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#61

Southeast / Re: I-40 in North Carolina

Last post by sprjus4 - Today at 12:03:47 PM

They are not "stuck with it" -- TDOT and NCDOT need to start thinking toward the future.

The relocations that I have proposed would be 10 to 20 miles in length. Should be doable for less than $100 million per mile.

The total cost to fully rebuild I-40 through the gorge is projected to exceed $1 billion. Plus enormous disruption by the current situation. The current alignment is a wasting asset.

Here's the latest on the I-40 closure and reconstruction through the Pigeon River Gorge between North Carolina and Tennessee.

How many months closed?
+ The highway was destroyed by Hurricane Helene on September 28, 2024, and reopened to restricted traffic on March 1, 2025.
+ That's a five-month full closure, during which no through traffic was allowed across the state line.

How many months until both roadways are open?
+ As of now, only one lane in each direction is open, with narrow shoulders, no emergency pull-offs, and speed limits of 35–40 mph.
+ Full restoration is expected to take 2 to 3 years, meaning both roadways may not be fully open until 2027 or 2028.
+ NCDOT says they're only 10–15% into the design phase for permanent reconstruction.

Latest cost estimate
+ The total cost to fully rebuild I-40 through the gorge is projected to exceed $1 billion.
+ In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $352.6 million in emergency relief funds, including:
+ $250 million for North Carolina DOT (I-40 repairs)
+ $70 million for Tennessee DOT (I-40 and I-26 repairs)

https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2024/2024-12-20-i-40-gorge-delay.aspx
https://www.ncdot.gov/helene-recovery/Pages/helene-repairs.aspx


The I-26 route is an emergency detour, and it has its own severe problems from the same storm event.

As of late October 2024, Interstate 26 in Unicoi County, Tennessee has been partially reopened following extensive damage from Hurricane Helene. Here's the current status:

Reopening Details
+ One lane in each direction is open between mile markers 39 and 40, using the westbound bridge with a temporary fix.
+ The eastbound bridge is still under repair; once complete, traffic will shift to allow permanent repairs on the westbound side.
+ Oversized loads (over 12 feet wide) are not permitted due to the shared bridge configuration.
+ Exit 40 (Jackson Love Highway) remains closed, though entrance ramps are open.

Ongoing work -- TDOT is actively working to restore full capacity, with hopes of reconnecting the entire corridor within 30 to 45 days from mid-October 2025. Until then, commercial traffic is being rerouted via I-81 and I-77.

https://www.tn.gov/tdot/news/2024/10/1/tdot-storm-damage-update.html

Even with this long post, you still don't get the memo. And you don't live in NC. Moving on.

And still commenting nonetheless.

#62

Off-Topic / Re: Changing one letter of a t...

Last post by kphoger - Today at 12:00:10 PM

Things you thought you'd ate but then ended up liking
Things you thought you'd hate but then ended up licking
Things you thought you'd rate but then ended up liking

I intentionally didn't include "road-related" in the thread title, even though I correctly assumed that decision would lead people to reply with off-topic things, specifically in order to make it a good candidate for this thread.  And yet, somehow, you still didn't come up with the version I had in mind.

But, I must admit, I like the second one.  Clever.

#63

Off-Topic / Re: Massive Lakes

Last post by kphoger - Today at 11:57:15 AM

My brain changed one letter of this thread title, and I thought it was actually ON-topic.

#64

Off-Topic / Re: Massive Lakes

Last post by mgk920 - Today at 11:48:58 AM

Are you missing Lake Missoula and Lake Agassiz?

Did I say 'all' ? ? ?

Mike

#65

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley / Re: Michigan Notes

Last post by wanderer2575 - Today at 11:44:57 AM

A couple upcoming open houses for metro Detroit projects:

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is hosting a final open house to share the findings of its feasibility study for the I-75/M-102 (8 Mile Road) interchange in the cities of Detroit and Hazel Park.  Attendees are invited to learn more about the study findings, technical work and how public input helped shape the proposed recommendations.  MDOT staff and consultants will be available to answer questions.

Tuesday, July 29, 2025
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
A brief presentation at 5:45 p.m.

Hazel Park District Library, Event Room
123 E Nine Mile Road
Hazel Park, MI 48030

https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/news-outreach/pressreleases/2025/07/15/mdot-open-house-july-29-to-discuss-i-75


The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is hosting a public meeting to discuss an overview of a planned M-153 (Ford Road) rebuilding project in Canton Township.  MDOT, Wayne County and Canton Township are partnering to rebuild M-153 (Ford Road) between Sheldon Road and I-275, including boulevards to eliminate left turns to reduce crashes and improve traffic flow through the corridor.  The project is currently scheduled for 2028-2029, with work expected to begin in spring 2028.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025
4-6 p.m.

