Recent posts

#1

Mid-South / Re: I-10 at-grade intersection...

Last post by CtrlAltDel - Today at 03:03:43 AM

It appears that these intersections have been deofficialized. They're still there, but the regular intersection signage has been removed and replaced with official-use-only signage. I think the pavement has been removed as well.

Here's the intersection just shy of mile 97 now:


And here it is before:


I guess this is the removal being discussed at the beginning of the thread, but not too much really seems to have changed.

#2

Northwest / Re: Start and End Points for W...

Last post by ErmineNotyours - Today at 12:29:15 AM

One obvious division point is the start of the South Central Region on I-90 at Mile Post 33.29, at the over-crossing of the rail trail up to Rattlesnake Lake.  Normally regions run along county lines, but Snoqualmie Pass is important enough that they want to keep all the features in one region.  Shortly after you cross into the South Central Region from the west, you see a wide Chain Up area with no lighting and no equivalent Chain Off area in the other direction.  468th Street by the truck stop is where the freeway is often closed for bad weather.  In the other direction by Easton they used to have a large yellow MOUNTAIN PASS sign posted, because it was not so obvious from that direction.

#3

General Highway Talk / Re: XY Challenge

Last post by xonhulu - Today at 12:08:24 AM

July 14: Post the junction of a US highway with a 1 in the tens place and a US highway with a 4 in the tens place.

US 15 with US 40 and US 340 in Frederick, MD:



This one's not real, but thanks to an erroneous shield, we can pretend it's the intersection of US 611 and US 46 in Columbia, NJ:



I took this pic in 2006.  Oddly, according to GSV, US 611 is still posted here, but that US shield was replaced by another US shield but in reversed colors.

#4

General Highway Talk / Re: XY Challenge

Last post by 74/171FAN - Today at 12:07:00 AM

July 14: Post the junction of a US highway with a 1 in the tens place and a US highway with a 4 in the tens place.

US 41 intersects the south end of US 17 in Punta Gorda, FL.

US 41 SOUTH AT US 17 NORTH by Mark Moore, on Flickr

#5

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Ohio Legislature Mandates ...

Last post by thenetwork - Today at 12:05:31 AM

I-73 plus the beginnings of an outer-outerbelt would be lovely.

Findlay to Sunbury, circle down around Newark, then down to Lancaster to connect to US 33 and then to I-77 would be the cheap way to do it since US 33 doesn't have to have too much upgrading done to it.

I don't have a problem with the original plans to upgrade US 23 and US 52, but it just seems a lot of work needs to be done to get that up to snuff.

As I mentioned in another thread, if ODOT can bring SR-15 to interstate standards along the short multiplex with US-68 near Findlay, Hancock County would be readybfor interstate status. 

Wyandot County has a lot of catching up to do with eliminating at-grade intersections in order to get US-23 up to snuff.

And depending if/when/where the new freeway connector to I-71 is completed, there may be little to no additional upgrade work that needs to be done in Marion County.

#6

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Ohio Legislature Mandates ...

Last post by JREwing78 - July 13, 2025, 11:48:00 PM

Should Ohio even be pursuing construction of Interstate 73? Michigan abandoned study on their portion of 73 in 2001. West Virginia and Virginia (mostly) have no plans to construct their portion of the Interstate. If US 23 needs upgrades, do that, but without the Interstate strings attached.

Why not? Michigan won't give a s*** unless the feds want to fund reconstruction of US-23 north to Flint or building a freeway between Toledo and Jackson on their dime (or 9 cents out of said dime). But I-73's existence in Ohio doesn't need Michigan's involvement.

As long as Ohio has a logical terminus at an Interstate at each end (i-75 in Findlay and I-64 or I-77 in W Virginia), their I-73 can stand alone. It also doesn't necessarily need to encompass all of US-23 - they can shunt over to US-33 south of Columbus or US-35 SE of Chillicothe and have a logical Interstate route.

If and when Kentucky decides to make US-23 an Interstate, simply extend the I-26 routing northward towards Columbus. Extend north or west as desired along US-30, US-33, or US-35 for a logical terminus wherever. 

#7

Off-Topic / Re: AARoads Wordle

Last post by bassoon1986 - July 13, 2025, 10:47:35 PM

Thanks! I guess that was meant to have all green smiles for HONDA?

Ready to go for guesses!

#8

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Ohio Legislature Mandates ...

Last post by TempoNick - July 13, 2025, 10:45:28 PM

Should Ohio even be pursuing construction of Interstate 73? Michigan abandoned study on their portion of 73 in 2001. West Virginia and Virginia (mostly) have no plans to construct their portion of the Interstate. If US 23 needs upgrades, do that, but without the Interstate strings attached.

I personally don't like when things are done in a half-assed manner. I would like to see an Interstate so that it is done right.

#9

Off-Topic / Re: The United States divided ...

Last post by gonealookin - July 13, 2025, 10:38:41 PM

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

#10

Mid-Atlantic / Re: Delaware

Last post by jeffandnicole - July 13, 2025, 10:35:21 PM

They really can't, which is a byproduct of short-sightedness of the current design. 

The Express roadway is 2 lanes wide with shoulders. They could reduce the shoulders to a few feet on each side to add a 3rd lane, but then that puts traffic within a few feet of fairly tall jersey barriers in locations, along with the elimination of the breakdown lane.  There's also a slight curve, so that presents sight-distance issues.  The tolling location itself is constricted by the supports to the overhead equipment, which also allows maintenance personnel to work overheads without interfering with traffic below.  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tqhu4XRfMTSrbPe59 .

Did they rebuild the plaza or not?

The original plaza spanned both the NB and SB lanes. 

DelDOT then built a satellite plaza for NB traffic about 700 feet north of the original plaza, which allowed some people to pay at the original plaza, and some to bypass that plaza and pay at the satellite plaza.

When DelDOT built the express lanes, they cut down the original plaza to 7 SB lanes only. The remainder of the plaza was demoed.  They then took the 5 lane satellite NB plaza, widening it to 7 lanes.  The 2 Express lanes per direction were then added into the middle of the highway, slightly weaving to get thru the NB and SB cash plazas.

The solution would be to reconstruct the lanes and have only one lane go to the cash lanes.  Any toll authority that is building ORT infrastructure within the past ~20 years should have been doing so with the same number of lanes ORT as exist on the thru travel lanes.  They days of only some lanes being ORT with some defaulting to cash should have been over decades ago.  This was known pre-covid.  Delaware even built US 301 as AET!

It's probably not an easy fix.  While in theory the jersey barrier separating cash/express lanes could be removed and rebuilt, the elevation of the roadway differs on either side of the barrier (especially SB) and there's drainage and other considerations.  It's not as simple as just putting up another barrier and doing a minor repaving. 

To make matters a little worse, DelDOT seems intent for the time being on encouraging EZ Pass traffic to fit into the 2 Express lanes.  Quite often when I go thru the plaza (yes, I don't always take a shunpike route), all the traditional lanes are set to Cash/EZ Pass or Closed.  If they would keep a few lanes as EZ Pass only, it would encourage regulars to know that they may be able to go thru lanes that are expected to not have cars stopping to pay. 

Compare it to the NJ Turnpike's Interchange 1.  It is 2 lanes currently in the area.  It's 2 Express lanes thru the plaza.  For the 14 standard lanes on the SB side, the 6 left lanes are set as EZ Pass Only Lanes, and all cash payments are made to the right of the plaza (and of that, only a portion of those lanes are generally kept open for cash payments). https://maps.app.goo.gl/QC9qyLXS6FqKX4cT8