"Why?" interchange designs

[TheStranger]

The Magallanes Interchange in Makati (between SLEX and EDSA) was built in the mid-1970s and contains two flyover ramps, yet functionally is much worse with merging and left-exits than designs that were already decades old at that point, i.e. the Four-Level in LA which opened in the early 1950s.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Magallanes+Interchange,+Makati,+Metro+Manila,+Philippines/@14.5403552,121.014699,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3397c93c2e67d28f:0xf9e65550199d17a2!8m2!3d14.5403552!4d121.0168877

One of the ramps (southbound Osmena Highway/SLEX to northbound EDSA) was closed in April 2019 to try to address the merge problems:
https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/mmda-closes-part-of-magallanes-interchange-going-to-edsa-northbound.html

To some degree, the existence of the Metro Manila Skyway can be traced in part to the problems with this interchange layout, as it offers a limited-access bypass above the entire ramp complex.

[ztonyg]

I'm surprised nobody brought up this monstrosity in the Kansas City area (I-35 / I-635).

All of the left exits, entrances, and curves here make this a "fun" interchange to navigate. I understand that they were trying to avoid a railroad but this is the scariest freeway to freeway interchange I've ever found myself on. There's even a yield sign at the end of the I-635 S to I-35 N ramp:

https://goo.gl/maps/gwebxuGhLa2ZDjHm9

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/E6ePxwkJAvuJFWsP6

This interchange is really interesting.   In actuality it's really a volleyball to US 75 but a diamond with the US 75 frontage road.

I'm not sure I follow. Aren't all volleyball interchanges just mutations of the split diamond?

Its odd because if you follow US 75, through the area you will not notice it.  As Central Expressway has a local service road all interchanges are slip ramps to the service road and at grades are with the service road and intersecting roads.  Spring Valley Road has an underpass beneath US 75 with a second underpass below it.

It is actually quite ingenious as it does keep traffic moving on Spring Valley Road bypassing the US 75 Service Roads Signals and has a shorter signal wait on the Service Road as well.

Its really an interchange within a freeway/ feeder system rather than a volleyball.  Its a diamond with a couplet of one way roads with a freeway in the median of the two one way streets.

[zachary_amaryllis]

this seems like a hot mess to me.. gsv showed it under construction which makes it somehow hotter and messier.
https://goo.gl/maps/p3ZUmpnCZZSReV8DA

near nyack, ny

[SeriesE]

I'm surprised nobody brought up this monstrosity in the Kansas City area (I-35 / I-635).

All of the left exits, entrances, and curves here make this a "fun" interchange to navigate. I understand that they were trying to avoid a railroad but this is the scariest freeway to freeway interchange I've ever found myself on. There's even a yield sign at the end of the I-635 S to I-35 N ramp:

https://goo.gl/maps/gwebxuGhLa2ZDjHm9

There appears to be enough right of way to make standard right exits and entrances...

[froggie]

https://goo.gl/maps/E6ePxwkJAvuJFWsP6

This interchange is really interesting.   In actuality it's really a volleyball to US 75 but a diamond with the US 75 frontage road.

I'm not sure I follow. Aren't all volleyball interchanges just mutations of the split diamond?

I've always considered a volleyball as a "diamond interchange on both roads".  Sure, you could argue it's a variant of a split diamond, but in that case it'd be a "double split diamond" since both roadways have a free-flow through movement with ramps to the other road.

(EDITED since Jake's post to include what I was referring to since I didn't realize there were several other comments before I had posted)

[jakeroot]

^I've always considered a volleyball as a "diamond interchange on both roads".  Sure, you could argue it's a variant of a split diamond, but in that case it'd be a "double split diamond" since both roadways have a free-flow through movement with ramps to the other road.

Honestly, I'd rather just call it a three-level square-about. Something about volleyball just doesn't describe, to me, the operation as well as "double split diamond" or "three level square-about".

[thspfc]

I'm surprised nobody brought up this monstrosity in the Kansas City area (I-35 / I-635).

All of the left exits, entrances, and curves here make this a "fun" interchange to navigate. I understand that they were trying to avoid a railroad but this is the scariest freeway to freeway interchange I've ever found myself on. There's even a yield sign at the end of the I-635 S to I-35 N ramp:

https://goo.gl/maps/gwebxuGhLa2ZDjHm9

This one wins my vote for worst freeway-to-freeway interchange in the country. What an embarrassment. This seems to be an overarching problem in the Kansas City area - they have so many freeways (most freeway miles per capita of any metro area in the country), that they seem to favor quantity over quality, and the result is a lot of substandard freeways and interchanges.

[johndoe]

https://goo.gl/maps/E6ePxwkJAvuJFWsP6

This interchange is really interesting.   In actuality it's really a volleyball to US 75 but a diamond with the US 75 frontage road.

I'm not sure I follow. Aren't all volleyball interchanges just mutations of the split diamond?

Its odd because if you follow US 75, through the area you will not notice it.  As Central Expressway has a local service road all interchanges are slip ramps to the service road and at grades are with the service road and intersecting roads.  Spring Valley Road has an underpass beneath US 75 with a second underpass below it.

