I-110 TX signed?

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Was browsing Wikipedia today and found this:



I'm surprised this has not been mentioned here yet. Is this sign just a fluke or is I-110 in El Paso now a signed route?

resized the image

[agentsteel53]

I have no idea if that's a fluke.  Looks like the sign is just over the international border coming in from Juarez, correct? 

alas, while I am going to El Paso in a month, I have no plans on going down that close to the border, so I won't be able to get a photo of that sign.  I can, however, see if other 110 signs exist.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

This was the previous sign at that location (2006) courtesy Interstate-Guide.com:



I presume this would be entering the US from Mexico per the description.

[agentsteel53]

looks like the gantry itself is unchanged, with just the sign getting swapped out.

interestingly, it looks like the gantry was originally designed to hold the larger sign, so maybe it was planned to sign I-110 all along?

[agentsteel53]

most interestingly, there is a pair of classic 1961 spec US-62 shields in the background!  I may have to take the surface street down there to photograph those.  Looks like I can do that without actually having to enter from Mexico, as I would need to do with the 110 green sign.

google maps, btw, shows 110 shields on the access roads to the border, but not on the Patriot Freeway itself.

[BigMattFromTexas]

So what's wrong with going into Mexico? I've gone there like 20 times with no problem.
BigMatt

[agentsteel53]

So what's wrong with going into Mexico? I've gone there like 20 times with no problem.
BigMatt

not worth bending over for the border patrol just to get a photo of one sign.  if we were to go, we'd do it to explore Juarez in detail, and we just don't have the time for that right now.

I am going to Mexico the week before my El Paso trip, but it'll be out here in San Felipe, Baja Cal.

[BigMattFromTexas]

So what's wrong with going into Mexico? I've gone there like 20 times with no problem.
BigMatt

not worth bending over for the border patrol just to get a photo of one sign.  if we were to go, we'd do it to explore Juarez in detail, and we just don't have the time for that right now.

I am going to Mexico the week before my El Paso trip, but it'll be out here in San Felipe, Baja Cal.

Oh, well that makes sense...
BigMatt

[sammack]

Sorry to have missed this so long

The 110 shield and the new panels were installed as part of two sign rehab projs



El Paso 0924-00-059

El Paso 0924-00-067

[Alps]

I should have tacked onto this thread - Is it possible to U-turn just before the border?  Aerial and street view seems to indicate in the affirmative.

[Alex]

There was a u-turn option available in 2006, but I do not know if it spares you from going through the customs stations. The ones in California do allow you to turn around before actually entering the booths.

[Alps]

There was a u-turn option available in 2006, but I do not know if it spares you from going through the customs stations.

Sure looks like it occurs just prior to customs.  I'd bring a passport just in case... plus is visiting a new country, minus is the line to get back.

[vdeane]

If it's right by Mexican customs, wouldn't you have to go through US customs afterwards?  I don't think NY has any U-turn things at the Canadian border, so I don't know what they're like.

[J N Winkler]

My personal rule of thumb is that if I cannot see where the international boundary is until after I have walked across it (I once entered Canada inadvertently in this way near Bonners Ferry, Idaho), or getting near the border means passing the US inspection station handling traffic coming from the other direction, I clear myself through immigration in the ordinary way, explaining (if necessary) that I did not process through immigration on the other side.

I have done this ever since I was chewed out by an immigration inspector at Lukeville, Arizona for walking all the way to the border and then walking back to my car without stopping to be cleared (they almost sent cars out to chase me).  Since no part of me other than half of my right foot was actually in Mexico, and I never went through Mexican immigration, I assumed I had no need to deal with their counterparts on the US side.  It was made very clear to me that the US inspectors insist on inspecting everything that comes from the general area of the border, regardless of whether the border was actually crossed.  By long legal tradition immigration and Customs officers have very wide powers of search and the Fourth Amendment does not really apply to them in any meaningful way (no need for reasonable suspicion or probable cause, no need for a warrant to search, no limit to search, destructive search of cars, etc. is fully allowed).

