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US Highway 30

Started by doglover44, April 07, 2021, 11:53:00 AM

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SEWIGuy

Indiana has a historical marker in Terre Haute, where US-40 and 41 intersected, labelling it the Crossroads of America.

https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/crossroads-of-america/

Terre Haute has a plaque they put up at the site where the originally crossed.

(I'm not saying that this means it is deserving of the moniker.  Just that they really promote it there.)

I think US-41 was considered a major route.  It is four laned throughout Indiana (except for the IN-63 part) and runs from Upper Michigan to Miami.
https://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=f413d229-9d98-461f-8671-4ffa0405534b



edwaleni


US 30 in Indiana is a major rural divided highway. It is not a freeway except at Fort Wayne, where it runs around the north side on Interstate 69 (I‑69) and Interstate 469. Between Interstate 65 (at Merrillville) and I‑69 (Fort Wayne), there are over 40 traffic signals on this divided highway, hindering smooth traffic flow. This is especially pronounced near Warsaw and Columbia City, where the speed limit is reduced as the highway runs through a commercial section with many businesses and traffic signals. Many of the other signals are concentrated between Hobart and Valparaiso, the two cities being about 20 miles (32 km) apart. It is, however, a four lane divided road through its entirety within Indiana, generally avoiding small towns. Speed limits range, but are generally 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).

SkyPesos

#27
With some spot improvements to the sections concentrated with signals on US 30 in IN, I could see the route as part of an alternative Chicago-Columbus corridor to the current I-65/I-70, along with US 33 southeast of Ft Wayne. US 33 from the IN-OH border to Columbus is fine as it is I think. Sections with an AADT of 10k+ are at least an expressway, and Bellefontaine-Dublin is a freeway, while the 2 lane sections are generally below that threshold. The lowest AADT on this section is 2k near the IN border. For the traffic signals concentration of US 30 west of Valparaiso, you could use IN 49 to I-90 to avoid them, but unless you want to backtrack north to I-94, you'll be paying tolls.

edwaleni

I have used US30 off and on over the years, mostly to shunpike I-80/90 and if I had no time pressure to reach Mansfield, Ohio.

West of Mansfield Ohio, it is pretty much a near interstate grade most of the way. The only foobar is that silly interchange with I-75 at Beaverdam. You have to literally get off at Lincoln Highway, drive a a quarter mile to the I-75 exit for Lincoln Highway and then get back on. Very unusual compared to the rest of the route.

But once you cross into Indiana, you get a million of these grade level crossings and their left turn bays. Can't tell you how many cars I have seen misjudge the speed of traffic and cause major accidents.

As for Fort Wayne, it depends when you come through.

On Sunday mornings or late at night you can take old US-30 (IN-930) right through town as all the lights will be green 95% of the time.

But weekdays or week evenings forget about it, and take the US-30/I-469 Bypass.

thefarmerchris

Quote from: edwaleni on April 12, 2021, 09:18:11 AM
I have used US30 off and on over the years, mostly to shunpike I-80/90 and if I had no time pressure to reach Mansfield, Ohio.

West of Mansfield Ohio, it is pretty much a near interstate grade most of the way. The only foobar is that silly interchange with I-75 at Beaverdam. You have to literally get off at Lincoln Highway, drive a a quarter mile to the I-75 exit for Lincoln Highway and then get back on. Very unusual compared to the rest of the route.

But once you cross into Indiana, you get a million of these grade level crossings and their left turn bays. Can't tell you how many cars I have seen misjudge the speed of traffic and cause major accidents.

As for Fort Wayne, it depends when you come through.

On Sunday mornings or late at night you can take old US-30 (IN-930) right through town as all the lights will be green 95% of the time.

But weekdays or week evenings forget about it, and take the US-30/I-469 Bypass.

Once you get west of Van Wert, the left turns come into play as it's no longer freeway. Once you hit Indiana, you then lower the speed limit by 10 which would greatly increase mis-judging of traffic speeds. East of I469, more often you get passed doing 65-70mph until you hit the state line when it bumps up to 70. There needs to be better consistency of speed limits on that stretch for safety reasons.

A nice goal would be to have US30 be freeway from I-76 all the way to US31 near Plymouth, but that itself would require millions of  dollars solely to redo some interchanges and do other spot upgrades........