It is actually quite ingenious as it does keep traffic moving on Spring Valley Road bypassing the US 75 Service Roads Signals and has a shorter signal wait on the Service Road as well.

Its really an interchange within a freeway/ feeder system rather than a volleyball.  Its a diamond with a couplet of one way roads with a freeway in the median of the two one way streets.

Thanks for sharing, interesting.  Agreed that I've never understood the "volleyball" moniker (or heard anyone "in the business" say it) ... but this example looks like a three-level-diamond with a narrow median on the non-freeway [middle] level.  If you check out the historic aerials photos, it looks around 2001-2004 the bottom level was added to what was previously a normal TX diamond interchange.

[johndoe]

The interchange at Beltway 8 and the Westpark Tollway is probably the most bizarre in Houston. It looks even weirder from the road.

I just went through this thread, some interesting ones!  Thanks for sharing this TX one - it's like they took the "three-level-diamond" and added capacity for the movements to / from the south.  Then the SB to EB is pretty wild too- the number of weird walls and bridges at this interchange might win a prize IMO!

[vdeane]

https://goo.gl/maps/E6ePxwkJAvuJFWsP6

This interchange is really interesting.   In actuality it's really a volleyball to US 75 but a diamond with the US 75 frontage road.

I'm not sure I follow. Aren't all volleyball interchanges just mutations of the split diamond?

Its odd because if you follow US 75, through the area you will not notice it.  As Central Expressway has a local service road all interchanges are slip ramps to the service road and at grades are with the service road and intersecting roads.  Spring Valley Road has an underpass beneath US 75 with a second underpass below it.

It is actually quite ingenious as it does keep traffic moving on Spring Valley Road bypassing the US 75 Service Roads Signals and has a shorter signal wait on the Service Road as well.

Its really an interchange within a freeway/ feeder system rather than a volleyball.  Its a diamond with a couplet of one way roads with a freeway in the median of the two one way streets.

Thanks for sharing, interesting.  Agreed that I've never understood the "volleyball" moniker (or heard anyone "in the business" say it) ... but this example looks like a three-level-diamond with a narrow median on the non-freeway [middle] level.  If you check out the historic aerials photos, it looks around 2001-2004 the bottom level was added to what was previously a normal TX diamond interchange.

The term comes from the Field Guide to Interchanges.

[froggie]

^ Predates that Field Guide.  Kurumi coined the term in the early MTR days.

[CoreySamson]

The interchange at Beltway 8 and the Westpark Tollway is probably the most bizarre in Houston. It looks even weirder from the road.

I just went through this thread, some interesting ones!  Thanks for sharing this TX one - it's like they took the "three-level-diamond" and added capacity for the movements to / from the south.  Then the SB to EB is pretty wild too- the number of weird walls and bridges at this interchange might win a prize IMO!

What's even stranger about this interchange is that its design (the trenches and tunnels) actually makes it very susceptible to flooding (not great in Houston). When it floods in Houston, it's not uncommon for the local meteorologists to pull up a traffic camera of the interchange to show the deluge.

[jakeroot]

The term comes from the Field Guide to Interchanges.

^ Predates that Field Guide.  Kurumi coined the term in the early MTR days.

But vdeane's link is to Kurumi's website?

[froggie]

I'm aware of that.  My point is that Kurumi coined that term before he created the Field Guide for his website.

[jakeroot]

I'm aware of that.  My point is that Kurumi coined that term before he created the Field Guide for his website.

That field guide website may have come online after Scott's first reference to "volleyball", but I suspect his coining of the term "volleyball" long predates MTR. After all, his field guide website appears to have come online at nearly the same time that MTR was first published on Usenet.

[kurumi]

I'm aware of that.  My point is that Kurumi coined that term before he created the Field Guide for his website.

That field guide website may have come online after Scott's first reference to "volleyball", but I suspect his coining of the term "volleyball" long predates MTR. After all, his field guide website appears to have come online at nearly the same time that MTR was first published on Usenet.

MTR was already quite active before I joined around 1996 or so. I didn't have a site until then. The "volleyball" term came a year or two after that; a quick search of what's left of MTR in Google Groups shows the first mention in 1998.

[jakeroot]

I'm aware of that.  My point is that Kurumi coined that term before he created the Field Guide for his website.

That field guide website may have come online after Scott's first reference to "volleyball", but I suspect his coining of the term "volleyball" long predates MTR. After all, his field guide website appears to have come online at nearly the same time that MTR was first published on Usenet.

MTR was already quite active before I joined around 1996 or so. I didn't have a site until then. The "volleyball" term came a year or two after that; a quick search of what's left of MTR in Google Groups shows the first mention in 1998.

Thanks for clearing that up. What was the original source of the term, then? Was it an amalgamation of opinions on MTR at the time? Or was it as simple as "this looks like a volleyball from the top, ergo, 'volleyball interchange'"?

[zzcarp]

This one on US 30 in Beaverdam, Ohio is always at the top of my "why" interchanges.

