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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Denied before, North Carolina again sent their request to add an Interstate designation to a stretch of U.S. 264 and U.S. 117 between Wilson and Goldsboro at the recent AASHTO Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This time, the application was approved. Among the benefits of a new Interstate for Goldsboro, North Carolina, the designation allows trucks exceeding 48 feet in length to legally drive the U.S. 117 freeway between the [...]
An inside joke, sort of... The fact of the matter is that Maine @ AARoads is once again up to date with all our existing coverage that includes a short excursion in the Kittery and York areas as part of our July-August New England road trip. That joins Maine with Arkansas as the only two of the lower 48 states without existing coverage in the queue for future AARoads updates! [...]
New South Carolina State Highway Sign Design. Graphic created by AARoads. Just caught this on a recent Southeast Roads Yahoo! Group post http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seroads/message/7077; on June 22, 2007,1 SCDOT unveiled a new highway shield design to replace the current black and white box shields used throughout the Palmetto State. The state follows Oklahoma (2006) and Vermont (1995) as states that changed from a drab shield design. A grandfathering [...]
Have you seen this rendering? It is the megasized symmetrical stack interchange currently under construction at the eastern junction of Interstate 95 and 695 at Baltimore, Maryland! Construction began in 2006 on a multi-year project that will bring express toll lanes to the busy corridor. Presently Interstate 95 carries eight lanes between Interstate 895 and Maryland 24 (Exit 74). This project expands the overall lanes to 12 with the addition [...]
Since our friends decided to leave early, we followed suit and made a day out of it on the way back south. Decided on Interstate 89 south to check out the Barre Connectors first, both of which appear as freeways on maps sometimes, but really are expressway-like roads with no private driveways. Vermont 62 spurs east from Exit 7 into northern Barre, complete with a connector leading to U.S. 302. [...]
Spent our final full day in Vermont visiting Burlington and the University of Vermont. As always with this trip, we took convoluted routes to see more of the area. Departing Interstate 89 south via Exit 16 (U.S. 2 & 7), we traveled through Winooski, an old mill town situated along the north banks of the Winooski River. Redevelopment of the downtown area is phenomenal when compared to previous visits in [...]
