Hello!

[Tom958]

I'm Tom958, from Lawrenceville, GA, not too far north Atlanta off I-85. I used to post on MTR under my real name, and I post occasionally at skyscrapercity.com as Tom 958 (with a space). I've even done a few photo features there. I prefer my photo features to be narratives rater that photo dumps because I usually have things I want to explain or comment about. Actually, I have about six features worth of photos right now, but I never seem to get around to posting them.

I'm in (mostly) multifamily residential construction, and until recently I've had the good fortune to be able to work mostly in and around Atlanta. But since the housing crash, more of our work has been out of town; for me so far, in Nashville, north Georgia, and Charleston. As a matter of fact, later on today I'll be leaving for my last trip to Charleston. I thought about leaving early enough to get some more photos, but it's raining, so I won't.

Before, I was an activist on transportation and development issues in Atlanta, from 1994 until burnout took over in 2002.  I don't want to get too far into controversy, though-- I'm here mainly because I'm fascinated by roads and the process by which they're programmed and built. I have a particular interest in situations where different agencies take different approaches to what appear to be the same challenges. In fact, I freely admit that I have very little idea of what should be done about metro Atlanta.

By way of illustration, I think my favorite road is I-85 from Atlanta all the way to Virginia. My mom's family is from Tidewater and my daughter's been attending college in Charlotte and Greensboro, so I've traveled it too many times to count and watched it evolve over a period of five decades. Even now, I notice something new every time I travel it, and I pity the muggles who don't. 

[jcarte29]

Welcome Tom958! Your insights are welcome here, and actually I am a bit inspired you found work in transportation, I kind of hope I do the same at some point.

My sister used to live near Lawrenceville and still lives in Metro Atlanta, and we are both from Winston-Salem originally.

I-85 has seen a lot of changes over the years, especially in North Carolina, and still growing as Davidson/Rowan Counties are expanding the road to 8 lanes and completely replacing the Yadkin River Bridge. They are also expanding it to 8 lanes through Cabarrus Co and after that is done (2014 maybe?) it will be 6-8 lanes from Gastonia and West Charlotte all the way to the I-85/I-40 split miles from Durham, which is kind of fascinating. NC feels that highway is crucial to trade and business throughout the state and for those passing through.

Best of luck and look forward to your input.

BTW what college(s) has your daughter attended?

[Alex]

Welcome to the board Tom958! I recently made two passes through the Atlanta area over the holidays. Was fortunate enough to hit the area during low periods of traffic, including a midday pass through on New Year's Eve. Traffic was moving so well, I took the chance to drive the Downtown Connector in both directions from I-20 to just north of the I-75/85 split to redocument it for the site. Love that 16-lane configuration.

While researching for a recent I-20 update/revision on the guide, I came across the "Freeing the Freeways" reference in a newsbank search. You likely are familiar with all that they did with that based upon your background. I only scratched the surface with my research, but was fascinated in comparing my 1984 ADC Atlanta atlas with current maps to note the many reconfigurations due to that 17-year project.

[Tom958]

...and completely replacing the Yadkin River Bridge.

I swear, I wondered if I'd ever see that happen.  Actually, I've been there since construction started-- it seemed a bit anticlimactic after all of these years.

One thing that amazes me is that NC four-laned 29 through Salisbury, then replaced it with a freeway before the Interstate system was even started!

Something I'd like to know: I suspect that the low-grade freeway segment from there to the WS cutoff was actually built as a regular four lane highway, then upgraded to a freeway later on-- hence the tight frontage roads. Would you know about that?

Oh: my daughter started at Piedmont in Demorest, GA, then went to Central Piedmont in Charlotte, and is now at UNC Greensboro.

You likely are familiar with all that they did with that based upon your background.

Yes, it was a very interesting time. The key decisions were as to in which cases to modify what was already there and when to tear everything out and start again.

[jcarte29]

...and completely replacing the Yadkin River Bridge.

I swear, I wondered if I'd ever see that happen.  Actually, I've been there since construction started-- it seemed a bit anticlimactic after all of these years.

One thing that amazes me is that NC four-laned 29 through Salisbury, then replaced it with a freeway before the Interstate system was even started!

Something I'd like to know: I suspect that the low-grade freeway segment from there to the WS cutoff was actually built as a regular four lane highway, then upgraded to a freeway later on-- hence the tight frontage roads. Would you know about that?

I have no idea, but as you pointed out it definitely isn't interstate grade as-is, but the project underway is stripping everything and rebuilding it ALL. It will be 6-8 lanes all the way to the US 52 split, which btw is going to be I-285, hopefully sometime THIS YEAR.

I had some friends who graduated from UNC-G, great school. Some of my credits came from High Point U, I eventually graduated from Coastal Carolina CC here in Jacksonville NC.

Be sure to check out the "SouthEast" forum for topics from the Triad and other NC parts, lots going on to be excited about (and patient at the same time sadly LOL)

[Tom958]

Yeah, I've got a lot of reading to do. 

[ctsignguy]

Welcome!

[Tom958]

Gravedig! I'm doing that too much because...

For a long while, I was unable to post here. Now I can. This is a reintroduction, FWIW.

I'm trying to get into the swing of things around here, which includes the Herculean task of attempting to read everything (!) without too much gravedigging, and I'm not entirely successful on either front.  Still, my first graveding ended up OK, so maybe it'll happen again.

Anyway, it's good to be here, and I hope I'm not making too much of a pest of myself. 

[hotdogPi]

Hello, and welcome!