Some notes from a drive through South Alabama today: Recent construction on the next leg of Foley Beach Express' northward extension is already opened. The roadway stems north from Baldwin County 28 to Baldwin County 32. Signed as Baldwin County 83 and not the Foley Beach Express, the new four-lane highway travels 1.5 miles across Baldwin County 28 west to Baldwin County 32 opposite Lehman [...]
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 [...]
A recent visit to State Line, Mississippi revealed changes made by 2007 to U.S. 45, Mississippi 42, and Mississipi 57. This small town derives its name from its proximity to the Alabama state line on the Greene and Wayne County lines. Mississippi 42 enters State Line as a two lane road from Richton to the west; Mississippi 57 connects the community with Leakesville to the south; U.S. 45 joins the [...]
An extension of the Mobile County 39 (McDonald Road) divided highway constructed in the mid-2000s will take place on May 20, 2009. County Highway 39 was realigned eastward to meet Interstate 10 at a new six-ramp partial-cloverleaf interchange that opened January 12, 2005. Presently the four-lane road ends at U.S. 90 by Irvington. Work began December 2007 on a $10.2 million extension of County Highway 39 from a folded-diamond interchange with U.S. [...]
Coming to fruition within the last few years are two new state highway alignments in Harrison County, Mississippi. The first is Mississippi 605, a highway designated along the previously unnumbered Lorraine and Cowan Roads between U.S. 90 and Interstate 10 and northward onto a new four-lane facility to Mississippi 67 at Traditions Parkway. Second is the new four-lane alignment of Mississippi 67, a 19-mile route with expresswaylike characteristics between U.S. [...]
Took a ride to south Baldwin yesterday and checked out the status of road work at the current north end of the Foley Beach Express. According to a WKRG report http://www.wkrg.com/alabama/article/another_hurricane_evacuation_route/17752/ from August of last year, work on the $26 million project to extend the four-lane roadway will take 5 to 7 years and initial construction involves two miles. Well after a field check, only 1.5 miles of new road [...]
Speaking of carbon copying signs, perhaps it is about time that Interstate 10 guide signs in Mobile County, Alabama reflect Biloxi and/or New Orleans? Pascagoula made sense when Interstate 10 was originally built, because the freeway defaulted onto U.S. 90 at the state line for many years before Mississippi completed its portion. Nowadays, Pascagoula makes little sense, as Interstate 10 travels through Moss Point, Pascagoula's neighbor to the north, and U.S. 90, [...]
Every time I see a Wilmington News Journal sign tidbit such as today's http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090112/NEWS/90112006/-1/updates?GID=C1R9A4E9Z/HpnFG4+iSdxRnJNbSThsoydRJACoK+G9I%3D, I know that DelDOT is yet again carbon copying signs that usually don't need replacing in their current form (but should be updated to reflect new information, which they will not be). All the while the state budget continues to run at a deficit and the economic recession continues to worsen: Work on overhead traffic signs [...]
I suspect with the increased usage of GPS/Navigation units in cars and trucks, that more and more drivers will rely upon these gadgets over anything else to get around. Not only will they help phase out the paper map industry as we know it, but eventually I see them phasing out the need for many of the signed routes that we have in our cities today. California already sort of [...]
Barricades were removed on the latest stretch of Interstate 485 to open for motorists in the northern Charlotte area yesterday. What was expected to be completed in March 2007 opened without any fanfare by midday between North Carolina 16 (Brookshire Boulevard) and Interstate 77 / North Carolina 115 (Old Statesville Road). The 5.5 mile stretch completes the northwest quadrant of the Charlotte beltway, leaving the unconstructed northeast quadrant as the [...]
