Road Trip Book About I-69 Construction

[Grzrd]

INTERSTATE 69: THE UNFINISHED HISTORY OF THE LAST
GREAT AMERICAN HIGHWAY

I have not read it and cannot recommend it.  Is it worth the read?

http://mattdellinger.com/i69/

"... is an enlightening journey through the heart of America. Part history, part travelogue, Interstate 69 reveals the surprising story of how a vast, extraordinary, and controversial road project began. It introduces us to the array of individuals who have worked tirelessly for years to build the road–or to stop it–and guides us through the many places the highway would transform forever: from sprawling cities like Indianapolis, Houston, and Memphis, to the small rural towns of the Midwestern rust belt, the Mississippi Delta, and South Texas.

Matt Dellinger connects these dots with an absorbingly human, on-the-ground examination of our country's struggle with development. Interstate 69 captures the hopes, dreams, and fears surrounding what we build and what we leave behind."

Vanity Fair Review:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/bestlist/2010/08/this-week.html

"BOOKS
Summer is slipping away, and chances are you didn't get around to that epic, cross-country road trip you've been dreaming about. Fear not: you can ride shotgun with former New Yorker podcast developer and rival softball coach Matt Dellinger in Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway (Scribner), which follows the winding construction saga of the 1,400-mile extension of I-69 South that runs through the heartland of America. Research for the book required, as Dellinger says, "Driving. Lots of driving. And several speeding tickets."  His borrowed Chevy Impala racked up 8,500 miles in the process. "It's a road-trip book in many ways,"  he explains. "[It's] a good look around the middle of the country and a portrait of how these places see themselves in the reflection of this non-existent highway."  

Memphis Daily News Review:

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=52168

VOL. 125 | NO. 160 | Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Dellinger Takes Readers on Trip Down Proposed I-69
ERIC SMITH When Matt Dellinger came to Memphis a few years ago to research the book he was writing on Interstate 69, he stumbled upon the Little Tea Shop on Monroe Avenue.

The main reason he chose the storied Downtown eatery was because of its street number, 69, which he figured must be a sign considering his book's subject matter — the new interstate coursing through middle America, including Memphis, from Canada to Mexico.

There, he struck up a conversation with restaurant owner Suhair Lauck about a bumper sticker plastered near the cash register that read "Don't Split Shelby Farms."

Dellinger asked Lauck if that motto had anything to do with the proposed I-69. She said no, but added that any book about highway development in Memphis should include a conversation with attorney Charles Newman, a Little Tea Shop regular who in the late 1960s and early 1970s worked with the Citizen to Preserve Overton Park.

That was the grassroots group responsible for keeping I-40 from tearing through the park, a watershed moment for Memphis, yet an antithetical one considering the rash of highway construction at that time in the U.S.

"If I hadn't had lunch there, I don't know what I would have written about in Memphis,"  the author said by phone from New York this week. "It wouldn't have been nearly as good."

This story, and plenty more about Memphis' role in the development of I-69 — dubbed the "NAFTA Highway"  because it will provide a direct link among North America's three nations — is one of many highlights from Dellinger's book, set to be released Aug. 24.

"Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway"  chronicles the ongoing — and contentious — development of the highway that will traverse 1,400 miles through eight states.

Dellinger's understanding of I-69 has roots in three different geographic perspectives: Indiana, where he grew up; Texas, where his father lives; and the Mississippi Delta, where he traveled extensively as a writer for the Oxford American magazine.

It was time spent researching an article in 2002, and then another one in 2004, that Dellinger realized the scope of the highway and how people who lived along the highway's course viewed the project.

"Here's an opportunity to put a much bigger story together and take a look at the implications and the attitudes in different parts of the country,"  he said.

For example, communities in his home state of Indiana see the highway as an intrusion on their lives and their land, while communities in the Delta tend to see it as an economic development windfall.

In the Mid-South, I-69 will head south from Dyersburg into Millington. It will meet up with the existing I-240 in Midtown and then I-55 in South Memphis, where it will lead into the Mississippi Delta and eventually down to Texas (the exact course is still being debated).

In Millington, I-269 will split off from the main highway and loop around Shelby County (including much of existing and future Tenn. 385) into Fayette County and then down into DeSoto County, where it will meet back up with I-69. A short stretch of I-69 in Northwest Mississippi leading toward the Tunica casinos is already finished.

