I-95/Penna Turnpike Interchange

[storm2k]

With Exit 358 now Exit 42, what is the highest numbered exit in PA now?

And, do I understand correctly, that PennDOT has no desire to return to Clearview?

354 from 76 EB to 676 NB coming off the Walt Whitman. The exit is actually in NJ but signed with a PA exit number.


iPhone

[vdeane]

A trivial concern among all the destruction down there, but the ongoing flooding in North Carolina means it's not quite possible yet to drive from Miami to the Canadian border on now-continuous I-95.

But what if you had this car (skip to 1 minute in)?

[Roadsguy]

I finished gathering some of the pictures my dad took this morning to post here. There are a lot, so I put them in this Imgur album.

[vdeane]

This makes sense. When the topic of the NJ Turnpike's signage changes came up during the road meet, the Jacobs representative said that the NJTA would close the outer carriageway to change its signs, then when that was complete, separately close the inner carriageway and change its signs. So apparently, the NJTA decided to split the task over two separate days.

Question: why would they even need to shut down the whole carriageway just to remove some greenout patches?

[Alps]

This makes sense. When the topic of the NJ Turnpike's signage changes came up during the road meet, the Jacobs representative said that the NJTA would close the outer carriageway to change its signs, then when that was complete, separately close the inner carriageway and change its signs. So apparently, the NJTA decided to split the task over two separate days.

Question: why would they even need to shut down the whole carriageway just to remove some greenout patches?

They routinely schedule these things to do work. So they'll line up a bunch of people and do it then. Think of it this way - let's say someone up there accidentally drops the patch and it clatters to the roadway...

[ATLRedSoxFan]

So, is the PTA handing PennDot the I-95 segment east of the I-276 interchange, or will it remain part of the PA Turnpike? Or hidden? It's not the first toll road to have several interstate designations, even though it ends at the bridge and feeds into the NJTP connector. Also which state or authority actually built the bridge, or was it a combined effort?

[OracleUsr]

I finished gathering some of the pictures my dad took this morning to post here. There are a lot, so I put them in this Imgur album.

Interesting they used Princeton instead of Trenton as a control city for 295 East on that first sign.

[famartin]

So, is the PTA handing PennDot the I-95 segment east of the I-276 interchange, or will it remain part of the PA Turnpike? Or hidden? It's not the first toll road to have several interstate designations, even though it ends at the bridge and feeds into the NJTP connector. Also which state or authority actually built the bridge, or was it a combined effort?

The PTC will maintain the former I276 segment and the PA half of the bridge as they have always done. The NJTA will maintain the NJ half of the bridge and the connector to the mainline as they have always done. PennDOT will maintain the flyovers, though.

[Roadsguy]

I finished gathering some of the pictures my dad took this morning to post here. There are a lot, so I put them in this Imgur album.

Interesting they used Princeton instead of Trenton as a control city for 295 East on that first sign.

295 is only Trenton up to US 1. By the time you get to 295 on US 1, Trenton is straight ahead.

[famartin]

As anticipated, the car lane signs were mostly fixed last night. Mostly.

[Roadsguy]

So, is the PTA handing PennDot the I-95 segment east of the I-276 interchange, or will it remain part of the PA Turnpike? Or hidden? It's not the first toll road to have several interstate designations, even though it ends at the bridge and feeds into the NJTP connector. Also which state or authority actually built the bridge, or was it a combined effort?

As already said, the PTC will continue to own I-95 east of the interchange, but it's no longer part of the Turnpike from the public's perspective. There are no Turnpike shields here, only "To I-276/PA Turnpike" from US 13.

I believe PennDOT plans to change their internal number for this stretch to 7095. The flyovers themselves were built by the PTC but will be transferred to PennDOT as mainline I-95, SR 0095.

[J N Winkler]

They routinely schedule these things to do work. So they'll line up a bunch of people and do it then. Think of it this way - let's say someone up there accidentally drops the patch and it clatters to the roadway...

I don't think I have heard of signing work (either sign installation or field alteration of already-installed signs) occurring over live traffic in any recent year.  I don't know about the NJTA, but there is also a trend (driven partly by graffiti prevention) toward using overhead sign structures that lack hardware for human access from ground level.  Such structures require at minimum a shoulder and lane closure for cherrypicker access.

[Alps]

They routinely schedule these things to do work. So they'll line up a bunch of people and do it then. Think of it this way - let's say someone up there accidentally drops the patch and it clatters to the roadway...

I don't think I have heard of signing work (either sign installation or field alteration of already-installed signs) occurring over live traffic in any recent year.  I don't know about the NJTA, but there is also a trend (driven partly by graffiti prevention) toward using overhead sign structures that lack hardware for human access from ground level.  Such structures require at minimum a shoulder and lane closure for cherrypicker access.

Driven mainly by no longer needing to have sign lighting thanks to retroreflectivity.

[theroadwayone]

They routinely schedule these things to do work. So they'll line up a bunch of people and do it then. Think of it this way - let's say someone up there accidentally drops the patch and it clatters to the roadway...

