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I-95/PA Turnpike Golden Spike Meet - September 2018

Started by briantroutman, July 23, 2018, 03:38:35 PM

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briantroutman

I've been working with a representative of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to go through possible options for a tour of the new I-95/PA Turnpike interchange prior to its official public opening–which is currently slated for mid/late September. So as to a general timeframe, we'd probably be looking at a date after August 27th but before September 15th. The PTC is willing to provide a decent level of access and assistance, so this meet will be far more than a quick unguided drive-through.

Here's a rough outline of what we might do:

- midday - meet at a Bristol-area restaurant for lunch, map trading, and conversation
- early afternoon - drive to PTC project office for tour, meet and greet with a project engineer and Q&A session
- mid afternoon - board PTC vans, drive through project area with stops for photo ops and questions
- late afternoon - return to project office for wrap-up with engineer; return to our own vehicles
- early evening - dinner

But there's a bit of a catch: The representative stressed that they'd strongly prefer to arrange this on a weekday–understandably, since the engineers and employees will all be on the clock at that time. Knowing that a weekday would be challenging for many possible attendees, I asked what our options would be if we insisted on a weekend. The PTC rep couldn't commit to anything yet, but she was fairly certain that we'd be more limited–perhaps the project office visit and engineer would have to be eliminated.

So at this point, I want to put all options on the table and get your input. If we plan for a weekday, how many of you would be able to attend? Might it be better to plan for either a Friday or a Monday (to allow longer trips to spill into the weekend), and are there any specific dates that won't work for you at all? (I'll assume that Labor Day is off the table.)

It might be better to eliminate the days that WON'T work right away, then discuss the remaining dates that might be good possibilities. Please select any of the dates that are absolutely impossible for you. And if no weekdays are possible, let me know that, too. You can make as many selections as you wish and change your answers if your plans change. I want as many interested people to attend as possible, but I'm also interested in the possibility of having access to the project office and an engineer from the team. Let's figure out whether it's realistically possible or not.


hbelkins

I said no to all the September options. I have two work-related trips the first half of that month, plus it's both my wife's birth month and our anniversary month, so I don't see any possibility of traveling in September.

I left the August options open. I'm considering a personal trip to the other big P city on the other end of the Keystone State in August, but could work part of that trip into a jaunt to Philly.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

oscar

I voted for Th 9/6 (but not Fri 9/7), and Mo 9/10, as most likely to work around a likely weekend trip to the Jersey Shore. But my interest is borderline.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

vdeane

It's hard to give a firm idea either way for the weekday dates because of the possibility of meetings and stuff springing up, but I do know that I'll be unavailable Labor Day weekend since I travel to visit family then.  I find the idea of a Friday meet intriguing - I could take the direct route down, stay overnight, clinch some stuff on the way back Saturday, then rest on Sunday.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

cl94

I can say right now that you won't get a weekday with a lot of people. Not going to happen. I could probably spin my trip as an education opportunity and get out of class, but no way can I guarantee that.

Quote from: vdeane on July 23, 2018, 08:13:13 PM
It's hard to give a firm idea either way for the weekday dates because of the possibility of meetings and stuff springing up

That. I have no idea when project meetings will be called half of the time. Yeah, I could phone in if necessary, but that's a PITA.
Please note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of my employer or any of its partner agencies.

Travel Mapping (updated weekly)

Alps

I'm just going to see when this falls and take it from there.

jpi

Too bad 9/22 is not an option, I will be in central PA that weekend for a toy show in Hershey on Sunday, like Alpert said I will wait and see when this falls and go from there but I doubt I would be able to make it but I may take a personal trip out there after 9/23 to check this out
Jason Ilyes
JPI
Lebanon, TN
Home Of The Barrel

jeffandnicole

At least so far, I'm surprised that Fridays and Mondays have some of the highest numbers where people can't attend.  I would've thought taking a day off and making it a long weekend would be more popular. 

vdeane

Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 24, 2018, 01:11:57 PM
At least so far, I'm surprised that Fridays and Mondays have some of the highest numbers where people can't attend.  I would've thought taking a day off and making it a long weekend would be more popular. 
I wouldn't be surprised if people are getting confused and voting for the dates they ARE available.  Oscar's post appears to say that's what he did, for example.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

jeffandnicole

Quote from: vdeane on July 24, 2018, 01:35:33 PM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 24, 2018, 01:11:57 PM
At least so far, I'm surprised that Fridays and Mondays have some of the highest numbers where people can't attend.  I would've thought taking a day off and making it a long weekend would be more popular. 
I wouldn't be surprised if people are getting confused and voting for the dates they ARE available.  Oscar's post appears to say that's what he did, for example.

That's what I was worried about too...even though Brian did try to highlight that fact!

oscar

#10
The poll seems to be set up that, contrary to Brian's intentions, people can't change or update their selections.

Both for that reason, and also because of confusion about whether to select preferred dates or bad dates (the wording of the poll is unusual, to say the least), it might be best to scrap the poll and have people post their preferences. Posts can be updated, at least.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

cl94

Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 24, 2018, 01:40:15 PM
Quote from: vdeane on July 24, 2018, 01:35:33 PM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 24, 2018, 01:11:57 PM
At least so far, I'm surprised that Fridays and Mondays have some of the highest numbers where people can't attend.  I would've thought taking a day off and making it a long weekend would be more popular. 
I wouldn't be surprised if people are getting confused and voting for the dates they ARE available.  Oscar's post appears to say that's what he did, for example.

