SH 121 connects DFW airport and several large employment areas with Collin County, north of Dallas, TX. Collin County is the fastest growing county in the state and one of the top 5 fastest growing in the nation. As such, SH 121 is undergoing massive traffic strains. 15 years ago it was a bucolic 2 lane rural highway, and today it is a snarly mess with a regional mall on [...]
So, this is the Big Dig: Interstate 93 through the Big Dig We all know about the big dig, and if you don't, you're a terrible roadgeek. The main thrust of the project was to take the ugly central artery and replace it with a tunnel beneath downtown. Where the central artery was, was to become a pretty urban park. Let's see what is going on up [...]
With Federal Highway officials approval of environmental studies for the planned northward extension, ALDOT moves closer to the start of construction. Next week officials will hold an informal meeting on an associated project, the new Baldwin County 68 interchange with Interstate 10. Land has yet to be purchased for the interchange right of way, pending environmental approval from FHWA officials. However work on the new interchange should begin in early [...]
Lets take a look at Mass. Route 2 through north-central Massachusetts. Picture below is the French King bridge. The bridge takes its name from nearby French King Rock, which was in turn named by a French army officer during the French and Indian wars of the eighteenth century. The span opened September 10, 1932. The French King bridge was constructed in 1932 to take Route 2 over the [...]
Let's take a quickie look at SR 146 from Providence, RI up to Worcester Mass. The pictures are from last weekend, when the New England spring was in full swing with budding dogwoods and hordes of people moving to Vermont. Route 146 leaves Providence as a fairly major freeway. The six lanes give way to four just as the northern suburbs are at their peak. Route 146 [...]
Construction on the destroyed US 90 bridge over the mouth of Biloxi Bay is proceeding at a rapid rate. I guess it takes a hurricane to whip the asses of the DOTs into gear. This photo from April of this year shows just how quickly the process is going. It's not China-fast, but in terms of US road construction they are going fairly quickly. AAroads has updated road photos post-Katrina [...]
Overall the Intercounty Connector (ICC) represents a $2.4 billion project to build an 18-mile long toll road between Interstates 370 in Montgomery County and Interstate 95 in Prince Georges County, Maryland. After years of representing nothing more than just a dashed line on planning maps, the first leg of the (ICC) is set to become reality as construction begins this Summer on the first segment of roadway. Five stages of [...]
Several new guides were added to Maine this weekend focusing on non-Interstate highways throughout the state from June 2005. Guides include portions of U.S. 201, U.S. 202, U.S. 1A, Maine 24, etc. These additions round out our current Maine coverage in the queue! Updates are listed at https://www.aaroads.com/updates Next in line may be finishing updates to Orlando area roads that were started in the Fall, adding additional coverage to northeastroads involving the [...]
Spent the final day, or what I thought was to be the final day, mainly around the Elkhorn vicinity of west Omaha. We also took a short drive northwest to Fremont to document the freewayization of U.S. 275 to U.S. 30. As I wrote about in a previous post, NDOR (Nebraska Department of Roads) is indeed upgrading all of U.S. 275 into a freeway from Fremont southeast to West Dodge [...]
The final day in the Twin Cities involved a spin around the metropolitan area to clinch the remaining Interstates and a dip into Wisconsin. After a few hours at our friends' apartment that afternoon, we braved peak hour traffic on the return drive to Omaha, Nebraska. Some additional photos and commentary about Twin Cities area roads: Interstate 335 was conceptualized as a connector between Interstates 94 and 35W north of [...]
