Maine

[froggie]

BTW, did the high speed lane on the Falmouth Spur plaza ever open?

Yes it did.  We went through it last weekend.  Single lane in each direction.

[deathtopumpkins]

I believe I read in the planning somewhere that they were looking at 3 high speed lanes in each direction.  Hampton has two (as does Hooksett) in NH, while the other high speed plazas on the Maine Turnpike only have one (but don't have a fraction of the traffic that York has).

That's good that they're going for 3 lanes!
The 2 lanes at Hampton and Hooksett have a significant impact on summer weekend traffic. Enough that NHDOT has recently converted the leftmost 1-2 lanes of the cash plazas at both locations to 25 mph E-ZPass lanes and put up portable message boards reminding E-ZPass customers they can use the cash lanes.

[froggie]

Even on summer weekends, I haven't seen a big issue with the Hooksett lanes.  The bottleneck there isn't Hooksett...it's Concord.

[SectorZ]

Well, the York Toll Plaza on the Maine Turnpike got approved for open road tolling lanes... definitely needed!!

Articles:
https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/07/06/judge-rejects-appeal-of-permit-for-york-toll-plaza/
http://www.wmtw.com/article/judge-allows-new-york-toll-plaza-to-move-forward/22074638

The excuse of tolls needing to double to go AET is such complete horse crap (quote in first link).

[yakra]

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/08/30/busy-woodfords-corner-in-portland-will-be-closed-next-weekend/

US Route... 305, eh? 

[shadyjay]

And the Maine Turnpike releases the bid documents for the York toll plaza replacement:

http://www.maineturnpike.com/Projects-Planning/Construction-Contracts/YORK-TOLL-PLAZA-MILE-8-8.aspx

I haven't gone through all the plans, but found the signs at the end of Plan Set 1 of 3.

[roadman]

Been looking at the plans.  Never seen the use of an option lane at a toll plaza split for ORT and cash lanes before, and I'm not sure I like it.  Seems to me they would be better off making the configuration 2 ORT lanes and 2 cash lanes, with Good idea to have E-ZPass accepted in the cash lanes for people who can't get over to the ORT lanes.  However, the signs indicating this should be either further back than the ORT/cash lanes split, or duplicated further back.

Also not thrilled with the idea of the diagrammatic signs being located after the first set of lane assignment signs for the ORT and cash lanes.

[vdeane]

I-87 SB at the ORT split for Woodbury has an option lane.

[yakra]

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/09/06/maine-turnpike-authority-approves-i-95-widening/
Construction expected to start next year on a six-lane expansion between mileposts 44 & 49.

[froggie]

I-87 SB at the ORT split for Woodbury has an option lane.

As do both directions of I-93 at the Hooksett toll.

[KEVIN_224]

At Mile Marker 9 northbound of I-95/Maine Turnpike in York. March 6, 2019. Preliminary work on the future toll plaza site continues.

[yakra]

Hey, guys. Guys. It's still on a hill.

[KEVIN_224]

Unless they re-grade it? There was a "dip" they took out somewhere in Scarborough with the widening a few years ago. At least it's not going to be on a curve. It looks like it'll be between MM 9 to 9.5 or so.

[yakra]

https://newmainenews.com/2019/02/26/mainers-begin-filling-potholes-with-plastic-bags-in-hopes-the-state-will-start-noticing-them/

[froggie]

Trading one type of polymer for another...

[The Ghostbuster]

Here is something that puzzles me. When Maine rerouted Interstate 95 and converted its sequential exit numbers to mileage-based, they left the exit numbers along the original segment of Interstate 295, and Interstate 395's exit numbers the same. Are the numbers close enough to being mileage-based to warrant why they were not renumbered?

[hotdogPi]

Here is something that puzzles me. When Maine rerouted Interstate 95 and converted its sequential exit numbers to mileage-based, they left the exit numbers along the original segment of Interstate 295, and Interstate 395's exit numbers the same. Are the numbers close enough to being mileage-based to warrant why they were not renumbered?

Looking at Wikipedia, on I-295, 11 is in the correct location, and 1-11 makes more sense than suffixed in the lower half and skipping numbers in the upper half. On I-395, they are closer than 1 mile apart, and separate numbers avoid alphabet soup.

[Ben114]

Here is something that puzzles me. When Maine rerouted Interstate 95 and converted its sequential exit numbers to mileage-based, they left the exit numbers along the original segment of Interstate 295, and Interstate 395's exit numbers the same. Are the numbers close enough to being mileage-based to warrant why they were not renumbered?

Looking at Wikipedia, on I-295, 11 is in the correct location, and 1-11 makes more sense than suffixed in the lower half and skipping numbers in the upper half. On I-395, they are closer than 1 mile apart, and separate numbers avoid alphabet soup.

Or maybe they did I-95 as some form of trial and never continued with the other highways.

[hotdogPi]

Here is something that puzzles me. When Maine rerouted Interstate 95 and converted its sequential exit numbers to mileage-based, they left the exit numbers along the original segment of Interstate 295, and Interstate 395's exit numbers the same. Are the numbers close enough to being mileage-based to warrant why they were not renumbered?

Looking at Wikipedia, on I-295, 11 is in the correct location, and 1-11 makes more sense than suffixed in the lower half and skipping numbers in the upper half. On I-395, they are closer than 1 mile apart, and separate numbers avoid alphabet soup.

Or maybe they did I-95 as some form of trial and never continued with the other highways.

The northern half of I-295 changed.

[vdeane]

One could say that none of I-295's exit numbers changed at all, since the part of it with mile-based numbers was I-95 before Maine switched.

[Ian]

The article is a couple days old, but it looks like Maine is getting their own "emergency routes" for when traffic needs to be diverted off the interstate in the event of a closure or accident.

https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/Emergency-Route-signs-installed-to-guide-traffic-around-accidents-on-I95-507958381.html

According to the article, signs recently started appearing around Region 4 (central Maine, from Pittsfield to Lincoln). Emergency routes are signed with letters, with single letter routes for northbound detours (A through T) and double letter routes for southbound detours (AA through TT). MaineDOT hopes to implement the system statewide within the next year.

[KEVIN_224]

https://www.newscentermaine.com/mobile/article/travel/new-digital-signs-along-i-95-and-i-295-aim-to-reduce-traffic-ahead-of-summer-travel/97-67f4a915-fd23-42bf-bb12-40ed3f2bf093?fbclid=IwAR0QCssjX5pvlcMndRe5DzVlhQankNoCwzFGLyURH5cIHTAcMgX0vqtEHns

Little brother Maine wants to be like big brother Massachusetts. You see these travel time signs all over the Bay State interstates now. I hope they show the delay on the Piscatsqua River Bridge (I-95) correctly.

[yakra]

What would really be useful is an estimate of the delay at -- *cough* -- Red's Eats...

https://newmainenews.com/2017/10/23/reds-eats-adds-new-location-in-north-bound-lane-of-i-295/

[froggie]

^ Realistically-speaking, I think it'd be better to wait until after the downtown Wiscasset redo, which should wrap up this fall.

[roadman65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Bridge_(Portsmouth,_New_Hampshire)#/media/File:Memorial_Bridge_(Portsmouth,_New_Hampshire)_April_2016.JPG
This bridge is hard to believe that it is not that old.  It looks like its circa 1940 ish, but this bridge that carries US 1 into Maine from Portsmouth, NH was opened in 2013.