News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

Areas that would have been unrecognizable 10 years ago

Started by webny99, August 03, 2018, 12:55:18 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

webny99

What are some areas that have had major road construction projects, new freeways built, or even new housing developments built, such that what the area looks like now and what it looked like 10 or 15 years ago are like two totally different places?

Dodd Blvd in Lakeville, MN, is one example. The road in the link is now a four lane divided highway, in the midst of what is basically a modern-day Levittown with an incredible amount of new housing going up.

Any others?


bing101

Columbus Parkway in Vallejo used to be 2 lane road near CA-37 but that road has been widened and housing developments have been in the area for 20 years.

Fairfield CA  near the CA-12 @ I-80 and I-680 interchange was once undeveloped but has had new developments for residential and offices for the past 20 years due to affordable housing that attracts both Bay Area and Sacramento commuters.

Kniwt

Quote from: webny99 on August 03, 2018, 12:55:18 PM
What are some areas that have had major road construction projects, new freeways built, or even new housing developments built, such that what the area looks like now and what it looked like 10 or 15 years ago are like two totally different places?

Much of the area around St. George, Utah -- now the nation's fastest growing metropolitan area -- was completely undeveloped 10, five, or even two years ago.

Similar small-metro "boomtowns" -- such as Williston, N.D. and (to a somewhat lesser extent) Elko, Nev. -- probably would show similarly striking differences.

Max Rockatansky

The Loop 303 in the West Valley near Phoenix.  Back then it was just a two lane road running through cotton farms. 

US 89

Quote from: Kniwt on August 03, 2018, 06:30:39 PM
Quote from: webny99 on August 03, 2018, 12:55:18 PM
What are some areas that have had major road construction projects, new freeways built, or even new housing developments built, such that what the area looks like now and what it looked like 10 or 15 years ago are like two totally different places?
Much of the area around St. George, Utah -- now the nation's fastest growing metropolitan area -- was completely undeveloped 10, five, or even two years ago.

That was the first place I thought of. Take the Southern Parkway, for example. 10 years ago, it didn't exist. Now it's a freeway through the middle of the desert. In 10 years, it'll probably be developed into a suburbia with new malls and subdivisions.

Farmington UT has a huge new shopping complex called Station Park, which was catalyzed by the construction of the Frontrunner commuter rail line and the Legacy Parkway (in fact, Park Lane did not exist west of I-15 prior to the construction of Legacy). Several new subdivisions have gone up in that area as well. It still blows my mind that Station Park exists, because I still think of it as undeveloped farmland.

The Cedar Valley in Utah (which contains Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort, and Fairfield) is largely desert or agricultural land today, but it's one of the fastest growing areas in the country. In fact, traffic volumes are expected to increase so much that portions of SR-73 will be upgraded to a freeway in the not-too-distant future.

Kniwt

Quote from: US 89 on August 03, 2018, 08:06:26 PM
Take the Southern Parkway, for example. 10 years ago, it didn’t exist. Now it’s a freeway through the middle of the desert. In 10 years, it’ll probably be developed into a suburbia with new malls and subdivisions.

Work has already started on two major new developments along UT 7:

= The South Block which, when complete, will add a staggering 40,000 new residents to the area.
= Desert Color, closer to the I-15/UT 7 interchange, which will add another 3,350 acres and even more residents.

No roads are paved in Desert Color yet, but the South Block now has its first streets (and first houses going up), and there seems to be a new block or two that's paved every time I go there.

This report is from last November before construction got underway, but includes some maps:
https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2017/11/03/could-st-george-see-new-city-built-along-arizona-border/830442001/

(Edit to add: Meanwhile, the Desert Canyons development at Exit 6 continues to grow, and grading is underway to extend it eastward, with new commercial/industrial land cleared north of the freeway. There is even some new grading along UT 7 and some gravel piles that would suggest -- even though I've seen nothing from UDOT -- that the four-laning could possibly be extended one more mile to Exit 7. And just north of Exit 10, the new housing developments in Washington Fields are growing out to almost the freeway's edge. Amazingly, though, there are -zero- commercial services along the entirety of UT 7, not even a gas station or convenience store, let alone a Home Depot or Applebee's. Right at the I-15/UT 7 interchange, though, the first Terrible's (with Chevron) in Utah just opened, reducing the no-services stretch of I-15 by 2 miles.)

