Old design deficiencies never fixed

[spooky]

The Orange Avenue grade crossing in Taft, FL.  It needs to be grade separated as it is at a rail yard entrance where you have trains moving real slow, stopping, then backing up causing up to fifteen minuet delays which during rush hour many cars back up into it on either direction of Orange Avenue.

Being the rails have to right away over roads (only marine traffic is the only thing rails do not dominate) there is no time limit or specific time that a train has to abide by at road grades.  Basically a train can stop and spend hours there and no law can stop it from doing that.

Anyway, it is a nightmare at times to travel that stretch at any time.

Trains and the companies that own them can be ticketed if they block the crossing for too long.  And yes, there are laws that stop that and are merely ignored unless enforced.

BTW, what's a fifteen minuet delay?  Fifteen minuets in a row?  Otherwise, the word is spelled "minute".

The minuets must be what makes it a nightmare at times at any time.

[Brandon]

The Orange Avenue grade crossing in Taft, FL.  It needs to be grade separated as it is at a rail yard entrance where you have trains moving real slow, stopping, then backing up causing up to fifteen minuet delays which during rush hour many cars back up into it on either direction of Orange Avenue.

Being the rails have to right away over roads (only marine traffic is the only thing rails do not dominate) there is no time limit or specific time that a train has to abide by at road grades.  Basically a train can stop and spend hours there and no law can stop it from doing that.

Anyway, it is a nightmare at times to travel that stretch at any time.

Trains and the companies that own them can be ticketed if they block the crossing for too long.  And yes, there are laws that stop that and are merely ignored unless enforced.

BTW, what's a fifteen minuet delay?  Fifteen minuets in a row?  Otherwise, the word is spelled "minute".

The minuets must be what makes it a nightmare at times at any time.

I mean, I like my Bach, but that's a bit ridiculous.

[Pete from Boston]

The Orange Avenue grade crossing in Taft, FL.  It needs to be grade separated as it is at a rail yard entrance where you have trains moving real slow, stopping, then backing up causing up to fifteen minuet delays which during rush hour many cars back up into it on either direction of Orange Avenue.

Being the rails have to right away over roads (only marine traffic is the only thing rails do not dominate) there is no time limit or specific time that a train has to abide by at road grades.  Basically a train can stop and spend hours there and no law can stop it from doing that.

Anyway, it is a nightmare at times to travel that stretch at any time.

Trains and the companies that own them can be ticketed if they block the crossing for too long.  And yes, there are laws that stop that and are merely ignored unless enforced.

BTW, what's a fifteen minuet delay?  Fifteen minuets in a row?  Otherwise, the word is spelled "minute".

Since a minuet lasts for one minute, the point still holds. 

[mrsman]

Replying to various posts upthread,

I agree on Pulaski Skyway.  Remove the lefthand entrances.  Most of those entrances are close enough to other entrances that it would not be too much burden for traffic to divert there.

For Communipaw, it seems that there is enough room for some type of quasi-Michigan left treatment that might rationalize some of the turn movements and come up with fewer phases in the traffic signal.  I think there is a thread somewhere for redesigning interchanges similar to redesigning signs and some of our computer oriented CAD people may be able to draw their own improvements.

EDITED 10/14:  The thread is in fictional highways.

For I-10 in the San Gabriel Valley, these exits can very easily be adjusted from squished cloverleafs to squished diamonds.  You will still have tight curves, but at least you get rid of the weaving issues.  And the way these ramps are configured, the ramps are so far apart from each other (from the point of view of the cross-street) that you're going to have plenty of room for left turn lanes that left turns shouldn't block cross-traffic as sometimes happens in diamond interchanges.

[PHLBOS]

In Philly, when the South Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River was replaced several years back; it was decided (for cost reasons) not to reconfigure the adjacent interchange with the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76).  As a result, the interchange still has all-left lane entrance/exit ramps as well as short merges onto I-76 (aka merge or die ramps).