Summit on the Park
46000 Summit Parkway
Canton Township, MI 48188

https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/news-outreach/pressreleases/2025/07/15/mdot-public-meeting-aug-20-to-discuss-m-153

#66

General Highway Talk / Re: License Plate News

Last post by kphoger - Today at 11:43:29 AM

Would a minor change like simplifying the seal be enough of a change to constitute a "new design" and trigger a total replate? I would have to imagine there would be some carve-out in whatever rule causes that which would cover very small changes of that nature (after all, it's relatively routine for US states to make minor adjustments to things like fonts and element placement for marginal gains in readability or manufacturing efficiency, learned from experience in the field; it would make no sense to do a full replate for most of those).

I don't see any verbiage in the document that specifies either way.  However, the guidelines put forth by the federal government in 2016 are rather strict and uniform.  You might look at Mexico's current issues and think there is a lot of liberty granted to the states in their design but, if you look closely, you'll see that they all contain pretty much the same elements in the same size and in a small list of arrangements.  That particular element in the bottom-right corner of the plate is required to be the state coat of arms (escudo de la entidad federativa);  the document does allow it to be in a different corner than the bottom-right, and some states take advantage of that option, but Chihuahua is not one of them.  There is also a requirement for the coat of arms to be "protected with transparent material to ensure its useful life for a period of three years" (§ 5.3.3).

But, looking around, I do see some states that use a simplified version of their coat or arms.  Baja California's current issue, for example, appears to use a monochrome version of their shield.  So yes, I suppose it's possible that Chihuahua did a minor tweak to its coat of arms recently.  But I still suspect that's not the case.

#67

Southeast / Re: I-40 in North Carolina

Last post by Beltway - Today at 11:40:19 AM

Latest cost estimate
+ The total cost to fully rebuild I-40 through the gorge is projected to exceed $1 billion.
+ In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $352.6 million in emergency relief funds, including:
+ $250 million for North Carolina DOT (I-40 repairs)
+ $70 million for Tennessee DOT (I-40 and I-26 repairs)

Even with this long post, you still don't get the memo. And you don't live in NC. Moving on.

How about people that live in Tennessee?

#68

Sports / Re: 2025 College Football Seas...

Last post by NWI_Irish96 - Today at 11:37:51 AM

....

The PAC 12 should have seen this coming and have been aggressively courting Texas and Oklahoma long before the SEC came for them.

They did. In the 2010–2012 realignment cycle, the Pac-10 tried to become the Pac-16 by adding Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. Colorado joined. Texas balked. There were multiple reports at the time that a major reason was that Texas wanted to establish its own TV network—which it did in 2011 when the Longhorn Network debuted—and that the Pac-## would not allow that but the Big 12 would. After Texas declined to move, the other Big 12 schools (except Colorado) decided to stay put as well.

It's interesting that later Texas did shut down the Longhorn Network as part of the move to the SEC, but I guess that just underscores the difference between the SEC's market presence and the Pac-10's.

Should have given Texas whatever they wanted.

#69

Off-Topic / Re: Using AI to Moderate Discu...

Last post by mgk920 - Today at 11:33:54 AM

'AI' looks too much like 'Al' for this sort of thread title to not be funny.

Whenever I parse AI as AL, I think: "Why am I so soft in the middle, when the rest of my life is so hard?"

It's unnecessary garbage; if people want to have a conversation with a chat bot, they should keep that to themselves.

I mean, I can see why some forums would want that, but that is awfully dystopian and anti-free speech. Could you imagine if the AI were set up in such a way that it regulated what certain people had to say, but let people on the opposite side of the issue say whatever they wanted?

I could see it in use for someone's first post, though I don't think AI is going to be able to cover every aspect of a subject (or range of subjects) with the same precision.

From past experience in moderating a much larger forum, if someone's first post is to talk about anything other than the main scope of discussion (with the exception of login/registration issues), they are 99.5% likely to be Bad News (spammer, bot, immature individual, or a formerly-banned member rejoining). That last 0.5% is a tossup between not understanding the core discussion (for example, someone joining AARoads to voice a concern about a car broken down on 15th Avenue in Slackersburg), or someone with a very weird fetish.

In some forvms that I frequent I now have to use 'creative' misspellings of certain key words and use word/phases such as 'delete' or 'self delete' in postings just to get past the AI moderation.

Just a sign of the times, I guess.

Mike

#70

Southeast / Re: I-40 in North Carolina

Last post by Strider - Today at 11:21:52 AM

The Asheville Watchdog had a lengthy opinion column today about I-40 through the WNC mountains.

He also included and featured a bit of my history that I wrote last fall.

https://avlwatchdog.org/opinion-locating-i-40-through-the-pigeon-river-gorge-was-a-bad-idea-but-were-stuck-with-it/

Another opinion article. Yawn.

Did you even read the article?

Yeah I did, otherwise I wouldn't have responded. I stand with my comment regardless.