The 269 outer loop has its proponents, who argue that additional highway capacity will further bolster the city's standing as a logistics and distribution nexus. But it also has been a sticking point for critics here who contend it will promote urban sprawl and suck even more life out of the Memphis core.

"If you're someone who champions the city, then the loop is a bit of a blow,"  Dellinger said. "On the other hand, Memphis is also known for its logistics. So, do you want all those trucks pouring in and out of Downtown?"

Dellinger interviewed plenty of Memphis players for the book, from developers like Rusty Bloodworth of Boyle Development Co. and Henry Turley to attorneys like Newman to outspoken detractors like Tom Jones of Smart City Memphis.

I-69's fate hasn't been determined, and Dellinger puts the odds of its overall completion at 50-50. If it is, Memphis, like many cities along the highway's path, could be transformed forever. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen.

"I think the lasting impact will be you'll see Memphis grow and the logistics industry will become more and more important after I-69 is complete,"  Dellinger said. "The challenge for Memphis residents is to say, "˜OK, what are the negative impacts and how do we want to balance those?

"Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway"
Available Aug. 24
Signing Sept. 23, 6 p.m.
Davis Kidd Booksellers, 387 Perkins Road Ext. [Memphis]

[TheStranger]

Considering how protracted the building of the Indiana segment was - I remember how much of a pipe dream it sounded like back in the early 2000s - it almost seems like everywhere south of there will be a comparative breeze, save for the segment southwest of Houston. 

Have any other books been written about the construction of a specific Interstate? 

[mightyace]

Have any other books been written about the construction of a specific Interstate? 

Yes, I own a book detailing the Keystone Shortway a.k.a. I-80 in Pennsylvania.

I also have a couple of books on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  One was one that my mother originally owned and was written in the early fifties after the Pittsburgh Extension (Irwin to Ohio line) and Philadelphia Extension (Carlisle to Valley Forge) had been built.  I'll have to check the date but it's probably before 1953 as the Ohio Turnpike is not shown at the western end and it was opened in 1953, IIRC.

When I get a chance, I'll give the relevant information on these books though I'm pretty sure 2 of the three are out of print.

[PAHighways]

There are four copies of The Story of the Keystone Shortway available from used book stores through Amazon.  I picked up a copy back in 2001 which helped fill in details to its construction while doing I-80's history page.

[Grzrd]

Have any other books been written about the construction of a specific Interstate? 

FHWA bibliography (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/bibliography.htm) (note the link for a more extensive bibliography at the bottom):

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER NATIONAL SYSTEM
OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compiled by
Richard F. Weingroff



BOOKS
Altshuler, Alan, and Luberoff, David, Mega-Projects:  The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment, Brookings Institution Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2003.  (A history of public investment in major urban projects, including the Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston, with emphasis on the consequences and the future of mega-projects.)

Brodsly, David, L. A. Freeway, An Appreciative Essay, University of California Press, 1981.

Bryan, Mike, Uneasy Rider: The Interstate Way of Knowledge, Alfred A Knopf, 1997. (Noting that the U.S. numbered "blue" highways are a vision of the past, Bryan takes off on a "Blue Highways" type journey along the Interstate routes of the Southwest.)

Cima, Bill, Rest Area Guide: To the United States and Canada, College Publications, 5th Edition, May 1997.

Coster, Graham, A Thousand Miles from Nowhere: Trucking Two Continents, North Point Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995). (In which the author accompanies an English trucker from England to Russia and an America trucker across the United States.)

Cribb, John, A Field Guide to Interstate 95, Madison Books, 1989. ("The Traveler's Companion to the History, Geography & Trivia that Lie Beneath the Nation's Busiest Highway.")

Cupper, Dan, The Pennsylvania Turnpike: A History, Applied Arts Publishers (P.O. Box 479, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17042), Second Revised Edition, 2001. (Excellent history of this landmark turnpike, updated for the 60th anniversary.)

Davies, Pete, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2002. (The story of the 1919 convoy on which Dwight D. Eisenhower learned the value of good roads.)