Bruce

South Lake Union in Seattle has morphed from a warehouse-and-parking district into a neighborhood full of new high-rises, due to Amazon's presence.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/amazons-south-lake-union-turf-do-you-recognize-this-place/

Before (2008):



After (2018):


South Lake Union and Cascade panorama by SounderBruce, on Flickr

US 89

Quote from: Kniwt on August 03, 2018, 08:28:16 PM
Quote from: US 89 on August 03, 2018, 08:06:26 PM
Take the Southern Parkway, for example. 10 years ago, it didn't exist. Now it's a freeway through the middle of the desert. In 10 years, it'll probably be developed into a suburbia with new malls and subdivisions.

Work has already started on two major new developments along UT 7:

= The South Block which, when complete, will add a staggering 40,000 new residents to the area.
= Desert Color, closer to the I-15/UT 7 interchange, which will add another 3,350 acres and even more residents.

No roads are paved in Desert Color yet, but the South Block now has its first streets (and first houses going up), and there seems to be a new block or two that's paved every time I go there.

This report is from last November before construction got underway, but includes some maps:
https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2017/11/03/could-st-george-see-new-city-built-along-arizona-border/830442001/

(Edit to add: Meanwhile, the Desert Canyons development at Exit 6 continues to grow, and grading is underway to extend it eastward, with new commercial/industrial land cleared north of the freeway. There is even some new grading along UT 7 and some gravel piles that would suggest -- even though I've seen nothing from UDOT -- that the four-laning could possibly be extended one more mile to Exit 7. And just north of Exit 10, the new housing developments in Washington Fields are growing out to almost the freeway's edge. Amazingly, though, there are -zero- commercial services along the entirety of UT 7, not even a gas station or convenience store, let alone a Home Depot or Applebee's. Right at the I-15/UT 7 interchange, though, the first Terrible's (with Chevron) in Utah just opened, reducing the no-services stretch of I-15 by 2 miles.)

St. George never ceases to amaze me. I don't get down there all that often, but every time I'm there I notice how much bigger it is. I was sort of surprised the four-laned portion of UT 7 ended at exit 6, given that a majority of traffic is probably headed for the airport at exit 7.

I hope there's some commercial development  planned for the UT 7 corridor in the future. It's bad planning if you make 40K+ people drive all the way to I-15 to just get gas, much less buy groceries.

And speaking of I-15, I really wish UDOT had planned the 15/7 interchange better. With UT 7, they got to build an entirely new freeway from scratch, with little to no ROW acquisition to worry about. And instead of a nice freeway system interchange, they put in a SPUI. Ugh. UDOT will have to act fast if they want to keep that option open in the future (and depending on exactly where this new Terrible's/Chevron is, that ship may have already sailed).

bing101

China Basin in San Francisco, CA it used to be an industrial wasteland prior to AT&T parks arrival there. For nearly two decades the AT&T park district along with Mission Bay has become the Tech startup district outside of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Mateo, Mountain View, Cupertino and San Jose.


txstateends

I would have to add much of north TX.  So many thousands have moved there in the last decade.  Companies are relocating there at quite a pace.  Whole new sections of cities/suburbs have come along where prairie/farmland/grassland was before (including Legacy West in Plano, Grandscape in The Colony, Walsh Ranch in west Fort Worth, The Village in Allen, Fairview Town Center, The Star (Dallas Cowboys' new HQ) in Frisco, etcetc).  It is amazing to see, but it's better to see that than the mess that was the late 1980s-early 1990s.

Also, on a smaller scale, but to me no less amazing, is what has happened in/around Amarillo since I moved away 25 years ago.  New subdivisions and retail have come along.  Over 30 new hotels have been built and opened there since I left (which is mind-blowing enough), including 2 downtown.  A baseball stadium is also coming to downtown.  Now TxDOT and the city have begun the process of a transformation of Loop 335 around Amarillo.

