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 Road (Nebraska Link 28B) at west Omaha. Progress is much further along than I anticipated as interchanges are already open at Blondo Street and Military Avenue, and work is partially complete at the east junction with U.S. 30 and U.S. 30 Business. Additional work is underway involving what I believe to be constructing a bridge over Luther Road and the parallel BNSF Railroad, and building a diamond interchange with Morningside Road within the Fremont vicinity. Work is expected to be completed on the Morningside Road and U.S. 30 interchanges by Fall 2007. I am unsure about the Luther Road grade separation.

West Dodge Road’s connection between U.S. 275 (240th Street) and U.S. 6 & Nebraska 31 (204th Street) is indeed signed as solely Nebraska Link 28B. Interchanges along the highway involve 228th Street (diamond) and Skyline Drive (partial-cloverleaf).

U.S. 275 overtakes the freeway from West Dodge Road (Nebraska Link 28B) via a pair of wye interchanges. West Dodge Road continues west into new suburban areas west of 240th Street. U.S. 275 continues north to the Blondo Street exit and Waterloo.

Nebraska 64 merges onto U.S. 275 west from Maple Road at Waterloo via a wye interchange. The pair continue northwest to Meigs Street (diamond interchange) and Valley before splitting at the 276th Street diamond interchange. Nebraska 64 travels southward into Valley and west to U.S. 77 near Wahoo.

U.S. 275 meets Nebraska 36 at a diamond interchange near the Douglas/Dodge County line and curves north from there to Military Avenue and junction U.S. 30 & 30 Business east of Fremont. A new bridge is nearing completion over U.S. 275 to go along with ramp grading well underway.

U.S. 275 leaves U.S. 30 westbound at the partial-cloverleaf interchange with U.S. 77 north of Fremont. U.S. 77 & 275 travel north nine miles to Winslow; U.S. 30 continues along the Fremont bypass as an expressway with at-grade intersections to its merge with U.S. 30 Business at 23rd Street.

Furthermore, NDOR may build a southeast bypass of Fremont for U.S. 77, joining the federal highway with the U.S. 275 freeway at the Morningside Road diamond interchange. Called the Fremont Southeast Beltway, the at-grade facility will include five intersections. Work may begin in 2014 and preliminary costs range up to $20 million. http://www.dor.state.ne.us/projects/fremont-se-beltway/

As for the end of my trip, severe thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area curtailed all flights to and from DFW International Airport that night. Therefore myself and several others ended up spending another night in the Omaha area until flights resumed in the morning…