Eisenhower, Dwight David, "Through Darkest America with Truck and Tank," At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1967. (This chapter discusses Eisenhower's trip in 1919 with the first U.S. Army transcontinental truck convoy.)

eXitSource: A Complete Directory of Services, Businesses & Attractions Within a Quarter Mile of Every Exit on Every Major Interstate From Coast to Coast in the United States, Interstate America. 2001.

Garreau, Joel, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, Doubleday, 1991. (A pragmatic look at a phenomenon of the late-20th century, edge cities spurred as an unintended consequence by the Interstate System.)

Gillespie, Angus Kress, and Rockland, Michael Aaron, Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, Rutgers University Press, 1989.  (This has become something of a classic.)

Haycraft, William R., Yellow Steel: The Story of the Earthmoving Equipment Industry, University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Herow, William C., Rest Areas & Welcome Centers Along US Interstates, Roundabout Publications (P.O. Box 19235, Lenexa, Kansas 66285), 2001.

Hickok, Beverly, Development of the Interstate Highway Program:  1916 to Date, University of Transportation Studies, University of California, June 1980.  (A selected bibliography based on the holdings of the Institute of Transportation Studies Library.)

Hunter, Dave, Along the I-75, Mile Oak Publishing, Inc., 11th Edition, 2003. (A Guidebook for I-75, including services, scenery, history, battlefields, and attractions.)

Kost, Mary Lu, Milepost I-80 San Francisco to New York, Milepost Publications, 1993.

Leavitt, Helen, Superhighway-Superhoax, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1970. (A dust jacket blurb conveyed the theme: "From Sea to Shining Sea: we are strangling in a concrete straitjacket that pollutes the environment and makes driving a nightmare." The classic early 1970's diatribe on the subject.)

Lewis, Tom, Divided Highways: The Interstate Highway System and the Transformation of American Life, Viking Press, 1997. (Companion to an October 1997 PBS documentary of the same name.)

Marks, Christine, Interstate 75 and the 401, The Boston Mill Press, 2nd Edition, 2002. (A travel guide from Toronto to Miami.)

McMurtry, Larry, Roads: Driving America's Great Highways, Simon and Schuster, 2000. (The novelist travels Interstate highways, with essays about the driving experience, what he sees along the roads, and what it reminds him of from literature and life.)

McNichol, Dan, and Ryan, Andy, The Big Dig, Silver Lining Books, 2000. (Text and photographic history of development and construction of the Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Explains why this has been one of the most challenging engineering projects in the history of the Interstate System.)

McNichol, Dan, The Big Dig at Night, Silver Lining Books, 2001. (Photographs by Stephen SetteDucati.)

McNichol, Dan, The Roads That Built America, Barnes and Noble Books, 2003. Paperback edition, 2005. (Although described as "The Incredible Story of the U.S. Interstate System," the book covers the evolution of American roads from authorization of the National Road in 1806 through Boston's Big Dig. It discusses the history, construction, and impacts of the Interstate System and provides background information on early road pioneers, U.S. officials such as Logan Page and Thomas H. MacDonald, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Federal Highway Administrator Mary E. Peters, and many others.)

McPhee, John, Annals of the Former World, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.  (Compilation of four books by McPhee, who uses a journey along I-80, and observations of its road cuts, to describe the geology of a continent, plate-tectonics, and geologic time.  The four books are:  Basin and Range (1980), In Suspect Terrain (1982), Rising From The Plains (1986), and Assembling California (1986).  Assembling California contains a tour de force minute-by-minute reconstruction of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.)

Morgan, James, The Distance to the Moon: A Road Trip into the American Dream, Riverhead Books, 1999. (A road trip helps the author describe America's love affair with the car and the open road–"the epic entanglement that's defined this century and reshaped the face of America." Along the way, he interviews former Federal Highway Administrator Frank Turner, one of the Founding Fathers of the Interstate System.)

Crossing America:  National Geographic Guide to the Interstates, National Geographic Society, 1995.  (A guide to the sights a traveler can visit along the Interstate highways.)

The Next Exit: The Most Complete Interstate Highway Guide Ever Printed, The Next Exit, 11th Edition, 2002.

Posner, Stan and Phillips-Posner, Sandra, Drive I-95, Travelsmart, 2003.  (Exit information, plus, maps, history and trivia about I-95 from Boston to the Florida border.)

