I-95/Penna Turnpike Interchange

[hbelkins]

I remember the toll collectors at the Kentucky toll plazas being able to have radios or books.

[The Ghostbuster]

Does anyone have any updates?

[DeaconG]

Does anyone have any updates?

They're starting on the piers for the southbound I-95 ramp:

https://www.patpconstruction.com/paturnpikei95/current-sectiond20.aspx

[odditude]

there are several NB piers in various states of construction - one has the form for the capital on it (not sure if it's waiting to be poured or waiting to cure), the remainder are a mix of final concrete and rebar frames.

95 itself is generally two narrower lanes without shoulders in both directions through the construction area, with all the joy that entails. there's plenty of work being done on both sides of the road in each direction, including removal of vegetation, drainage work, and new pavement.

[cpzilliacus]

Any idea when this interchange project might be completed enough to complete I-95?

The PTC Web site seems to imply 2018 (I had heard 2017 in the past). This from July 2015 also mentions 2018.

[MASTERNC]

Just found a construction progress flyover from this past spring.  Not much to note right now though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xdYuYStYCk

[epzik8]

I might re-post my pictures of the construction site, which are in a thread in Photos, Videos and More, to this thread. They're eastbound on I-276.

[epzik8]

Here are my pictures from this month. This is eastbound on I-276 approaching the Delaware River bridge. Apparently, very little progress has been made in the year 2016.

[cpzilliacus]

Here are my pictures from this month. This is eastbound on I-276 approaching the Delaware River bridge. Apparently, very little progress has been made in the year 2016.

There has been some work done. 

I drove it on 1 January 2016, just before the east end of the Pennsylvania Turnpike ticket system was moved west from the old barrier between Exit 358 and the Turnpike Bridge over the Delaware River, though the steel stringers on the bridge that carries present-day I-95 (Delaware Expressway) over I-276 were every bit as rusty then as they are now.

There were some recent pictures posted (including yours) which show that there has been progress (s-l-o-w-l-y) made on the ramps that will become I-95 at some point in the future.

[The Ghostbuster]

Maybe someday, some faraway day, Interstate 95 will be continuous between Miami, Florida and Houlton, Maine.

[cpzilliacus]

Maybe someday, some faraway day, Interstate 95 will be continuous between Miami, Florida and Houlton, Maine.

The only 2DI that's not completed. 

Thanks to NIMBYs in New Jersey and then it having taken Pennsylvania (PTC and PennDOT both) over 30 years to get to this point. 

Congress passed the Surface Transportation Assistance Act in 1982 designating that the easternmost Penn Pike, the N. J. Turnpike's  Pennsylvania connector and the mainline of the N. J. Turnpike (north of Exit 6) as I-95.

[NE2]

The only 2DI that's not completed. 

Only if you use a bunch of arbitrary criteria to make the facts fit this assertion.

[jp the roadgeek]

The only 2DI that's not completed. 

Only if you use a bunch of arbitrary criteria to make the facts fit this assertion.

I-49, I-69, I-73, I-74, and I-99 say, "What about us?"

[jeffandnicole]

I-95 is only "completed" in DC and MA because they numbered it on the beltways around the cities instead of actually going thru the cities.

[vdeane]

I think CPZ was thinking "the only original 2di not completed".  Several that will likely never be completed have been added since.

[cpzilliacus]

I think CPZ was thinking "the only original 2di not completed".  Several that will likely never be completed have been added since.

Thank you, yes. 

I-95 is only "completed" in DC and MA because they numbered it on the beltways around the cities instead of actually going thru the cities.

I agree that this was a poor way to "complete" the major N-S freeway on the east coast of the United States, but legally, the road was re-routed, and it got the requisite approvals from FHWA. 

Was it a good idea?  Were the side-effects carefully thought out?

Probably no and probably not.

[NE2]

I think CPZ was thinking "the only original 2di not completed".  Several that will likely never be completed have been added since.

Norwalk-Akron was in the original system (as I-80). It's never been completed.

[bzakharin]

I-95 is only "completed" in DC and MA because they numbered it on the beltways around the cities instead of actually going thru the cities.

I always thought I-95 and I-93 could be swapped inside the inner belt if they really wanted 95 to go through Boston. Also, if they wanted to complete I-95 through NJ the same way they did through DC and Boston, they could've routed it onto the NJ Turnpike long ago.

Mind you, that doesn't mean the upcoming interchange is not needed. At least we'll have a freeway from Philly to NYC even if Trenton to NYC is not happening.

