since I usually get stuck behind a convoy of trucks more often than not.

I just looked at that interchange on Google Street View. Looks like they tried to fit a cloverleaf in where there wasn't room for one.

That was my impression as well.

[jeffandnicole]

What are some interchanges in your state/city that always seem to be completely clusterfucked?

ColossalBlocks, what are your your examples?

I don't know if I've ever seen him actually answer his own questions. Pretty annoying, imo.

[ColossalBlocks]

Nothing to really speak of regarding Danville, but I hate the NC-147/US-15/501 interchange in Durham, NC. I have to commute there a lot since our primary care doctor is at one of Duke's clinics on Pickett Road.

PS: For those wondering why I travel 60+ miles for a primary doctor, the healthcare in Danville fucking sucks (like most everything else in this godforsaken town) and the local hospital is one of the worst hospitals in Virginia. I'm definitely not the only one that drives miles for decent healthcare.

Speaking of Danville, why did you move there if the town is a shithole?

It wasn't really my choice. We were all living together. My grandmother had a brother living there, who had lung cancer, so she wanted to move to be close to him. We came here in 2011. She ended up suffering a massive stroke and passed away here at the house in 2014. Her brother died a year later in 2015. Neither she nor her brother were fond of the town, either.

I'm originally from eastern NC and if I had a way right now, I'd move out in a heartbeat.

Ahh, sorry for your losses.

[JMAN_WiS&S]

I-94 & I-494/694 Cloverleaf in Woodbury MN.

[kphoger]

Minneapolis's worst is I-94/35W. That interchange has sharp curves on both ends of I-35W, several messy left exits and entrances with short acceleration lanes, the traffic on the NB 35W-WB 94 ramp frequently backs up all the way onto the mainline, and this spills over onto the adjacent city streets.

I agree.  The last time I drove through there (headed from Wichita to Blaine), it was after rush hour, so I was very glad to have traffic be reasonable.

[LM117]

Nothing to really speak of regarding Danville, but I hate the NC-147/US-15/501 interchange in Durham, NC. I have to commute there a lot since our primary care doctor is at one of Duke's clinics on Pickett Road.

PS: For those wondering why I travel 60+ miles for a primary doctor, the healthcare in Danville fucking sucks (like most everything else in this godforsaken town) and the local hospital is one of the worst hospitals in Virginia. I'm definitely not the only one that drives miles for decent healthcare.

Speaking of Danville, why did you move there if the town is a shithole?

It wasn't really my choice. We were all living together. My grandmother had a brother living there, who had lung cancer, so she wanted to move to be close to him. We came here in 2011. She ended up suffering a massive stroke and passed away here at the house in 2014. Her brother died a year later in 2015. Neither she nor her brother were fond of the town, either.

I'm originally from eastern NC and if I had a way right now, I'd move out in a heartbeat.

Ahh, sorry for your losses.

Thanks.

[plain]

Around here I would have to say the interchanges at either end of the I-95/I-64 overlap, take your pick.

The worst I've actually had the non-pleasure of driving through though is the Bruckner interchange in New York and the I-10/US 90 BUS/US 90 interchange in New Orleans 

[Tonytone]

I-95 thru Chester, Pa no left shoulder, Pa's suicide ramps and a zipline barrier altogether makes traffic backup. Also noted that people dont move over to let merging traffic on the highway so they just slowdown and cause the backup for miles.

[Brandon]

I-95 thru Chester, Pa no left shoulder, Pa's suicide ramps and a zipline barrier altogether makes traffic backup. Also noted that people dont move over to let merging traffic on the highway so they just slowdown and cause the backup for miles.

Clusterfucked freeway, not a clusterfucked interchange.

[roadman65]

I-135 and I-235 north of Wichita as the ramp going NB on I-135 to I-235 SB gets backed up real bad during peak travel times.

[Tonytone]

I-95 thru Chester, Pa no left shoulder, Pa's suicide ramps and a zipline barrier altogether makes traffic backup. Also noted that people dont move over to let merging traffic on the highway so they just slowdown and cause the backup for miles.

Clusterfucked freeway, not a clusterfucked interchange.

The interchange with the ramps is what causes the bad weaving....

[Roadgeek2500]

One could consider the I-95 / I-76 interchange in Philly a major clusterfuck. Missing several movements due to the former both-direction tollbooth, and, most importantly, there's a traffic light at Front Street between 76 West and 95 South.