I had not taken my passport with me on this trip to Arizona but, after this episode at Lukeville, I made a rule of never travelling to a border state without it.  I had to pull it out a couple of years ago when there was a misunderstanding at a Border Patrol checkpoint where I thought I was being flagged through but they thought I was trying to avoid inspection and were all ready to send out pursuit vehicles until I looked in my rearview mirror (pulling away very slowly as a matter of personal policy) and saw them running after me with hands on holsters.

[BigMattFromTexas]

The U-turn in Del Rio/Acuna, MX is before the toll booth to get to the bridge, so if you turn around, you don't have to go through U.S. customs, as you've never left the country. So I'd think that's how it is all over, but you never know..
BigMatt

[Sykotyk]

If you never pass the US Customs checkpoint, there's nothing to worry about. If you cross that, and then turn back, you better be prepared to go through the U.S. checkpoint.

And with J N Winkler's remarks, yes, customs pretty much has probable cause just by you trying to enter the country (they can't assume you're a roadgeek trying to photograph a sign or clinch a stretch of asphalt as a plausible reason to do what you did). So, be prepared to go through the checkpoint.

I've crossed the border many times. Be honest. Don't hesitate to answer anything. Any delay will probably be seen as suppression of some fact they should know.

Also, you don't need a passport to reenter your own country. They can't 'keep you out'. May be a PITA to get back, but I've crossed many times without a passport since the newest rule has come out that requires you to carry one. They just do a little more thorough check on you when you come back across.

Sykotyk

[agentsteel53]

I should have tacked onto this thread - Is it possible to U-turn just before the border?  Aerial and street view seems to indicate in the affirmative.

yes.  I did it about 10 feet before the border in August, and did not get stopped - even as two guys drove past a whole lot of customs officers, with cameras going off like crazy.

the 110 shields were an incidental bonus - the real target was a '61 spec US-62 shield at the end of the ramp from the customs station.

btw, there is a very safe and easy way to get a photo of a 110 shield - they exist southbound on US-54 approaching I-10 now as well.

[agentsteel53]

It was made very clear to me that the US inspectors insist on inspecting everything that comes from the general area of the border, regardless of whether the border was actually crossed.  

yep, I got stopped in Derby Line, Vermont for walking into Canada by about four feet to take a photo of a STOP/ARRET sign.  given that the town is split in two by an international boundary (thanks, drunken surveyors playing a practical joke in the 1700s), you'd imagine they give people more leeway there, but absolutely not.  They insist on chewing out any fool who does the obvious thing and steps a couple into Canada and steps back.

I just wonder - if little Johnny accidentally kicks his ball into Canada, does he have to file an export permit???

the moral of the story is: don't fuck with international boundaries.  People really pop a lot more woodies than is rational on behalf of their precious invisible lines.

[NE2]

btw, there is a very safe and easy way to get a photo of a 110 shield - they exist southbound on US-54 approaching I-10 now as well.

So I-110 is now being signed in its entirety? Time for me to add it to OpenStreetMap.

Any idea where signs end northbound? Is it where you have to choose between US 54 east/I-10 west or I-10 east (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?node=179218927), or do signs point left at that split until the merge with US 54?

[national highway 1]

Does anyone know why TXDOT is signing I-110 now, but not when the interstate was built?

[vdeane]

If you never pass the US Customs checkpoint, there's nothing to worry about. If you cross that, and then turn back, you better be prepared to go through the U.S. checkpoint.

And with J N Winkler's remarks, yes, customs pretty much has probable cause just by you trying to enter the country (they can't assume you're a roadgeek trying to photograph a sign or clinch a stretch of asphalt as a plausible reason to do what you did). So, be prepared to go through the checkpoint.

