This past weekend afforded me with the opportunity to check on the status of some upper Gulf Coast road projects related to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The August 29, 2005 landfall of the historic storm not only devastated the New Orleans and Mississippi coastal area homes and businesses, but also washed out several key stretches of highway infrastructure. Included in the storm's fury was the destruction of the U.S. [...]
Officials hoped to open Interstate 99 on December 2, but a delay in the installation of highway signs pushed that date back to a time between December 12 and 19. When it opens, northbound drivers will be able to seamlessly travel from Bald Eagle to State College Skytop / Port Matilda along new freeway. Southbound drivers however must wait until mid-2008 to fully use the freeway, as crews continue to [...]
It was 1992 when I first noticed large mounds of dirt rising within the cloverleaf ramps of the Interstate 95 interchange with Delaware 7 and then fledgling-Delaware 1. The mounds were created in anticipation of a planned interchange upgrade between the Delaware Turnpike and new SR 1 Turnpike. 15 years later, the mounds remain, covered with vegetation and even a growing tree if I remember correctly. Delaware 1 [...]
For those keeping track, add Illinois to the states that have adopted Clearview font on their highway signs. An informal list of states using the font include: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas in essentially all new sign installations Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida, Vermont, California and now Illinois that sporadically use Clearview. Interstate 57 north and 70 east approaching their split. Even the Interstate shields include Clearview numbers. Thanks goes to Kerrie Field [...]
Over the last decade or so, the state of Kentucky has taken it upon itself to rename or augment the names of its extensive parkway system. New names honor politicians prominently in the names and trailblazers of the parkways, roadways that otherwise have no numbered designation (at least that is publicly displayed). I personally find these designations somewhat confusing, as there are no numbered counterparts and the names don't chime [...]
I've spent the last 6 weeks or so working through a mammoth backlog going back to 2004 in an effort to update existing pages and create new sections of the website. Now online is a fledgling Michigan page with a handful of photos from our Interstate 80 trip in September 2005 and Carter Buchanan's November 2004 Midwest trip. These trips also represent the bulk of the Ohio updates that now [...]
Interstate 355 (Veterans Memorial Tollway) opens to traffic on Monday November 12, 2007 between Interstates 80 and 55. The 12.5-mile freeway was built in three years after more than 10 years of delays caused by legal and funding issues. The 2005 toll increases throughout the Illinois Tollway network helped pay for completion of the $738 million route that includes a 1.25-mile Des Plaines River Valley bridge, the second longest span in the state. [...]
One of the major changes in American roads these days are the building of toll roads or addition of toll infrastructure to pre-existing freeways. No more evident is that then in the capital city of Texas and its metropolitan area. With so few freeways serving the area, a plan was needed to deal with the growing congestion on Interstate 35, the primary freeway linking Austin with points south and north, [...]
You may have noticed that the AARoads home page looks different or that AARoadtrips now redirects visitors to AARoads. These are a few changes that we have had in the works for a long time now and is part of an overall reorganization that we have wanted. AARoadtrips guides are now split between Mid-Altantic Roads @ AARoads and Midwest Roads @ AARoads. LoneStarRoads is also now again a part of [...]
Under construction since February 2005, the newest segment of the ever-growing Dallas North Tollway opened to drivers on September 29, 2007. With the 9.6-mile extension, the toll road travels 32 miles between downtown Dallas and U.S. 380 at Frisco. Traveling over the new Texas 121 freeway along the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway. Texas 121 is part of a future freeway/toll road under construction to link [...]