If I don't recognize the last 10 years (or more, in my examples), what are the next 10 going to look like??
\/ \/ click for a bigger image \/ \/

MantyMadTown

Back in my hometown (Manitowoc, WI), the area just east of the interchange between I-43 and US 151 was mostly undeveloped. There wasn't much there besides the fairground, a couple houses off a frontage road, and only a few businesses on another frontage road. Now over the course of 10-15 years, there are so many store and restaurant chains in that area, including a strip mall, Lowe's, Kohl's, TJ Maxx (formerly a sporting goods store), and a bunch of restaurants. They even built a large movie theater in the area (now an AMC). I saw a few months ago that the houses along that frontage road were torn down and now they're building a Panera Bread over there. The racetrack in the fairgrounds is also being demolished to build a Meijer grocery store.
Forget the I-41 haters

Chris

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex grew by almost 1 million people, just between the 2010 census and the 2017 estimate.

There is no city in Europe with such growth rates, except perhaps Madrid during the 1990s and early 2000s.

bing101

Las Vegas I know some of the roadgeeks have filmed CC-215 and Summerlin Parkway. My understanding of parts of Clark County was once the fastest growing parts of Nevada around the Summerlin/CC-215 corridor it was once all desert a decade ago and over the past decade newer housing came to that area.











cpzilliacus

#13
In Jefferson County, West Virginia (easternmost county of the Mountain State, and a de-facto exurb of Washington, D.C.) has changed a lot, especially along WV-9 between the U.S. 340 junction east of Charles Town and Ranson.

Consider this retail center, that was not there the last time I passed the area as one example. It would be right at home in Loudoun or Fairfax Counties, Virginia.

There was a time when Jefferson County (and its neighbor to the west, Berkeley County, W.Va.) were sleepy rural counties.  Not any longer.  Same can be said about the counties that adjoin them to the south (Frederick County, Va. and City of Winchester, Va.) and north (Washington County, Md.).
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

WR of USA

The Fort Point district in Boston has grown rapidly in the past 8 years. It was previously abandoned freight yards and warehouses. New offices have moved into the area and GE is planning to construct their new headquarters there.
Traffic? No problem, enjoy the scenery!

Long live the lovely Sagamore and Bourne bridges and their welcoming traffic bottlenecks for the tourists!

sparker

Two areas along I-5 south of Sacramento have sprouted into full-fledged "mini-cities" in the past decade; the first is at the south end of Elk Grove, where housing & shopping malls are sited where Delta "bottomland" existed previously.  The second, with similar development, is around Lathrop, between Stockton and Manteca; a decade ago a couple of isolated housing tracts were there, but now both sides of I-5 feature housing and commercial development, including a couple of large industrial parks.  While the former is simply a result of Sacramento-area outgrowth; the latter is tied to Bay area commuting; there was an article in our local rag Murky News (actually the S.J. Mercury-News) that cited some tech firms opening branch offices in the valley where their employees choosing to live over there -- particularly those who only need a computer station to do their work -- can avoid the daily slog over 580 and 680 to get to the South Bay. 

mrsman

Quote from: sparker on August 05, 2018, 02:37:35 PM
Two areas along I-5 south of Sacramento have sprouted into full-fledged "mini-cities" in the past decade; the first is at the south end of Elk Grove, where housing & shopping malls are sited where Delta "bottomland" existed previously.  The second, with similar development, is around Lathrop, between Stockton and Manteca; a decade ago a couple of isolated housing tracts were there, but now both sides of I-5 feature housing and commercial development, including a couple of large industrial parks.  While the former is simply a result of Sacramento-area outgrowth; the latter is tied to Bay area commuting; there was an article in our local rag Murky News (actually the S.J. Mercury-News) that cited some tech firms opening branch offices in the valley where their employees choosing to live over there -- particularly those who only need a computer station to do their work -- can avoid the daily slog over 580 and 680 to get to the South Bay.