This interchange was constructed when the US 30 expressway was extended to the east around 1999. When the westerly portion of the US 30 expressway was originally built, it ended at a diamond interchange with Lincoln Highway (Old US 30). At some point ODOT decided to build the easterly extension to the south of old 30 instead of north. Then the politics from the truck stops lobbying to keep a mini-Breezewood situation in place for the moves from US 30 to I-75 led to this design.

Instead of a simple trumpet, eastbound 30 has a left exit and a left entrance for no conceivable engineering reason I can see. The exits themselves are engineered well and don't appear to cause a danger. That said, introducing left exits for a major split just to end at a traffic light at Lincoln Highway just seems like overengineering to me.

[jamess]

This one on US 30 in Beaverdam, Ohio is always at the top of my "why" interchanges.

This interchange was constructed when the US 30 expressway was extended to the east around 1999. When the westerly portion of the US 30 expressway was originally built, it ended at a diamond interchange with Lincoln Highway (Old US 30). At some point ODOT decided to build the easterly extension to the south of old 30 instead of north. Then the politics from the truck stops lobbying to keep a mini-Breezewood situation in place for the moves from US 30 to I-75 led to this design.

Instead of a simple trumpet, eastbound 30 has a left exit and a left entrance for no conceivable engineering reason I can see. The exits themselves are engineered well and don't appear to cause a danger. That said, introducing left exits for a major split just to end at a traffic light at Lincoln Highway just seems like overengineering to me.

Wow you can fit the entire town right next to it into the massive amount of space being used for a simple exit

[SkyPesos]

This one on US 30 in Beaverdam, Ohio is always at the top of my "why" interchanges.

This interchange was constructed when the US 30 expressway was extended to the east around 1999. When the westerly portion of the US 30 expressway was originally built, it ended at a diamond interchange with Lincoln Highway (Old US 30). At some point ODOT decided to build the easterly extension to the south of old 30 instead of north. Then the politics from the truck stops lobbying to keep a mini-Breezewood situation in place for the moves from US 30 to I-75 led to this design.

Instead of a simple trumpet, eastbound 30 has a left exit and a left entrance for no conceivable engineering reason I can see. The exits themselves are engineered well and don't appear to cause a danger. That said, introducing left exits for a major split just to end at a traffic light at Lincoln Highway just seems like overengineering to me.

This may be a good exercise for the Redesigning interchanges thread.

EDIT: nvm, it's been done there twice already. Search 'Beaverdam' there.

[kphoger]

What was the original source of the term, then? Was it an amalgamation of opinions on MTR at the time? Or was it as simple as "this looks like a volleyball from the top, ergo, 'volleyball interchange'"?

Its says right there in the guide:

It's a little like volleyball in that each roadway handles its own freewayness, but leaves the details of the interchange to the other one -- like two players on a back line yelling "Yours!" as the ball bounces between them.

Personally, I have a couple of issues:

1.  I've never been able to conceptualize a split-level diamond interchange in the same way |kurumi| does.  For that reason, I frequently wonder if I'm incorrect about what a volleyball interchange actually is.

2.  It may be a bit of an overstatement for |kurumi| to have said he has made a "contribution to colloquial English".  How many people have to adopt your term for it to be considered "colloquial English"?

[jakeroot]

What was the original source of the term, then? Was it an amalgamation of opinions on MTR at the time? Or was it as simple as "this looks like a volleyball from the top, ergo, 'volleyball interchange'"?

Its says right there in the guide:

It's a little like volleyball in that each roadway handles its own freewayness, but leaves the details of the interchange to the other one -- like two players on a back line yelling "Yours!" as the ball bounces between them.

That's half the answer. What I was curious about was whether there were other competing terms at the time, or who first thought to describe it as a volleyball.

[CtrlAltDel]

This one on US 30 in Beaverdam, Ohio is always at the top of my "why" interchanges.

This interchange was constructed when the US 30 expressway was extended to the east around 1999. When the westerly portion of the US 30 expressway was originally built, it ended at a diamond interchange with Lincoln Highway (Old US 30). At some point ODOT decided to build the easterly extension to the south of old 30 instead of north. Then the politics from the truck stops lobbying to keep a mini-Breezewood situation in place for the moves from US 30 to I-75 led to this design.

Instead of a simple trumpet, eastbound 30 has a left exit and a left entrance for no conceivable engineering reason I can see. The exits themselves are engineered well and don't appear to cause a danger. That said, introducing left exits for a major split just to end at a traffic light at Lincoln Highway just seems like overengineering to me.

This may be a good exercise for the Redesigning interchanges thread.

EDIT: nvm, it's been done there twice already. Search 'Beaverdam' there.

Here is the thread in question. I believe the relevant posts are replies:

150
154
155
1500
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1512
1513

Let me know if I missed any.

[Ned Weasel]

I hope this hasn't been brought up before, but can anyone tell me the backstory on this part of this sorta-cloverleaf:  https://goo.gl/maps/CX8UkxyMQvukizVE7

Really what I'm wondering is, why does the ramp from EB Southern State Parkway to SB CR 13/Fifth Avenue need a ramp leading back to EB Southern State Parkway and a slip lane to the ramp that you're already on?  It also does the same thing from the WB direction.