Rose, Mark H., Interstate Express Highway Politics 1941-1989, University of Tennessee Press, 1990 (Revised Edition). (Excellent scholarly history of the origins of the Interstate System, with a chapter on its construction.  Essential to understanding how the Interstate System came about.)

Slotboom, Erik, Houston Freeways:  A Historical and Visual Journey, Published by Oscar F. Slotboom, 2003.  (A thorough, well illustrated book on the subject.)

The States and the Interstates: Research on the Planning, Design and Construction of the Interstate and Defense Highway System, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 1991. (Development of the Interstate System from the perspective of the State highway officials who built it. Based on oral history interviews with State and Federal officials.)

Sweet, James Stouder, The Federal Gasoline Tax at a Glance: A History, Bybee House, 1993. (A short history of the gas tax, available for $5.95 from Bybee House, 116 East Glendale Drive, Boone, NC 28607.)

Talese, Gay (Author); Davidson, Bruce (Photographer); Rethi, Lili (Illustrator), The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Walker and Company, 2002. (Paperback edition of his 1970 book, with a new preface and afterword by Talese.)

Tsipis, Yanni, Building the Mass Pike, Arcadia Publishing, 2002. (Photo essay on construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike in the Images of America series.)

Tsipis, Yanni, Boston's Central Artery, Arcadia, 2000. (Photo essay with captions describing construction of the Central Artery during the 1950's in the Images of America series.)

Vanderwarker, Peter, The Big Dig: Reshaping an American City, Little, Brown, and Company, 2001. (Behind the scenes look at the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project for grade school children--and up!)

Waggoner, Holly, Skyway to the Sun, Omnigraphis Publishers, 1988. (The story of the Sunshine Skyway, "a proclamation of man's ingenuity, perseverance, and vision.")

MAGAZINES

Banasiak, David, "Origins of the Interstates," Roads and Bridges, June 1996. (One of several articles celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Interstate System.)

Barnes, Fred, "In Praise of Highways," The Weekly Standard, April 27, 1998.

Di Salvatore, Bryan, "A Reporter at Large: Large Cars," The New Yorker, September 12 and 19, 1988. (A two-part article about the life of a trucker on the Nation's Interstate highways.)

Foust, Dean, "The Boom Belt," Business Week, September 27, 1993. (Cover story on I-85, with the blurb: "Drive Interstate 85 from Georgia to the Carolinas, and you'll travel through the heart of an economic success story. There are lessons for the rest of the country.")

"40th Anniversary Special Section," Roads and Bridges, June 1996 (collection of articles on the 40th anniversary of the Interstate System).

Geistlinger, Lee, "First Person: Frank Turner," Roads and Bridges, June 1996. (An interview with former Federal Highway Administrator Frank Turner provides the framework for a biographical sketch of the highway legend.)

Grantz, Walter C., "The Immersed Tunnel Method," American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Summer 1996.  (Uses the I-95/Ft. McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland, to explain the immersed tunnel method of construction.)

Heppenheimer, T. A., "The Rise of the Interstates," American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Fall 1991.

Martin, John M., Jr., "Proposed Federal Highway Legislation in 1955," The Georgetown Law Journal, January 1956.

McPhee, John, "A Fleet of One:  Eighty Thousand Pounds of Dangerous Goods," The New Yorker, February 17 & 24, 2003.  (The excellent writer, McPhee, travels the country with a trucker and his 65-foot chemical tanker.  Fine portrayal of commercial life on the road.)

Milgrom, Melissa, "What Exit?" Metropolis, August/September 2001. ("From celebrated superhighway to despised eyesore in only half a century. A brief history of the New Jersey Turnpike.")

Mitchell, John G., "30 Years on Ike's Autobahns," Audubon, November 1986. (A trip along I-75 provides the framework for a look at the history and impact of the Interstate System on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.  This is one of the best items to emerge from the 30th anniversary of the Interstate System.)

Oliver, David C., "Upon Shoulders of a Giant:  Thomas MacDonald and the Federal-Aid Program" (October 1989), "In the Shadow of a Giant:  H. S. Fairbank and Development of the Highway Planning Process" (October 1991), "In the Footsteps of a Giant:  Francis C. Turner and Management of the Interstate" (Spring 1994), Transportation Quarterly.  (This three-part series by an FHWA official describes the accomplishment of three of the great figures in 20th century highway development.)