[formulanone]

I-476 and I-81 in Scranton strikes me as an elegant exercise in bureaucracy with all the tangled complexity of my vas deferens.

For sure, there's topography to get around; yet it seems like either a planned extension of I-476 just never occurred, somebody didn't want to give up the sweet lucre by installing a time-wasting tollbooth at the end, and nobody wanted it to connect directly to I-81 and US Route 11 for fear of missing Scranton by a mile.

Or something else? I'm not an expert in this area.

[ColossalBlocks]

I-90 to I-5.

Washington's official cluster fuck is the 167/18 interchange...

18-167 is annoying, but not as bad for sheer person-hours of delay, I think...

I suspect you may be right. But the 90/5 junction isn't much of a "clusterfuck". It provides ramps for all movements, the ramps are all well-designed and are capable of supporting high speeds and lots of volume. Just turns out that today's volume is too much for it.

I think of the 167/18 junction as a true clusterfuck because the whole thing, from start to finish, was very poorly executed. It takes up a titanic amount of land, yet it provides low capacity movements in limited directions.

ColossalBlocks, please define clusterfuck. There seems to be too many ideas of what it could mean.

I mean't it with two things. Like say, an interchange with so many ramps leading in too many different directions. Or say an outdated interchange in an area seeing traffic increases every day.

[DeaconG]

I-4 and FL 408 in Orlando...still partially a trumpet along with those two new ramps they built, but still a mess. The I-4 Ultimate HOT lanes are also including the buildout of this interchange and the elimination of the rest of the trumpet, which can't happen soon enough.

Also, I-4 and Florida's Turnpike is a major pain in the ass at rush hour and the Beachline/Turnpike/OBT clusterfuck is well...a clusterfuck!

[Max Rockatansky]

I-4 and FL 408 in Orlando...still partially a trumpet along with those two new ramps they built, but still a mess. The I-4 Ultimate HOT lanes are also including the buildout of this interchange and the elimination of the rest of the trumpet, which can't happen soon enough.

Also, I-4 and Florida's Turnpike is a major pain in the ass at rush hour and the Beachline/Turnpike/OBT clusterfuck is well...a clusterfuck!

From the 408 they actually back up sometimes for a mile or two from the ramp heading onto I-4.  Usually you can blow by people in the left lane but you always had to look out for someone getting fed up and jumping back into traffic suddenly.

[DeaconG]

I-4 and FL 408 in Orlando...still partially a trumpet along with those two new ramps they built, but still a mess. The I-4 Ultimate HOT lanes are also including the buildout of this interchange and the elimination of the rest of the trumpet, which can't happen soon enough.

Also, I-4 and Florida's Turnpike is a major pain in the ass at rush hour and the Beachline/Turnpike/OBT clusterfuck is well...a clusterfuck!

From the 408 they actually back up sometimes for a mile or two from the ramp heading onto I-4.  Usually you can blow by people in the left lane but you always had to look out for someone getting fed up and jumping back into traffic suddenly.

Too true, and the northbound ramp from I-4 (the old trumpet) will create backups too; inside the trumpet you will slow to a crawl while folks jockey for position. We're gonna have to wait at least two years for that to get resolved...and not soon enough in my opinion.

Not including a modification/rebuild with the Turnpike at I-4 was borderline criminal in my opinion, the Turnpike will 'eventually' get to it but in the meantime we suffer. I used to work in that area two years ago and I could guarantee a major backup at that interchange during rush hour all the way down to Kirkman. If they'd have built C/D lanes from the Conroy Blvd exit south to just past where the Turnpike crosses over it would have alleviated it, but no, we can't do that...

[silverback1065]

I-476 and I-81 in Scranton strikes me as an elegant exercise in bureaucracy with all the tangled complexity of my vas deferens.

For sure, there's topography to get around; yet it seems like either a planned extension of I-476 just never occurred, somebody didn't want to give up the sweet lucre by installing a time-wasting tollbooth at the end, and nobody wanted it to connect directly to I-81 and US Route 11 for fear of missing Scranton by a mile.

Or something else? I'm not an expert in this area.

we have a winner!  that has to be the worst design i've ever seen, but i'm sure someone will mention another pennsylvania highway will be worse.

[Arkansastravelguy]

I'll nominate the 55 cloverleaf at Crump Blvd for Tennessee


iPhone

[CrystalWalrein]

Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. I'll say it before and I'll say it again.

ACE exits 9 and 28 certainly qualify as well.

[jakeroot]

I'll say it before

Too late.