A VERY unusual interchange

[Brandon]

Looks like I-81 near Syracuse Airport: http://maps.google.com/?ll=43.115834,-76.13328&spn=0.019611,0.036049&t=m&z=15&vpsrc=6

There are many interchanges of that sort along Illinois Tollways (mainly the Tri-State)

Not quite like that one, and many of them are a lot saner.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I'm reminded of the I-270/OH 3 interchange in Westerville, though that only uses this configuration for one side.

ODOT likes that design.
There's two interchanges like that in Cincy one on I-75 for the Western Hill Viaduct and another one on US 50 west of downtown, one in Youngstown at the NE corner of their "innerbelt", and another one in Coshocton of all places.

[ethanman62187]

A 4 ramp cloverleaf. That suffers from weaving. I had never seen anything like this before.

[TheStranger]

Similar thing for the southbound Eastshore Freeway (west I-80/east I-580) at University Avenue in Berkeley -

http://g.co/maps/rafxn

[hbelkins]

Here's a view of the toll booth setup most commonly used in Kentucky. In this situation only the rightmost booth is manned, the center one is exact change only (you can tell that the sign is changeable, whereas the one for the leftmost booth isn't). This is eastbound on the Cumberland Parkway at the US 68/KY 80 Edmonton exit. Taken in the late 1990s.

[Brandon]

^^ Why not separate the plaza from the interchange and put a basket on the ramps?

[agentsteel53]

Here's a view of the toll booth setup most commonly used in Kentucky. In this situation only the rightmost booth is manned, the center one is exact change only (you can tell that the sign is changeable, whereas the one for the leftmost booth isn't). This is eastbound on the Cumberland Parkway at the US 68/KY 80 Edmonton exit. Taken in the late 1990s.

[photo]

is that button copy?  not something Kentucky is known for.

[hbelkins]

No, not button copy. The last button copy sign in Kentucky was on southbound I-71 / I-75 for the KY 236 exit and it was mounted to one of the I-275 flyovers. It disappeared sometime between 1998 and 2000.

[ethanman62187]

So, a toll booth under a bridge. Never heard of anything like that before.

[Brandon]

So, a toll booth under a bridge. Never heard of anything like that before.

Common in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

[Scott5114]

Kansas also used to have a tollbooth under the bridge at the southern terminus of the Kansas Turnpike, although the interchange was a typical config. It was removed when KTA needed to expand the capacity of the tollbooth.

[shadyjay]

I-91 exit 7 in Vermont is half like this, although there never was a toll there. In that case the reason seems to be so that the more popular traffic movement (towards Springfield) can make right turns onto and off of the ramps. The interchange is basically a half cloverleaf with the ramps modified to allow left turns.

Geography of that area lent to the placement of the ramps at that interchange.  If you view this shot of I-91 NB at the interchange, you'll see a bridge, then houses.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=43.264126,-72.433604&spn=0.005305,0.011362&t=m&vpsrc=6&z=17&layer=c&cbll=43.264126,-72.433604&panoid=XHdAa4vCo3-m7QTuxyHFdg&cbp=12,36.51,,0,1.19

I guess it would be possible to make the NB onramp leave on the same side as US 5 as the NB offramp does to eliminate the weaving, but this is I-91 in Vermont we're talking about - where the traffic levels are not that severe to warrant such a project.


And let's not forget that a very similar ramp configuration was in use for I-84 Exit 26 (CT 70) in CT up until a few years ago when it was converted to a diamond configuration.  The new ramp configurations required a little bit of rock removal, IIRC.

[hobsini2]

^^ Why not separate the plaza from the interchange and put a basket on the ramps?

My simple answer to this is money. Notice how ISTHA started eliminating people in the booths and made them exact change at O'Hare exits? The expansion of the IPASS express lanes also has taken jobs out of the booth.  While i like the new ORT lanes, just think about how much money the state agency is saving by not having to pay some one to be in the booths.  I believe this was also a hidden reasoning behind not separating the Mainline and Ramps collections.

[roadman65]

You also want to consider when the interchange was built, and what funds were available at the time and the traffic demands at the time.  What is considered strange and unusual now, might of not been at the time of construction.