I headed out to El Paso on Monday to attempt to get some updated photos and add to our coverage around the city. Key word was attempted – due to an extreme monsoonal flow, most of the photo opportunities were rained out.
Greenout has come to Texas – all of the older exit numbers on US 54 were covered with Clearview greenout on both the Exit tab and the number tab. It reminded me of some of the things done by Caltrans – photos are on the new US 54 page. I am still trying to find out why the numbers were changed (rather than beginning with zero, they now begin with 20).
The 80 MPH speed limit starts around Mile 61 and is very well signed. I’ve also added more photos to IH-110 and IH-10 around El Paso, and have a few that I could salvage from Loop 375 to be added in the near future.
Flooding was already becoming a problem on Monday, and there are many street closures and partial closures of IH-10 in El Paso. The Rio Grande is at it’s highest level since the 1950s, threatening US 85 which was already partially flooded when I drove it.
Later this year (and with better weather) I’ll attempt another El Paso run. After these photos are done, I have a stack of IH-10 westbound photos around Houston to post.
Thanks for coming out to cover! However, the weather was quite unusual for us here in El Paso. It was quite freakish to say the least. Additionally, a part of I-10 West about 2 miles east of the Downtown Mesa/Texas 20 exit was shutdown numerous times due to excessive flooding. In fact, when I headed to work at UT El Paso Thursday, Aug 3 2006, in the morning (I live near the airport, by the way) it was still flooded there; as so was the gas station just off to the side.
You’ve got that right! I braved the early part of the Paisano flooding at Executive Park (US 85) and IH-10 was already getting flooded along the shoulders along parts of the road, mostly toward NM west of downtown.
It was like driving through some of the worst storms I’ve seen in Houston.
Those day/night speed limit signs remind me that back when I was a kid, before the energy crisis in the early 1970s (when speed limits were dropped to 55), Texas had day/night speed limit signs with an interesting twist. On the day speed limit sign, the upper part that said “SPEED LIMIT” was reflective, but the part with the numeral for the day speed limit was night. So if you were driving at night you’d see something like “SPEED LIMIT NIGHT 65.” Pretty cool idea — they probably should do it again.