Recent posts

#1

Off-Topic / Re: Business Marquees which fe...

Last post by bing101 - Today at 08:21:47 PM

Rummage 33 in Ruckersville, VA has a colorful US 33 shield:



US 29 shield with interstate colors near its junction with I-66:

That US-29 Shield looks like a Korean Expressways Route.

#2

Mid-Atlantic / Re: West Virginia Turnpike

Last post by GCrites - Today at 08:21:34 PM

Plus most Turnpike non-local traffic passes thru Beckley whether they come in from US-19, I-68 or from either end of I-77. So everyone would hit at least one toll barrier regardless.

That's likely why Beckley got the big service plaza and the other two are smaller. Going all the way back to when you could access all three plazas from both directions.

#3

Off-Topic / Re: Business Marquees which fe...

Last post by bing101 - Today at 08:18:52 PM

Green Island Oriental Vegetables have boxes showing their location near Long Beach.  Note this photo is shot at a supermarket in Vallejo, CA but their supplier is in the Long Beach area.

#4

General Highway Talk / Re: How are 3 digit interstate...

Last post by TheStranger - Today at 08:08:23 PM

1.  So basically when choosing which even or odd 1st digit, there is no rule, things vary by state?

From what I've seen in the thread, this seems to be the case.  Some use middle or higher numbers to leave room for lower numbers in the future sequence (i.e. California starting out with 405 and 605 and 805, before creating 205), others do it purely in order (the odd 3dis in South Carolina), and some definitely are more "this number is available, why not use it" (I-820 in Texas stands out, as does I-985 in Georgia).

2.  Why is the DC beltway 495 and the Baltimore 695?

Could this be "Maryland numbering things in geographic order" - 295, 495 both in the DC area, 695 then a bit up north?

3.  If a 3 digit interstate ends at another interstate it must be even, correct, EVEN if that interstate is not an offshoot of 2 digit (Fictionally 387 starts at 87 and ends at 684)?

Not necessarily (see I-355, the Kansas I-135, the under-construction I-369, I-505).  Note that 135 and 505 replaced suffixed Interstate routes (35W and 5W).

#5

General Highway Talk / Re: How are 3 digit interstate...

Last post by dvferyance - Today at 08:06:40 PM

I always figured they just started at the lowest number (1xx or 2xx) then went up as more were added.  Occasionally a number may be skipped - a planned route never occurred, or an adjoining state already had the low route number so they used the next one to avoid confusion.

Tell that to I-820

Wasn't that State Route 820, then they gave it an upgrade to I-820?  I believe that's the backstory there as to how it was given an unusually high number.

There sure is because radio station WBAP is on AM 820.

#6

Northeast / Re: New Jersey Turnpike

Last post by bluecountry - Today at 08:00:30 PM

What's going on with all the lane shifts and work in multiple areas NB past the 70s MP?

#7

Northeast / Re: New York

Last post by SignBridge - Today at 07:59:59 PM

Yeah, that's just what we need. Another flatfooted attempt by politicians to show a neighborhood that they're doing something about a problem. Like this will make any difference at all.

#8

Off-Topic / Re: Atlantic Coast Fall Line

Last post by bluecountry - Today at 07:57:34 PM

??????

#9

Mid-Atlantic / Re: Francis Scott Key Bridge (...

Last post by bluecountry - Today at 07:56:50 PM

I can pretty much guarantee the Key Bridge won't be rebuilt to the original design.

*  When this happens with waterway crossings that have lost spans due to vessel collisions, typically a large fraction of the bridge has survived--this happened with the Tasman Bridge in Australia, I-40 at Webbers Falls in Oklahoma, and the Queen Isabella Causeway in Texas.  The part of the Key Bridge that collapsed represents about half of the over-the-water length but probably at least 80% of the construction cost and nearly all of the complexity.

*  Once the Port of Baltimore reopens, a lot of the pressure to "do something" about the bridge will vanish.  The Key Bridge was one of three major crossings but represented just one-quarter of the capacity.  It contributed a smaller share of the total MdTA revenue pie than the Harbor Tunnel (7% versus 12%) despite their having the same lane count.  The absence of the bridge does not even inconvenience local commuters that much, since the Harbor Tunnel is a relatively close detour.  (The Tasman Bridge is a useful counterexample--its collapse in 1975 turned a five-minute journey from one end of the bridge to the other into a 45-minute trip involving the Bridgewater Bridge much further upstream.  This situation led not only to provision of a temporary ferry, but also construction of the Bowen Bridge midway between the repaired bridge and the erstwhile detour to improve network redundancy.)  It is the ruins of the bridge blocking the shipping channel, and not its unavailability to road traffic, that really drives costs.

*  To rebuild the Key Bridge as-is would be to recreate its safety deficiencies (no shoulders) and its vulnerabilities (piers that cannot be protected without impinging on the shipping channel).  I believe this would be politically completely unacceptable, especially with the precedent set by the Sunshine Skyway.  No politician is going to want to go before the voters and say, "Well, in Florida they can rebuild with better defenses, but here in Maryland we're just going to have to go with the cheap solution that is not actually all that cheap and eat the risks associated with it."

So you would expect the replacement bridge, at the very least, would be 10-12-12-10_10-12-12-10 per side (2 12 foot travel lanes, 2 ten foot shoulder lanes per side) if not more?
If so would this also become the real I-695 vs MD 695?

for 4-lane divided, the inside shoulders can be 6' preferred, 4' minimum.

So at the very least it will be 2 12 foot lanes per side, 4-6 foot inside and 10 foot outside shoulders?
Think they will just go ahead and give it a 3rd trade lane per side?

#10

General Highway Talk / Re: How are 3 digit interstate...

Last post by bluecountry - Today at 07:53:53 PM

1.  So basically when choosing which even or odd 1st digit, there is no rule, things vary by state?
2.  Why is the DC beltway 495 and the Baltimore 695?
3.  If a 3 digit interstate ends at another interstate it must be even, correct, EVEN if that interstate is not an offshoot of 2 digit (Fictionally 387 starts at 87 and ends at 684)?