Nice to hear that.  Supercommuting in the Bay Area is legendary.  CA has driven out a lot of their middle class because of high prices and high taxes.  So at least some people can take their tech jobs with them to cheaper housing in the SJ Valley.

cjk374

Airline Drive (LA 3105) north of I-220 was nothing but farm/grazing land. Now it's subdivisions & stores.

Same with Youree Drive in south Shreveport  (LA 1). Before the Port of Shreveport/Bossier came into existence, everything south & around the Dairy Queen was cotton fields.
Runnin' roads and polishin' rails.

abefroman329

Really, nearly all of them, due to being one of the following:

1) An area on the rise
2) An area on the decline
3) An area that literally didn't exist at all 10 years prior

Myself, I've lived in no fewer than 5 neighborhoods that would've been unrecognizable 10 years prior to when I lived there.

TheHighwayMan3561

#19
Lakeville, MN, a southern fringe suburb of MSP. When I was a kid the only development along I-35 was at the County 5/50 exit, but in the last decade a giant suburban hell complex (Target, BWW, et al) opened at 185th St, resulting in a rebuild of the interchange with 35 and Scott and Dakota County four-laning what had been a rural farm road.  They also rebuilt the interchange with County 70, though there's still not much there besides the McDonald's "McStop" .
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

Takumi

Short Pump, VA, essentially the US 250 corridor east of VA 288 and west of the next I-64 exit over. Growth has exploded within the past decade.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

Stephane Dumas

That reminds me of a thread on Skyscraperpage forums about Harlem showing photos from the 1980s and 2007.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=149448

And this article about towers popping up in Brooklyn. https://ny.curbed.com/2015/6/17/9949220/see-how-brooklyn-became-overrun-by-towers-in-just-7-years

bing101

Quote from: sparker on August 05, 2018, 02:37:35 PM
Two areas along I-5 south of Sacramento have sprouted into full-fledged "mini-cities" in the past decade; the first is at the south end of Elk Grove, where housing & shopping malls are sited where Delta "bottomland" existed previously.  The second, with similar development, is around Lathrop, between Stockton and Manteca; a decade ago a couple of isolated housing tracts were there, but now both sides of I-5 feature housing and commercial development, including a couple of large industrial parks.  While the former is simply a result of Sacramento-area outgrowth; the latter is tied to Bay area commuting; there was an article in our local rag Murky News (actually the S.J. Mercury-News) that cited some tech firms opening branch offices in the valley where their employees choosing to live over there -- particularly those who only need a computer station to do their work -- can avoid the daily slog over 580 and 680 to get to the South Bay.

Elk Grove,CA was once the fastest growing city in the Sacramento Valley.

bing101

How about Merced area its has to be an area of California that's going through dramatic changes in the past 15 years with the UC Merced Campus sparking some of its growth in the San Joaquin Valley.

sparker

Quote from: bing101 on August 05, 2018, 10:05:22 PM
How about Merced area its has to be area in California that's going through dramatic in the past 15 years with the UC Merced Campus sparking some of its growth in the San Joaquin Valley.

Right now Merced's a bit too far to function as a Bay Area "bedroom community"; but that might change if the ACE commute RR line, now limited to San Jose-Stockton, establishes (this is currently in the discussion stage) a branch line southeast to Modesto, Turlock, and Merced (which would be the terminus) over the present UP line.  But with or without that service, Merced is becoming a warehouse/distribution center; the old Castle AFB immediately to the northwest is positioned to become an air freight hub, and it's centrally located within the portion of the Valley largely devoted to production of foodstuffs (as opposed to the cotton-heavy area SW of Fresno).  It's likely that the metro area, which includes Atwater and Livingston north along CA 99, will approach 400-500K population within the next ten years.  U.C. Merced is presently the fastest-growing campus (partially because it's largely the only one that can accommodate rapid growth) -- but has yet to establish a graduate specialty that nails down a unique identity for the campus (like Davis with agriculture, particularly wine & tomatoes, Riverside with citrus crops, and San Diego with biochemistry); if one is established and promoted in the near term, expect associated commercial ventures to locate nearby, sparking new employment and subsequent housing enhancement.       



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.