I don't think I have heard of signing work (either sign installation or field alteration of already-installed signs) occurring over live traffic in any recent year.  I don't know about the NJTA, but there is also a trend (driven partly by graffiti prevention) toward using overhead sign structures that lack hardware for human access from ground level.  Such structures require at minimum a shoulder and lane closure for cherrypicker access.

Driven mainly by no longer needing to have sign lighting thanks to retroreflectivity.

Guess the days of Richard Ankrom doing DIY sign modifications are long over.

[TEG24601]

As of now, Waze has the rerouted I-95 correctly marked. Good for them.

The beauty of Waze still having Crowd Sourced maps.  Google, unfortunately, removed the Mapmaker system, so everything is falling behind.

[J N Winkler]

Guess the days of Richard Ankrom doing DIY sign modifications are long over.

Ankrom's 2001 guerrilla signing project was all about doing the work 100% to Caltrans District 7 specifications.  This did not apply to the traffic control and in fact Ankrom installed the I-5 shield and the cardinal direction word over live traffic, but to an extent he was camouflaged by a (presumably properly signed) Caltrans workzone further downstream (cones following the left shoulder stripe are visible in the video).

I think it would be very difficult to do now because both the public and law enforcement have higher expectations of advance notice of any scheduled construction or maintenance activity involving traffic control.  As a result of almost a generation's worth of investment in ITS infrastructure, a much greater proportion of the freeway network (especially in congested urban areas) is also under surveillance now than was the case back in 2001, so any traffic disruption due to unauthorized work is bound to attract official attention much sooner.

The best bet for someone looking to pull an Ankrom today is probably a lightly travelled rural freeway at night, but only if the traffic control is to specification, the equipment matches that used by the owning agency, and a state trooper doesn't drive past.

[74/171FAN]

While I'm at it, I pulled up the PA Turnpike interactive map, and there's two VMSs near US 1 that are telling drivers, "I-276 EB becomes I-95 NB, 6 miles ahead."

The VMS I saw on I-276 EB east of PA 132 said "4.5 miles ahead".

[vdeane]

They routinely schedule these things to do work. So they'll line up a bunch of people and do it then. Think of it this way - let's say someone up there accidentally drops the patch and it clatters to the roadway...

I don't think I have heard of signing work (either sign installation or field alteration of already-installed signs) occurring over live traffic in any recent year.  I don't know about the NJTA, but there is also a trend (driven partly by graffiti prevention) toward using overhead sign structures that lack hardware for human access from ground level.  Such structures require at minimum a shoulder and lane closure for cherrypicker access.

Yeah, I think it's usually shoulder/lane closures, though maybe the large number of signs combined with having two carriageways each direction changes things.

[SignBridge]

The New Jersey Tpk. Authority is the most safety-conscious agency. Since they have two roadways in each direction, they probably figure safer to close the entire roadway to do overhead sign work late at night, than to close lanes with traffic flowing past and risk any kind of accident.

[storm2k]

The New Jersey Tpk. Authority is the most safety-conscious agency. Since they have two roadways in each direction, they probably figure safer to close the entire roadway to do overhead sign work late at night, than to close lanes with traffic flowing past and risk any kind of accident.

They'll usually gather up work for various sections of each roadway and have them all done during a closure, since they have to close the entire roadway from 6 to 14. So you might have sign repairs in one place, paving in another, structure repairs somewhere else, pothole maintenance, etc.

[02 Park Ave]

As anticipated, the car lane signs were mostly fixed last night. Mostly.

As of 9:30 tonight, they still are not all fixed.

[ixnay]

As of now, Waze has the rerouted I-95 correctly marked. Good for them.

The new ramps are visible only if you zoom in just close enough, no more, no less.

ixnay

[LM117]

A trivial concern among all the destruction down there, but the ongoing flooding in North Carolina means it's not quite possible yet to drive from Miami to the Canadian border on now-continuous I-95.

NCDOT reported yesterday that they hope I-95 can open through Robeson County on October 10.  If one was so inclined to try it nonstop with empty Gatorade bottles--since in my college youth, I could do NJ to Tampa in 18 hrs--nonstop to Canada or Florida would be sometime on October 11.

I-95 in NC has reopened. Bring the Gatorade bottles.

https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2018/2018-09-23-interstate-95-reopens.aspx

[cpzilliacus]

The PTC will maintain the former I276 segment and the PA half of the bridge as they have always done. The NJTA will maintain the NJ half of the bridge and the connector to the mainline as they have always done. PennDOT will maintain the flyovers, though.

IMO that is unfortunate.  While PTC is far from perfect, they do a decent job of maintaining their bridges, and these flyovers are quite long, and the structural steel needs to be cleaned and painted from time to time, something PennDOT does not do (a prime example being the two structures that carried I-95 (now I-295) over the mainline of the Pennsylvania Turnpike). 

Those bridges have never had the structural steel cleaned and the rust scraped off and a new paint system put in place.

[Henry]

This was a long time coming, but I am glad that I-95 is now one continuous route all the way from Houlton to Miami. While it's not quite the intended route (thanks to the Somerset cancellation decades ago), at least we can go nonstop on it.