[TheStranger]

The original ramps from the Bay Bridge southwest to 5th Street in San Francisco (which used to carry US 40 and 50) were rebuilt recently...but remain left exits off of 80 west, still forcing drivers who were in the leftmost lanes of the bridge to merge upon reaching the city to remain in the through direction.

[Gnutella]

I-76 in Philadelphia and I-376 in Pittsburgh combine for 53 miles of epic fail.

At least there's honest-to-God reconstruction and modernization efforts happening on other substandard Interstate segments in Pennsylvania (I-70 near Pittsburgh, I-78 near Allentown, I-80 near Stroudsburg, I-83 near Harrisburg and York).

[silverback1065]

I-76 in Philadelphia and I-376 in Pittsburgh combine for 53 miles of epic fail.

At least there's honest-to-God reconstruction and modernization efforts happening on other substandard Interstate segments in Pennsylvania (I-70 near Pittsburgh, I-78 near Allentown, I-80 near Stroudsburg, I-83 near Harrisburg and York).

seems like a lot of substandard roads reside in pennsylvania

[GCrites]

It's hilly and has been an important state for a long time.

[bugo]

No way to bike between West Memphis and Memphis without using an Interstate shoulder, which is in a legal gray area. But this will be fixed when a path is added to one side of the old Harahan Bridge (where you used to drive before the current bridges).

There's a sidewalk on the south side of the Memphis-Arkansas bridge (I-55/US 61/(63)/64/70/79). Are bikes not allowed on the sidewalk?

[NE2]

No way to bike between West Memphis and Memphis without using an Interstate shoulder, which is in a legal gray area. But this will be fixed when a path is added to one side of the old Harahan Bridge (where you used to drive before the current bridges).

There's a sidewalk on the south side of the Memphis-Arkansas bridge (I-55/US 61/(63)/64/70/79). Are bikes not allowed on the sidewalk?

The sidewalk just ends on the Arkansas side.

[txstateends]

The Orange Avenue grade crossing in Taft, FL.  It needs to be grade separated as it is at a rail yard entrance where you have trains moving real slow, stopping, then backing up causing up to fifteen minuet delays which during rush hour many cars back up into it on either direction of Orange Avenue.

Being the rails have to right away over roads (only marine traffic is the only thing rails do not dominate) there is no time limit or specific time that a train has to abide by at road grades.  Basically a train can stop and spend hours there and no law can stop it from doing that.

Anyway, it is a nightmare at times to travel that stretch at any time.

Trains and the companies that own them can be ticketed if they block the crossing for too long.  And yes, there are laws that stop that and are merely ignored unless enforced.

BTW, what's a fifteen minuet delay?  Fifteen minuets in a row?  Otherwise, the word is spelled "minute".

Aww, come on.  Let him have his 15 minuets of fame

[cpzilliacus]

Maryland has some of these old design deficiencies:

I-495 (Capital Beltway) Exit 31 in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland - it was a full cloverleaf at one time, but the ramp from Outer Loop (westbound) of I-495 to southbound Md. 97 (Georgia Avenue) was removed.  But the three remaining cloverleaf ramps are extremely tight (this interchange was designed and engineered several years before most of the rest of the Capital Beltway.

I-270 Exit 22 in Hyattstown, Montgomery County, Maryland - this interchange was designed in the pre-Interstate era (I-270 was originally built as U.S. 240 (Washington National Pike)).

Virginia

I-495 (Capital Beltway) Exit 44 in McLean, Fairfax County, Virginia - this diamond interchange is little changed from 1964, and is frequently overwhelmed by traffic.

Va. 267 (Dulles Toll Road) Exit 11 in Reston, Fairfax County, Virginia at Va. 286 (Fairfax County Parkway) - a diamond interchange that should never have been designed that way, since it was built to connect the Toll Road to the Parkway, an expressway-class road.

I-95 (Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike) Exit 74C in Richmond, Virginia at East Broad Street features very sharp ramps and a design that dates back to the days when the Turnpike still charged tolls.  Ironically, it is right around the corner from the Central Office of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).

