Second batch from July of 2008, featuring mainly US-82 and US-78 in Arkansas and Mississippi.
Along US-82 in southwest Arkansas is a wild animal farm. Here is a half-horse half-zebra creature.
Some of the last cutouts in Mississippi. There is a US-45 somewhere, too.
Extra tall sunset, somewhere approaching Tupelo on old US-78.
A bird on a stop sign.
Following US-82 in southern Arkansas, and looking to the north at this railroad bridge.
I don’t think that’s quite what they intended to say.
More from the farm – here is a buffalo.
An actual zebra, and several other creatures.
Gotta keep up with that llama farm in Nebraska.
The trees haven’t even been cleared yet – but, someday, this will be I-69.
Yes, that tends to be the case…
Arkansas uses classic US highway shields.
“5 tracks” is rare enough – and here is one with button copy!
Several of the five tracks, and switch engine number 1156.
Somehow, in the other direction – there’s six tracks? I am not sure how the arithmetic works out.
An old reflector embedded in a US-82 bridge from the early 1930s. Unfortunately, it does not reflect particularly well anymore.
I do not know why this road has a T suffix.
Further along US-82 is this tank.
We’re in Mississippi now – specifically, at the Greenville train station.
Specialization is for insects.
US-82 has long been on the bypass around town, but I’ll take this shield any day.
Mississippi uses the classic shields even for suffixed routes. They use the wide shield for their one three-digit route: 278.
Vertical squirrel is vertical.
Mississippi is bringing the state name back to its interstate markers.
The missile tail on the arrow is a nice touch on this white guide sign.
Birds and power lines.
We’re on old US-78 heading east now.
A railroad overpass.
Sunset over interstate 22.
More interstate 22. We stop somewhere around here for today.
Those last two could be confusing to the uninitiated, since it’s not I-22 yet.
that’s my subtle protest against the silliness of refusing to sign it as I-22 despite it being completely up to spec.
More great photos. I especially like seeing the old cutout shields.
Yep, for some reason most USDOT division offices don’t seem anywhere near as tolerant as North Carolina’s for slapping up Interstate shields on random disconnected segments of freeway. Or else AR 549 would already be I-49, most of US 78 would be at least co-signed I-22, and I-269 would be signed from Millington to US 64 at least.
Some of this may be down to state DOTs; for example, TDOT apparently hasn’t bothered asking Tennessee division of USDOT for authority to sign I-69 and I-269, even though it could even under a very strict (and much stricter than NC division’s) interpretation of statutory law and DOT rules (basically you must have a terminus at a distinct NHS route – hence I-269 could be signed from US 51 to US 64, and I-69 could at least make it to the I-40/240 Midtown interchange if not to US 51 along TN 300). Hence why I-69 disappears at the state line for no reason whatsoever. Similarly ALDOT and MDOT may not have even asked about I-22 yet (although I-22 won’t meet the terminus criterion at either end until it reaches I-65 or I-269 is built).
BTW the “T” suffix is for a Truck route. Arkansas has gotten bad about remembering to include the banners on bannered routes of late (e.g. AR 1 Business in Forrest City gets an “AR 1B” shield from I-40). On the other hand I guess you can argue the banner is redundant once you embed the suffix on the number, even if the suffix isn’t intuitive.
I much prefer the suffixes to the banners. A nice “A” is much better a visual identifier for me than the word “alternate”. That way, the shield gives a total and unambiguous identifier for the route, allowing the banner to identify the context (direction, junction, or trailblazer).
Minor nitpick regarding the railroad crossing: Five or six track crossings don’t seem quite that rare. Uncommon, yes, but crossings with seven or more tracks really are hard to find. Most large cities seem to have at least one crossing with five tracks.
Now, for possibly one-of-a-kinds, try this 12 tracke crossing in TN and this 14 track crossing in Kansas:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=35.916877,-84.579288&spn=0,0.013733&z=17&layer=c&cbll=35.916829,-84.577581&panoid=22WevlySy_tSFm4Fep7uvg&cbp=12,358.96,,0,5
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=37.737259,-97.335927&spn=0,0.027466&z=16&layer=c&cbll=37.73745,-97.335694&panoid=jYY27glEsG1txSdykvRu7Q&cbp=12,51.86,,0,5.94
Has MDOT completed the shoulder work along US 78? That was one of the big hiccups with the Mississippi stretch…about 1/3 of the mileage lacked Interstate-standard shoulders. Another hiccup was the cross-section through New Albany. Then there’s the lack of a terminus connection that Chris mentioned.
Froggie: my recollection is that most of the shoulder work was done as of early January, but I didn’t pay that close attention to be honest. I seem to remember ongoing work from MS 25 east to the state line.
The Toyota plant roadwork wasn’t done either, although the frontage road (not quite as fancy as the Nissan one – a five-lane job instead of one with a median) is in place from MS 9 south north to a local county road past MS 9 North.
Love seeing the state names on the interstate shields. Wish ever state did that. Get job with the pics!