Breezewood

[Brandon]

How is https://imgur.com/a/UaD7Q (Breezewood) not alike https://imgur.com/a/4z01x (I-495 ME) and https://imgur.com/a/t93Wr(I-180)?

I-495 there is just a stub end to a surface street.  I-180 is a 3di surface street "interstate".  Breezewood is unique in that a major 2di interstate (ending in x0) rides on surface streets through traffic lights before becoming a freeway once again.

[Marf]

Okay, got it. 

[Beltway]

How is https://imgur.com/a/UaD7Q (Breezewood) not alike https://imgur.com/a/4z01x (I-495 ME) and https://imgur.com/a/t93Wr(I-180)?

I-495 there is just a stub end to a surface street.  I-180 is a 3di surface street "interstate".  Breezewood is unique in that a major 2di interstate (ending in x0) rides on surface streets through traffic lights before becoming a freeway once again.

It makes many people on these roads boards feel like puking.  Whether the I-70 signs on US-30 really mean that segment is an Interstate route (I don't think it does) can be debated, but the point remains that a major 2di interstate (ending in x0) has a gap that could easily be remediated by building two ramps between I-70 and the Turnpike access highway.

[ColossalBlocks]

It's a gap in freeways.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Breezewood was cool at first, now it's just a lame trope.

[20160805]

Like others have said, the two freeways I-70 uses do not connect, causing it to run wrong-way concurrent with US 30 on a surface street through the crowded business district of Breezewood.  Personally I think it should be rerouted already, I-78 should also be taken off the highly congested surface streets, and I-180 in Wyoming is a complete slap in the face to the system and should be removed.  The other designations on it serve the purpose well enough.

And by the way Marf, awesome song in your signature.  Underrated late-80s classic.

[LM117]

It will most likely stay that way because businesses along this gap have thrived from it.

It makes no sense that those businesses bitch every time a direct connection proposal is made. People are still going to have to stop and get gas, grab a bag of Cheetos, and take a piss even if the interchange is built. If hundreds of other towns can survive with having interchanges on their interstates, so can Breezewood.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

It will most likely stay that way because businesses along this gap have thrived from it.

It makes no sense that those businesses bitch every time a direct connection proposal is made. People are still going to have to stop and get gas, grab a bag of Cheetos, and take a piss even if the interchange is built. If hundreds of other towns can survive with having interchanges on their interstates, so can Breezewood.

Which is true, but nowhere else have I ever seen such an insane amount of stuff crammed onto one short road.

[Marf]

I wonder how high the property values are down there? Must be some expensive road.

[Ian]

I think the 13-mile stretch of abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike makes Breezewood way more interesting than the surface road I-70.

[jeffandnicole]

Breezewood is also in the middle of a very populated area of the country, and is traveled quite often (or could be traveled) by many on these forums.

The more likely people here are familiar with it, the more likely it's going to be talked about and referenced more often.

If I-180 were in PA, with a seemingly easy ability to properly upgrade it to a true limited access highway, guaranteed it'll be talked about more often.

[hotdogPi]

If I-180 were in PA

It is. 

[Marf]

Huh, guess this thing was moved. 

[roadman65]

Like others have said, the two freeways I-70 uses do not connect, causing it to run wrong-way concurrent with US 30 on a surface street through the crowded business district of Breezewood.  Personally I think it should be rerouted already, I-78 should also be taken off the highly congested surface streets, and I-180 in Wyoming is a complete slap in the face to the system and should be removed.  The other designations on it serve the purpose well enough.

And by the way Marf, awesome song in your signature.  Underrated late-80s classic.

I-78 is not talked about because it does not link two completed freeway segments at each end.  I-78 could easily be remedied by truncating it to the end of the Turnpike Freeway at Jersey Avenue.  Most non road geeks do not even see it as such anyway, so its not that noticeable. Plus the PANYNJ that maintain the two one ways streets of 12 Street and Boyle Plaza does not sign it that good anyway.  Mostly its on paper, so no one here really gives a damn.

[Roadgeekteen]

I think that they won't build an interchange to avoid angering the business owners.

[triplemultiplex]

More broadly, we use "Breezewood" as a derogatory term for a place where two freeways (or tollways) that meet without a free-flowing system interchange.

The PA Tpk has lots of "Breezewoods".

[hbelkins]

More broadly, we use "Breezewood" as a derogatory term for a place where two freeways (or tollways) that meet without a free-flowing system interchange.

The PA Tpk has lots of "Breezewoods".