I-55

Quote from: thefarmerchris on April 12, 2021, 12:45:55 PM
Quote from: edwaleni on April 12, 2021, 09:18:11 AM
I have used US30 off and on over the years, mostly to shunpike I-80/90 and if I had no time pressure to reach Mansfield, Ohio.

West of Mansfield Ohio, it is pretty much a near interstate grade most of the way. The only foobar is that silly interchange with I-75 at Beaverdam. You have to literally get off at Lincoln Highway, drive a a quarter mile to the I-75 exit for Lincoln Highway and then get back on. Very unusual compared to the rest of the route.

But once you cross into Indiana, you get a million of these grade level crossings and their left turn bays. Can't tell you how many cars I have seen misjudge the speed of traffic and cause major accidents.

As for Fort Wayne, it depends when you come through.

On Sunday mornings or late at night you can take old US-30 (IN-930) right through town as all the lights will be green 95% of the time.

But weekdays or week evenings forget about it, and take the US-30/I-469 Bypass.

Once you get west of Van Wert, the left turns come into play as it's no longer freeway. Once you hit Indiana, you then lower the speed limit by 10 which would greatly increase mis-judging of traffic speeds. East of I469, more often you get passed doing 65-70mph until you hit the state line when it bumps up to 70. There needs to be better consistency of speed limits on that stretch for safety reasons.

A nice goal would be to have US30 be freeway from I-76 all the way to US31 near Plymouth, but that itself would require millions of  dollars solely to redo some interchanges and do other spot upgrades........

There are upgrades in Allen and Kosciusko Counties that I am aware of. The Allen county upgrades have been posted somewhere in this forum, basically a freeway conversion from I-69 to the Whitley county line. As for Kosciusko county, I know there's plenty of discussion locally in favor of bypassing Warsaw though nothing's officially planned AFAIK.
Let's Go Purdue Basketball Whoosh

edwaleni

Quote from: I-55 on April 13, 2021, 12:58:44 AM
Quote from: thefarmerchris on April 12, 2021, 12:45:55 PM
Quote from: edwaleni on April 12, 2021, 09:18:11 AM
I have used US30 off and on over the years, mostly to shunpike I-80/90 and if I had no time pressure to reach Mansfield, Ohio.

West of Mansfield Ohio, it is pretty much a near interstate grade most of the way. The only foobar is that silly interchange with I-75 at Beaverdam. You have to literally get off at Lincoln Highway, drive a a quarter mile to the I-75 exit for Lincoln Highway and then get back on. Very unusual compared to the rest of the route.

But once you cross into Indiana, you get a million of these grade level crossings and their left turn bays. Can't tell you how many cars I have seen misjudge the speed of traffic and cause major accidents.

As for Fort Wayne, it depends when you come through.

On Sunday mornings or late at night you can take old US-30 (IN-930) right through town as all the lights will be green 95% of the time.

But weekdays or week evenings forget about it, and take the US-30/I-469 Bypass.

Once you get west of Van Wert, the left turns come into play as it's no longer freeway. Once you hit Indiana, you then lower the speed limit by 10 which would greatly increase mis-judging of traffic speeds. East of I469, more often you get passed doing 65-70mph until you hit the state line when it bumps up to 70. There needs to be better consistency of speed limits on that stretch for safety reasons.

A nice goal would be to have US30 be freeway from I-76 all the way to US31 near Plymouth, but that itself would require millions of  dollars solely to redo some interchanges and do other spot upgrades........

There are upgrades in Allen and Kosciusko Counties that I am aware of. The Allen county upgrades have been posted somewhere in this forum, basically a freeway conversion from I-69 to the Whitley county line. As for Kosciusko county, I know there's plenty of discussion locally in favor of bypassing Warsaw though nothing's officially planned AFAIK.

No new bypass of Warsaw is required. The pain point is the fact that Warsaw allowed commercial zoning between Center Street (old US 30) and CR-325E. (to a lesser degree to Detroit Street)

An urban style layout with median elimination with frontage roads would easily fix the situation, though Warsaw may not want their retail isolated like that. An alternate would be a set of on/off lanes (like what TxDOT does) instead of frontage which provides easier access to roadside retail.