I've crossed the border many times. Be honest. Don't hesitate to answer anything. Any delay will probably be seen as suppression of some fact they should know.

Also, you don't need a passport to reenter your own country. They can't 'keep you out'. May be a PITA to get back, but I've crossed many times without a passport since the newest rule has come out that requires you to carry one. They just do a little more thorough check on you when you come back across.

Sykotyk

I do have a passport, so no worries there if I'm ever in that area, but I don't see how I could explain to customs.  I doubt they understand roadgeeks.  Same reason I don't go on ON 401 on my way to/from college even though Google Maps says it's 10 minutes faster than the route I currently go on (and would mean I don't have to deal with two lane roads until Prescott).

[agentsteel53]

Same reason I don't go on ON 401 on my way to/from college even though Google Maps says it's 10 minutes faster than the route I currently go on

how much delay does Google Maps estimate for crossing the border twice?  I've crossed into the US in as little as 20 seconds - but it was around 4am with absolutely no line.

[corco]

I've crossed into the US in as little as 20 seconds - but it was around 4am with absolutely no line.

Man, every time I have ever crossed the border in the middle of the night (once at SR 539 in Washington at 1 AM and once on I-91 in Vermont at 230 AM) coming into the USA I have been thoroughly searched. Of course, both times I was of the age where I was legal to drink in Canada but not in the US and they explained that they were looking for booze. The Vermont search was super-sketchy. I was with two other guys from Idaho in an Idaho registered car driving from Quebec to Vermont at 2 AM. We had been on the road for three days and not showered or shaved, so we looked like crap- we were also exhausted- we had been on the road since 330 AM, heading from Madison WI to Lincoln NH with a long stop in South Bend, Indiana and Toronto rushhour and an attempt to find something to do in Montreal (the plan was to spend the night in Montreal, but with no organization we decided to press on), so we certainly looked intoxicated.

I was by myself when I crossed from BC into Washington- I had gone to a piano concert at 10 that night in Vancouver for extra credit for a class, and the border guard was skeptical.

I doubt they understand roadgeeks.

In the 8 times I have crossed either direction, I have had my car searched 6 times (four of which occurred going INTO Canada). I figure the worst case is they'll search your car, you won't have anything illegal, and you'll keep going. Once it happens enough times, it stops being traumatic.

[agentsteel53]

when we crossed in at Niagara in 20 seconds, we were definitely unshaven and on the road for far too long ... but we were both over 21 so there was no booze concern.

[Sykotyk]

Worst I had it was 3am crossing from I-190 to 405 near Niagara Falls. It was Halloween night and I was 17 at the time. Spent about two hours on the Canadian side getting my car thoroughly ransacked. I got waived back when reentering the U.S., go figure.

Last time I crossed was from Detroit to Windsor on the Ambassador Bridge and returning via the tunnel. Canada inspected my car pretty good (Ohio resident in a PA car crossing from Detroit in the evening. Throw in the fact my grandfather's car has a kill switch to disable a defective alarm system, and I had a fun half hour there. They mentioned it would be troublesome getting back into the U.S., and it was. But not nearly as bad as it was for the other guy in the holding room. I just had my car checked out and was let through in about a half hour. The other guy was 18-19 years old and distraught. His friend (whose car they had crossed from Canada in) was handcuffed and arrested on the spot and the car impounded and therefore the friend, in the holding room, was under intense scrutiny. He had no money and no other way to get home even when they do release him.

One thing with Canada, if you have any illegal drugs (or even, I've heard, prescription drugs outside their original bottles), they will confiscate your car, no questions. So, don't screw around. Several times I was told, basically by customs, "If there's drugs in the car and we find them, you're under arrest and we keep your car, even if you're not the owner. But, if you tell us there are drugs, we confiscate them, and you're free to return to the U.S. with your car." So, at least they're upfront about it. Come clean, you keep the car and are barred from entering. Lie, and they catch you, and you're in serious trouble.