[The High Plains Traveler]

OK, I-35W at I-494 is close to the busiest interchange in Minnesota, and it's a tight cloverleaf that doesn't even have C/D lanes. There have been several plans floating around; the latest is to make it a turbine within the current interchange footprint.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bloomington,+MN/@44.8612166,-93.2968016,1199m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x87f624fa09f49987:0x3a72974cdc3905bc

[flowmotion]

The original ramps from the Bay Bridge southwest to 5th Street in San Francisco (which used to carry US 40 and 50) were rebuilt recently...but remain left exits off of 80 west, still forcing drivers who were in the leftmost lanes of the bridge to merge upon reaching the city to remain in the through direction.

Back in the 1990s, Caltrans had a plan to fix the downtown SF exits so they were somewhat sensible. But freeway construction is politically radioactive in San Francisco, so they made the intentional choice to rebuild everything almost entirely as-it-was, hoping nobody would notice it was all new construction.

The I-80/US-101 Central Freeway interchange fits this thread, as it is the classic 1959 design with very short left-side "merge or die" lanes. https://goo.gl/maps/piKCw

Again this is a "don't touch it" thing, because if any work was proposed, people would just want to rip the whole thing down.

[DevalDragon]

Interstate 35E and Interstate 30 in Dallas is quite the cluster with the left exits, short merge areas and sharp curves.

[1995hoo]

cp, do you perchance mean Exit 44? There is no Exit 55 on the Beltway (closest two are Braddock Road, Exit 54, and Shirley Highway, Exit 57). I assume you meant to refer to the interchange with Georgetown Pike.

[SteveG1988]

I would consider the Trenton Freeway (NJ-29) to be fairly deficent once it passes under the Amtrak bridge.

Some highlights:

Floods due to the fact that it is really close to the river, and built below a flood stage.

US1 connection is for southbound only, to get to US1 north you have to use NJ 33.

The stop lights at Mercer County WaterFront Park (Sponsored by Arm and Hammer, home of the Sam Pulemeri Jr Field) built as a way to get the tunnel project moving.

Tight cloverleaf at the Calhoun street bridge, not that big of a deal due to weight limits, but hinders NJ29 due to the lack of consistent accel and decel lanes.

Moving out of trenton, The weird I-95 interchange. That is being fixed though.

[Roadrunner75]

Moving out of trenton, The weird I-95 interchange. That is being fixed though.

What do they have planned there?  No more wacky ramps crossing each other at grade with all the "Yield to Left" and "Yield to Right" signs?

[jeffandnicole]

Moving out of trenton, The weird I-95 interchange. That is being fixed though.

What do they have planned there?  No more wacky ramps crossing each other at grade with all the "Yield to Left" and "Yield to Right" signs?

Thru movements for Rt. 29. Roundabouts to get to/from 95. http://www.scudderfallsbridge.com/images/FigureIII-21route29interchangegraphic.jpg

And the flooding issues are supposed to be addressed in a few upcoming projects as well.

[roadman65]

The John Young Parkway & I-4 interchange in Orlando is still not perfect after 3 attempts to fix it.

Then the I-4/ SR 482 intersection is been a nightmare for years, but maybe the ultimate I-4 project might handle that one.  However I have seen the plans and really only the Kirkman, OBT, SR 408, and 436 interchanges seem to only have major reconfigurations as part of the major overhaul of that one soon to be project.


BTW, minuet or minute, considering typos are easy, I would take that this is not a music thread, we can all figure that one out, but I am glad I gave some of you a good laugh though.

[cpzilliacus]

cp, do you perchance mean Exit 44? There is no Exit 55 on the Beltway (closest two are Braddock Road, Exit 54, and Shirley Highway, Exit 57). I assume you meant to refer to the interchange with Georgetown Pike.

Exit 44, Va. 193 is correct, and fixed the post above.

Thanks for pointing that out.