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Interstate 99

Started by Chris, January 19, 2009, 02:59:17 PM

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SSOWorld

Quote from: dave19 on April 29, 2009, 11:47:32 AM
And there's your reason why it's posted 55.  X-(
As with any other location where speeds are set so low. *cough* Illinois *cough* Wisconsin *cough* Oregon
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.


treichard

Shortly before the part of I-99 north of State College opened, the Centre Daily Times posted an article about how the speed limit would be 55 mph and well enforced. 

So you are right, and the enforcement officials were never hiding this fact.
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vdeane

The Berkshire spur of the Thruway has a work zone posted on the bridge over the Hudson.  When I was last there, there were no signs of any work zone actually existing.  There was, however, a state trooper with a radar gun.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

treichard

The Centre Daily Times posted a new article about the problems and delay with the I-80 & I-99 interchange:
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1256830.html

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Truvelo

Does anyone know what the high speed interchange will be? High speed would suggest it's not a trumpet or anything else where freeway to freeway movements are loops.
Speed limits limit life

mightyace

I saw this on PAHighways.com:
http://www.pahighways.com/interstates/I80-I99interchange.pdf

This looks like a basic three-way freeway interchange with no left exits.

My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyace

I'm out of this F***KING PLACE!

PAHighways

Quote from: mightyace on May 01, 2009, 02:44:11 PM
I saw this on PAHighways.com:
http://www.pahighways.com/interstates/I80-I99interchange.pdf

Hey, that's my line!

During the State College Meet, we took a side trip up to see the future location.  There is earth moving taking place which, according to the map, would be the start of relocating Musser Lane.

Truvelo

How will local traffic access the freeways with the new interchange? It looks like a lengthy detour.
Speed limits limit life

PAHighways

An additional interchange would be constructed on 80 to the east of the 99 Y for local traffic.

J N Winkler

Scuttlebutt on the CCMPO website suggests a July 2009 letting for SR 0080 Section A18, with SR 0080 Section B18 to follow later.

I just hope the signing is pattern-accurate.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

treichard

How does PennDOT select section names (like C20 or A18)? 

Also, the Centre Daily Times mentioned that already an I-99 interchange along the State College bypass needs an upgrade to handle the increased traffic and new development:
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1262404.html
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74/171FAN

And they wonder why us roadgeeks can't stand this road :-D?  Anyway sprawl now effecting interstates within a year and I thought VA 288 was quick for extensive sprawl at 4 years.
I am now a PennDOT employee.  My opinions/views do not necessarily reflect the opinions/views of PennDOT.

J N Winkler

#62
Quote from: treichardHow does PennDOT select section names (like C20 or A18)?

It varies.  Basically the section designation refers to a project being carried out on the named SR (or LR for pre-1985 projects when the legislative route numbering system was still in effect).  The SR number is not necessarily the same as the signed route ("traffic route" in PennDOT parlance)--for instance, many I-99 projects had SR 6220 designations, and the expressway relocation of US 15 in Tioga County is being built as various sections of SR 6015.

As a generalization, turnkey construction contracts (frequently but not always on new location) tend to have section designations consisting of a letter followed by an integer (e.g. A09, B18, C10).  Smaller contracts to do specific kinds of work tend to have section designations which refer in some way to the kind of work being done--e.g. "XNS" for exit numbering or "SGN" for signal upgrades.  PennDOT has also had a history of using the last letter "S" in a section designation to refer to signing contracts (e.g. SR 0080 Section 7S, which was a pure signing contract), but this is not a reliable way to search for signing contracts because final letter S is also used by some resurfacing contracts.

In the old days of LR numbering, PennDOT section designations were generally simple integers, while the smaller projects (e.g. signing) had alphabetic suffixes.  LRs were also normally short enough that a given SR consists of the combined lengths of a number of former LRs.  It is my theory, for which I have no proof, that the alphabetic prefixes in current SR section designations refer to former LRs which are now part of the SR in question.  This convention would have made it possible to carry over section designations for projects which were already in the Twelve Year Plan under LR numbers without having to change the numerical part of the LR section designation or risk duplicating section designations for a given SR.  This theory is consistent with the fact that A?? section designations are very common, while D?? (or higher) designations are much rarer (all SRs have the mileage of at least one LR, but few SRs have the mileage of four or more LRs).

Section designations have a certain highly limited geographical specificity.  If a corridor-level project to expand or otherwise improve a road is broken up into multiple contracts for construction, each with its own section designation, these will often be consecutive--for instance, SR 0219 Sections C08, C09, C10, C11.

Nowadays, it is actually more helpful to have the four- or five-digit ECMS number to locate the project plans.  These have relatively little geographical specificity, although multiple contracts associated with a single large project tend to have consecutive ECMS numbers--for instance 14675, 14676, and 14677 for the Pa. 309 Fort Washington Expressway upgrade (but this rule was not followed in the case of 64275, which was also a Pa. 309 job).  As a general rule, the ECMS number for a project is one of several MPMS numbers, each of which is associated with a share of the work done in that project.  It is relatively easy to get ECMS numbers by using the Bid Package "Advanced Search" function in ECMS if the project has already been advertised, but if it is still in the preconstruction stages (as is the case for the I-80/Pa. 26 wye interchange), I don't know of an alternative to MPMSMap.  My experience has been that the MPMS numbers in MPMSMap sometimes have a different final digit from the apparent corresponding ECMS project (e.g. MPMSMap says 75903 for the ongoing I-376 redesignation work/Squirrel Hill tunnel refurbishment between Pittsburgh and Monroeville, ECMS says 75905).