Personally, I think that is a misuse of the term "Breezewood." Breezewood presents a unique situation, where you have to exit off a numbered freeway and navigate a surface road with traffic signals to stay on the freeway. That's not as egregious as a situation where there is no direct connection between two freeways, and you have to use surface roads to connect from one numbered highway to a different numbered highway. They aren't unique to Pennsylvania. I-71 to US 35 in Ohio is also an example, as is I-81 south to I-88 east.

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

[Rothman]

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

Bugs the heck out of me.  Driving through truck hell is hell.

[Avalanchez71]

Henderson KY may just be the next Breezewood for I-69.

[Beltway]

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

Bugs the heck out of me.  Driving through truck hell is hell.

It is a gap in two major Interstate highway movements --
1) Westerly I-76 <==> easterly I-81 and I-78
2) Easterly I-76 <==> westerly I-81

(I am aware that national I-81 is north-south, but the above reflects the orientation in central PA)

I am also aware that there is an all-Interstate alternative that utilizes I-83 and I-283 east of Harrisburg, but it incurs about 10 additional miles and those segments are already overloaded with traffic.  There is probably less delay to use the surface connection at Carlisle.

[Rothman]

I'd rather say that it's just a gap in the fact that there isn't a direct connection between I-81 and I-76 at all.  Any way you want to go between the two interstates, you have to drive past those major truck stops.

[kphoger]

More broadly, we use "Breezewood" as a derogatory term for a place where two freeways (or tollways) that meet without a free-flowing system interchange.

The PA Tpk has lots of "Breezewoods".

Personally, I think that is a misuse of the term "Breezewood." Breezewood presents a unique situation, where you have to exit off a numbered freeway and navigate a surface road with traffic signals to stay on the freeway. That's not as egregious as a situation where there is no direct connection between two freeways, and you have to use surface roads to connect from one numbered highway to a different numbered highway. They aren't unique to Pennsylvania. I-71 to US 35 in Ohio is also an example, as is I-81 south to I-88 east.

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

Question.  If one of the I-70s were renumbered (say, for example, Breezewood to Baltimore were I-995), would it bother you less?

[hbelkins]

More broadly, we use "Breezewood" as a derogatory term for a place where two freeways (or tollways) that meet without a free-flowing system interchange.

The PA Tpk has lots of "Breezewoods".

Personally, I think that is a misuse of the term "Breezewood." Breezewood presents a unique situation, where you have to exit off a numbered freeway and navigate a surface road with traffic signals to stay on the freeway. That's not as egregious as a situation where there is no direct connection between two freeways, and you have to use surface roads to connect from one numbered highway to a different numbered highway. They aren't unique to Pennsylvania. I-71 to US 35 in Ohio is also an example, as is I-81 south to I-88 east.

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

Question.  If one of the I-70s were renumbered (say, for example, Breezewood to Baltimore were I-995), would it bother you less?

Yes.

Henderson KY may just be the next Breezewood for I-69.

Not in the least. It would just be a short stretch of surface road between two freeways, just as the short stretch of US 460 in Salyersville, Ky., will be when the Mountain Parkway extension between Salyersville and Prestonsburg is completed. Not a situation where you have to exit the road you're on and drive through a short segment of surface route to reconnect to the freeway.

[kphoger]

More broadly, we use "Breezewood" as a derogatory term for a place where two freeways (or tollways) that meet without a free-flowing system interchange.

The PA Tpk has lots of "Breezewoods".

Personally, I think that is a misuse of the term "Breezewood." Breezewood presents a unique situation, where you have to exit off a numbered freeway and navigate a surface road with traffic signals to stay on the freeway. That's not as egregious as a situation where there is no direct connection between two freeways, and you have to use surface roads to connect from one numbered highway to a different numbered highway. They aren't unique to Pennsylvania. I-71 to US 35 in Ohio is also an example, as is I-81 south to I-88 east.

The lack of an interchange between I-81 and I-76 west of Harrisburg doesn't bother me the way Breezewood does.

Question.  If one of the I-70s were renumbered (say, for example, Breezewood to Baltimore were I-995), would it bother you less?

Yes.

Second question.  Do you think that's silly?  After all, everything stays physically the same, people still go where they intend to go.  Nothing actually changes except a little number on a little sign.

[Beltway]

I'd rather say that it's just a gap in the fact that there isn't a direct connection between I-81 and I-76 at all.  Any way you want to go between the two interstates, you have to drive past those major truck stops.

When you transfer from one Interstate highway to another Interstate highway, it should be a seamless freeway connection, you should not have to use surface roads.