From Center Street west, there is plenty of ROW available to build overpasses, exit ramps where needed.

thefarmerchris

It looks like INDOT is going to have an public open house for US 30 upgrades in Fort Wayne/Allen County. Based off of the project maps, it'll be an interchange at Flaugh Road with "intersection improvements"  elsewhere.
https://projectmeetingonline.com/us-30-corridor-study/

I-55

Quote from: thefarmerchris on June 04, 2021, 07:21:03 PM
It looks like INDOT is going to have an public open house for US 30 upgrades in Fort Wayne/Allen County. Based off of the project maps, it'll be an interchange at Flaugh Road with "intersection improvements"  elsewhere.
https://projectmeetingonline.com/us-30-corridor-study/

The right lane on EB US-30 at the Kroemer traffic light is a completely different color than the other lanes at that junction from all the trucks that slam their brakes to stop from 65+ mph.

The upgrades are badly needed. Glad to see some movement on this.
Let's Go Purdue Basketball Whoosh

ET21

Most frequent section I've been on is from Waterman IL to just east of Oswego IL
The local weatherman, trust me I can be 99.9% right!
"Show where you're going, without forgetting where you're from"

Clinched:
IL: I-88, I-180, I-190, I-290, I-294, I-355, IL-390
IN: I-80, I-94
SD: I-190
WI: I-90, I-94
MI: I-94, I-196
MN: I-90

I-55

Went to the open house for US-30 upgrades tonight. Few notes:

- The project addresses the Kroemer Road intersection improvements and impacted intersections as far west as Felger/Leesburg Rd. This is NOT the same study as is being done for the whole state, but rather is addressing an isolated issue.

- Any alternatives listed are preliminary design and subject to change, though they do indicate the direction INDOT is trying to go with this project.

- Most alternatives for the other intersections were RIROs or removing intersections and dead ending the county roads. J-Turns were ruled out due to negative public feedback (similar to the US-31 situation).

- I was surprised by the number of farmers who have to move equipment across US-30 to access their fields and the lack of crossings presented in the initial alternatives (with RIROs and dead ends). I figured there was a high number of fields that were split when the new terrain alignment of US-30 was built.

It is early in the design process and public feedback will likely impact further planning. The scale of the project will be small, but the impact will be big.
Let's Go Purdue Basketball Whoosh

Flint1979

I've been on US-30 a lot in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It's a major cross country route though because US highways ending in a 0 are E-W major routes and US highways ending in a 1 are N-S major routes. A lot have been scaled back due to an Interstate taking over the route.

Flint1979

Geez if I had read the first page I'd realize I already answered this thread. I just went off the first post and didn't even realize that this thread has been here a couple months.

paulthemapguy

Quote from: ET21 on June 08, 2021, 09:58:37 AM
Most frequent section I've been on is from Waterman IL to just east of Oswego IL

I'm guessing to the junction with US34.

I take a portion of US30 to work every day in Joliet, IL!  I don't mind saying this now, as I'll be moving in a week, making this statement no longer true.  :)
Avatar is the last interesting highway I clinched.
My website! http://www.paulacrossamerica.com Now featuring all of Ohio!
My USA Shield Gallery https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHwJRZk
TM Clinches https://bit.ly/2UwRs4O

National collection status: 361/425. Only 64 route markers remain

ET21

Quote from: paulthemapguy on June 14, 2021, 11:11:02 AM
Quote from: ET21 on June 08, 2021, 09:58:37 AM
Most frequent section I've been on is from Waterman IL to just east of Oswego IL

I'm guessing to the junction with US34.

I take a portion of US30 to work every day in Joliet, IL!  I don't mind saying this now, as I'll be moving in a week, making this statement no longer true.  :)

Yup out to Wolf Road
The local weatherman, trust me I can be 99.9% right!
"Show where you're going, without forgetting where you're from"

Clinched:
IL: I-88, I-180, I-190, I-290, I-294, I-355, IL-390
IN: I-80, I-94
SD: I-190
WI: I-90, I-94
MI: I-94, I-196
MN: I-90

ysuindy

Drove US 30 last night from Fort Wayne across to Lisbon Ohio. Was on 30 from roughly 630pm - 1100 pm

It was a great example of why I prefer 69/469/30 to 70/71 driving from Indy to northeast Ohio

Passed a truck west of Upper Sandusky and remarked the road was open in front of me. Went the last 15 miles to the interchange with 23 without passing a car or having a car pass me.

In the roughly 36 miles from the exit off 23 until just outside of Mansfield one car passed me (at 6 miles), I passed one car (21 miles) and we passed an Ohio State Patrolman with a car pulled over.

I've had long stretches of driving alone before but never such an extended period of multiple times.  I make this trip solo a lot and it's preferable to 70/71



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