Don't most in the hobby like oddities and peculiarities ... ?
I certainly do; that's why I am entertained by the Congressional legislation regarding I-69 in Texas. It has designated and/or produced the following:
- an I-69/I-69 interchange in the Carthage/Tenaha vicinity;
- a resolution from the Texarkana MPO seeking an I-69 designation for US 59 even though that part of US 59 would be part of an I-69 spur;
- a realization from TxDOT that it would be better to seek an I-x69 designation for the Texarkana I-69 Spur (and avoid the problem of the I-69/I-69 interchange), even though it would result in an I-69 "child" 100+ miles from its I-69 "parent";
- instead of having the three southern Texas legs be I-69 East, Central, and West, it was decided to have an I-69, and I-69 East and an I-69 Central;
- presumably the political reason behind I-69 East and I-69 Central was the desire for the US 77 and US 281 corridors to have "equal" 2di status, even though the respective suffixes would make them "3 character interstates". (so why not "equal" 3di designations?)
- a large part of the US 59 corridor that received the treasured 2di I-69 designation (from Freer to Victoria) appears to have been put on the backburner in favor of developing the SH 44 - US 77 corridor from Freer to Victoria, even though SH 44 is not part of the Congessionally designated I-69 corridor.
Congressional reality IS stranger than fiction ...
I am against ... the idea of simply dropping Interstate shields on roads that aren't even completed.
As an Old Guy, I respectfully disagree. Way back, as a kid growing up in the pre-internet days of the growth of the interstate system, I would give the annual Rand McNally intensive study and figure out the "pieces of the interstate puzzle" that had been added during the year. It was fun to watch the system grow in that manner. As for my parents and their contemporaries? As part of Brokaw's Greatest Generation, they bravely and successfully navigated the disconnected segments of the interstate system with ease and without complaint.