[dgolub]

Mind you, that doesn't mean the upcoming interchange is not needed. At least we'll have a freeway from Philly to NYC even if Trenton to NYC is not happening.

NYC to Trenton?  How about I-95 to I-195 to NJ 29?

[sparker]

I think that given the fact that I-95 traverses more urbanized areas (and historically massive central cities) than just about any other Interstate route -- and considering the urban-based backlash regarding Interstate routes through such dense urban areas that started in the mid-60's and continues to the present day -- that it was inevitable that realignment, rerouting, and the delays intrinsic to such activities affected I-95 to an indordinate level.  The NJ NIMBY efforts (combined with turnpike authority obstinance) did post the longest-lived obstacle to completion, but the DC and Boston bypass realignments, as well as the eventual rerouting through Baltimore, indicated that getting 95 done north of Virginia was never going to be "business as usual".  "Cleaning up" the route to make it more of a through facility is likely something that will be an ongoing process -- including the most egregious examples of interruption, such as the subject of this thread, the now-completed Springfield interchange in VA, and that low-speed loop south of Boston.  I'm just surprised that the situation wasn't worse than it was!

[PHLBOS]

I think CPZ was thinking "the only original 2di not completed".  Several that will likely never be completed have been added since.

Norwalk-Akron was in the original system (as I-80). It's never been completed.

Interesting, but nonetheless, I-80 was obviously rerouted onto its present routing (mostly on the OH Turnpike); so there's no gap present in its routing.

And that's just it; I believe a better term regarding the I-95 situation is it's the only original 2-di that still has a gap in its routing.

I-95 is only "completed" in DC and MA because they numbered it on the beltways around the cities instead of actually going thru the cities.

I always thought I-95 and I-93 could be swapped inside the inner belt if they really wanted 95 to go through Boston.

Such would've involved a major reconfiguration of the Woburn cloverleaf a lot sooner.  That cloverleaf's presently a major problem now without thru-routing utilizing the ramps.

Also, if they wanted to complete I-95 through NJ the same way they did through DC and Boston, they could've routed it onto the NJ Turnpike long ago.

Such has been discussed before, probably even in this thread.  The main reason such wasn't done was due to the fact that most of I-95 in PA was already completed; the last piece being the stretch adjacent to the airport (PHL) opening in 1985.

[bzakharin]

Wasn't a good-sized chunk of I-95 (now 395) built through Washington DC?

[sparker]

The existing portion of I-395 within D.C. is indeed part of the original I-95 alignment through the city; this includes the tunnel under Capitol Mall.  That is the only portion of that route completed when freeway construction, for all intents and purposes, was halted as a result of local objections followed by official edict.  After this, I-95 was rerouted along the eastern side of the I-495 Beltway.

[vtk]

I think CPZ was thinking "the only original 2di not completed".  Several that will likely never be completed have been added since.

Norwalk-Akron was in the original system (as I-80). It's never been completed.

Interesting, but nonetheless, I-80 was obviously rerouted onto its present routing (mostly on the OH Turnpike); so there's no gap present in its routing.

And that's just it; I believe a better term regarding the I-95 situation is it's the only original 2-di that still has a gap in its routing.

The "original I-95" went through the middle of Washington and Boston, and that never will be completed.  The "original I-80", as mentioned, had a section in Ohio that will never be completed.  Yes, these routes were later changed by legislative / administrative action, but then they're not the "original" routes anymore.  Present-day I-74 isn't any less "original" than present-day I-95, the way I see it.

What you're trying to say is that 95 is the only 2-digit number of a route in the original system, whose corresponding present-day route is still not complete.  Except that's not true either, because 74 was a number in the original Interstate system and it's not complete today.  If I-80 can be made complete by administrative action, then I-74 can be made incomplete by administrative action.

What I think we can actually say is that, of all the 2-digit numbers of routes in the original system, 95 is the only one whose route still has a gap in it, considering only the segments (on a city-to-city level of detail) that were always part of the route by that number.  Or we can (maybe; anyone want to fact-check this?) say that, of all the 2-digit Interstates in the original system, I-95 is the only one whose present-day route still has a gap in it, between the original termini (on a city-to-city level of detail) of the route.  Either way, it's a very esoteric distinction.

[TheStranger]

  The "original I-80", as mentioned, had a section in Ohio that will never be completed. 

There's also the portion of it that was to have connected the still-existing portion of the Central Freeway/US 101 with Route 1 in San Francisco, the Western Freeway along the Panhandle/Fell Street corridor that really sparked the heated freeway revolts in that city.  That one was on the original Interstate plans IIRC.