MPMSMap is a highly fiddly GIS application, but I think it is possible to get tabular data out of it--I haven't really explored its features thoroughly.

Alphabet soup decoder:  ECMS = Engineering and Construction Management System; MPMS = Multimodal Project Management System.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

PAHighways

For the most part, the 6xxx series adheres to the parent route that is being relocated and retired soon after completion.  The exception being the SR 6279 and 6579 designations which are used for the HOV lanes of I-279 and I-579.

The 6220 designation was used in place of 6099 since the I-99 designation is written into law and required legislation to modify the route, but US 220 was ready to move with only AASHTO approval needed.  The section between the Mount Nittany Expressway and Bellefonte Bypass was called SR 6026 even though PA 26 was not being moved.

J N Winkler

I don't think this analysis is fully correct.  Section 1105(c)(9) of ISTEA 1991 does say that the HPC now known as I-99 must follow "United States Route 220 and the Appalachian Thruway Corridor from Business 220 in Bedford, Pennsylvania, to the vicinity of Corning, New York," but it does not actually require that it follow a particular traversable routing of US 220.  In order for the law to contain such a requirement, deposit plans showing an approved alignment of US 220 would have to be incorporated by reference.  (We do not do this in the US because we do not do private bills at the federal level, but it has historically been used in the UK for railways and estuarial crossings like the Mersey Tunnel.)  The actual requirement that the Section 1105(c)(9) corridor be called I-99 is in Section 332 of the NHSDA 1995 and it likewise does not particularize a traversable routing.  What this means is that while the designation of the corridor as a whole is I-99, the application of the I-99 designation to a particular traversable routing is an administrative decision which has to be made by FHWA.

Moreover, designations like US 220 and I-99 are entities under the control of FHWA and AASHTO which are formally PennDOT traffic routes if they are signed at all, while designations like SR 0099 and SR 6220 are PennDOT entities.  There is no requirement that the PennDOT and FHWA/AASHTO numbers match.  I suspect the real reason parts of I-99 have been built as SR 6220 with various section designations is that the projects to upgrade US 220 were created long before the I-99 designation became law at the federal level.  (In all likelihood they would have been created shortly after ISTEA 1991, if they were not already in the books in anticipation of federal funding for corridor expansion.)  There is nothing that would have prevented PennDOT from building these as SR 0099, aside from the inconvenience of changing project numbers which were already in the Twelve Year Plan.  PennDOT has done SR 0099 projects but these are generally rehabiliation projects on sections which have been signed as I-99 for more than a decade.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

treichard

Great posts, Mr. Winkler.  I figured there was a method to the madness. Have you worked for PennDOT?

One more question on the SR numbering,

Once a new SR 6xxx highway is completed and the I/US/PA designation is moved to it, the SR 0xxx number is moved, too, and the old route needs a SR number.  Sometimes the thousands digit is simply changed to 1-4 to match the quadrant numbering (e.g., SRs 3222 and SR 3422 for the Reading business routes 222 and 422), but other times the old route is given a sequential SR number (e.g., SRs 3040 and 3042 replaced old US 220 and old US 322 in Centre County, or SR 3006 for Business 22 in Lewistown).  How does PennDOT decide which numbering method to use? 
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PAHighways

The plan to upgrade US 220 was on the books long before Interstate 99 was even a thought, so any plans would use 220 after the LR/SR change in 1985.  The original plans to upgrade US 220 called for following the original alignment, much as it has from Bedford to Marthas Furnace, then continue north to Milesburg instead of swinging over to State College.

Now that it is all SR 0099, any work involving the route would use that rather than 0220 or 0026 to identify the route.

rickmastfan67

#67
Just spotted this article on centerdaily.com about using Stimulus funds for linking I-80 & I-99 together.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/i99/story/1367259.html

PAHighways

I hope that PennDOT can get some stimulus funding so that this has less chance of happening.

agentsteel53

that seems to be a Pennsylvania policy in general ... very low speed interchanges between freeways.  See I-80 and I-81, the two biggest truck routes in the northeast, complete with 15mph cloverleaves.
live from sunny San Diego.

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jake@aaroads.com

PAHighways

The proposed I-80/I-99 interchange is a high-speed, directional-Y.

treichard

Got a map of the proposed "local" interchange to the east of that one? I've assumed it'll be a simple diamond, but I've never found a map of it to confirm my suspicion.
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Alps

How will PA 26 be rerouted with this and the new local interchange?

treichard

Probably this (south to north):

From PA 64, PA 26 should tie into I-99/US 220 and bypass Bellefonte, as it does now.

At the (not-yet-)completed high-speed I-80 & I-99 interchange, it should follow I-80/US 220 east to the new local interchange, then exit north on an upgraded back road to meet the existing route.

Jacksonville Road (old PA 26) traffic between Bellefonte and Howard will be isolated from the new Y interchange to achieve a separation between local and regional traffic (in theory at least).  The connections between the freeways and old route will be via PA 550 to I-99 Exit 83 to the south or via the back road to the new local I-80 interchange to the northeast.
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PAHighways

Quote from: treichard on June 27, 2009, 11:51:28 PM
Got a map of the proposed "local" interchange to the east of that one? I've assumed it'll be a simple diamond, but I've never found a map of it to confirm my suspicion.

Yes, it is the third figure in newsletter where I got the schematic of the Y.  It would be a diamond to a connector in this general area.



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