That's what I was worried about too...even though Brian did try to highlight that fact!

At least one of the votes for every Friday is real - I have unavoidable commitments on Fridays.

Quote from: oscar on July 24, 2018, 02:07:07 PM
The poll seems to be set up that, contrary to Brian's intentions, people can't change or update their selections.

Yeah, I noticed that. I mixed up one of my votes, but I can't fix it.
Please note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of my employer or any of its partner agencies.

Travel Mapping (updated weekly)

briantroutman

Hmm...I'm not sure why the poll isn't letting you change your votes. When I set it up, there was an option marked "Allow users to change vote" , which I selected.

Here's what I'll do. I can reset the vote counts to zero, and that should permit you all to re-vote. I'll also change the labels on the poll options to reiterate that each selection is a date that will not work for you. So hopefully any newcomers voting for the first time will get it right. In addition to voting (or instead, if you'd rather), feel free to post comments to the thread regarding your schedule and date preferences.

The reason why I asked for dates that will not work (as opposed to asking people to vote for preferred dates) is that any time I do scheduling for a meeting or anything else, it invariably becomes a process of elimination...everyone saying what days and times won't work for them, and then whatever is leftover becomes our pool of options. So at least as a starting point, let's try to get a quick snapshot as to the dates which won't work for the greatest number of people, and then after we take those no-go dates off the table, we can talk about preferences among the dates that remain.

PHLBOS

Quote from: briantroutman on July 24, 2018, 02:41:12 PM
Personally & given what you mentioned regarding the PTC's availability; I wouldn't even include Labor Day in your preference listing.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

briantroutman

Quote from: PHLBOS on July 24, 2018, 02:51:48 PM
Quote from: briantroutman on July 24, 2018, 02:41:12 PM
Personally & given what you mentioned regarding the PTC's availability; I wouldn't even include Labor Day in your preference listing.

Right–I don't think there's any possibility that we're doing Labor Day–with the PTC or without them. I just put it on the poll (as well as the weekend days) just so that everything would line up...consecutive days.

PHLBOS

I mentioned this to Brian via a PM and I'll throw it out there; tour or no tour, a visit to the Scudder Falls Bridge construction project could be a possible addition.  New beams for one of the spans have since been erected. 

For those that want to see and/or clinch the newly-designated I-295; this meet could be geared to accommodate that as well.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

Alps


briantroutman

#17
At a glance, the new results (after resetting the poll) look similar to the old results: The "no"  votes are rather broadly distributed, and nearly every day is out for 3-4 people.

I think we should let the voting continue for a few more days, but as I write this, the two days which seem to work for the most people are 28 August (a Tuesday) and 18 September (a Thursday). That surprises me–I assumed a Monday or a Friday would be the safest choice. Any day is fine for me, though.

But let's assume for a moment that the voting pattern holds and we're looking at one of those two days. What are your thoughts on those options? Would a fairly typical midday meet schedule (roughly noon-5, plus an optional dinner) still work well for a Tuesday or Thursday?

jeffandnicole

For me, if I'm able to make it, usually afternoons are better regardless of the date.  I'm not sure if you're shooting for a morning or afternoon tour.

briantroutman

^ I'd be happy to set up the meet in any way that will allow the greatest number of people to attend.

Based on the schedules for past road meets I've attended, I assumed that we'd spend about 90 minutes at a restaurant for the usual light lunch, conversation, and map trading. Then around 1-2 p.m., we'd move over to the project office for our Q&A session and tour. So if someone is running late, he/she could go straight to the project office and still make the remainder of the meet.

The PTC part of the event would probably wrap up by 5 p.m., and then we'd have some options as to what to do next. If enough people are interested in doing a group drive-through of "new"  I-295, we could do a convoy from the project office up to US 1 north of Trenton and have dinner in the vicinity. The only possible downside would be that traffic would be close to peak around that time.

But again, I want as many people to attend as possible (and for them to enjoy the meet) so if an earlier or later time would work better for you, please let me know.

vdeane

My plan, if the meet's on a good day for me, would be to drive down the day of the meet (close to four hours even direct, so my preferred start time would be noon), stay overnight (dinner either at the post-meet or Wawa if there isn't one), and drive back the next day clinching US 1 in NJ and NY (taking the Turnpike from exit 15E to the bridge, since I already have US 1/9 from NJ 81 to the bridge; just need to fill in some gaps south of there).  Of those two dates, the Thursday would be preferable.

I don't feel a need to re-clinch I-295.  As far as I'm concerned, I was on it when it was still I-95, and all that's changed since is the signage, so it still counts.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

jeffandnicole

An item of significance driving 295 would be seeing the construction at Scudder Falls Bridge, along with taking a look at NJ's resigning of 95 to 295. 

PHLBOS

Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 25, 2018, 02:00:33 PMAn item of significance driving 295 would be seeing the construction at Scudder Falls Bridge, along with taking a look at PA's & NJ's resigning of 95 to 295.
FTFY & the former (the Scudder Falls Bridge construction) was mentioned a few posts back.

Easily (due to proximity) & worth adding on IMHO.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

02 Park Ave

C-o-H

akotchi

I have a conflict on September 18, but August 28 would be a go for me.
Opinions here attributed to me are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer or the agencies for which I am contracted to do work.



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