Rose, Mark H., "Reframing American Highway Politics, 1956-1995," Journal of Planning History, August 2003.  (Mark Rose, author of the outstanding Interstate Express Highway Politics 1941-1989, focuses on the evolution of metropolitan planning organizations and how Federal officials " framed the institutional relationship that guided transportation politics and subsequent land uses." )

Rose, Mark H., and Seely, Bruce E., "Getting the Interstate System Built: Road Engineers and the Implementation of Public Policy, 1955-1985," Journal of Policy History, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1990. (The authors of the two best histories of highway development in the United States collaborate on the challenges posed by Interstate construction.)

Schwartz, Gary T., "Urban Freeways and the Interstate System," Southern California Law Review, Vol. 49.406, March 1976. (Insightful look at creation of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, and criticism of the urban elements of the System.  Reflects Schwartz' interviews with many of the key figures.)

"The Sunshine Skyway Bridge: A History of Challenges," Florida Engineering Society Journal, March 1987. (A special section of articles about construction of the new Sunshine Skyway Bridge from St. Petersburg to Bradenton, Florida.)

TR News, March-April 2001. ("Tribute to American Highway Legend Frank Turner," features articles by Alan E. Pisarski ("The Frank Turner Story") and Bruce E. Seely ("An Historical Appreciation"), as well as tributes by Damian J. Kulash, Peter G. Koltnow, Jonathan L. Gifford, and Francis B. Francois.)

Taylor, Nick, "Roads That Bind Us: Interstate Highways, a Guide to Rediscovering America," Travel Holiday, August 1990.

White, Leland J., "Dividing Highway: Citizen Activism and Interstate 66 in Arlington, Virginia," Washington History, Spring/Summer 2001. (Detailed look into the history of I-66 and how its design evolved inside the Capital Beltway in the face the community opposition.)

Wilson, Bill, "Mr. Highways: A Legend Passes," Roads and Bridges, November 1999. (A tribute to former Federal Highway Administrator Frank Turner following his death on October 2, 1999.)

PH.D. THESES

(Generally available from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Barrow, Robert Van, The Politics of Interstate Route Selection: A Case Study of Interest Activities in a Decision Situation, The Florida State University, 1967.

Chernoff, Michael Light, The Social Impacts of Urban Sections of the Interstate Highway System, University of Massachusetts, 1976.

Crane, Stuart R., Federal Financing for Toll Projects Incorporated in the Interstate Highway System, Indiana University, 1967.

Ellis Clifford Donald, Visions of Urban Freeways, 1930-1970, University of California at Berkeley, 1990.

Goodwin, Jr., Herbert Marshall, California's Growing Freeway System (2 Parts), University of California, 1969.

Korr, Jeremy Louis, Washington's Main Street:  Consensus and Conflict on the Capital Beltway, 1952-2001, University of Maryland, 2002.  (Draws on cultural landscape analysis, ethnography, and planning history to study the Capital Beltway as a physical artifact and a social institution.)

Riddick, Winston Wade, The Politics of National Highway Policy, 1953-1966, Columbia University, 1973.

Rose, Mark Howard, Express Highway Politics, 1939-1956, The Ohio State University, 1973.

Seely, Bruce Edsall, Highway Engineers as Policy Makers: The Bureau of Public Roads, 1893-1944, University of Delaware, 1982.

GENERAL READING

America's Highways 1776-1976, Federal Highway Administration, 1976. (Over 500 pages of history prepared as the FHWA's contribution to the Bicentennial. Out of print but available in libraries or through inter-library loan.)

Belasco, Warren James, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945, The MIT Press, 1981. (Classic work on the subject.)

Davidson, Janet F., and Sweeney, Michael S., On The Move:  Transportation and the American Story, National Geographic, 2003.  (Extensive, well-illustrated companion to "America on the Move," the permanent exhibition that opened at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History on November 22, 2003.)

Lay, Max G., Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them, Rutgers University Press, 1992. (Detailed history of road development throughout the world.)

Patton, Phil, Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway, Simon and Schuster, 1986. (As the title suggestions, this is a "celebration" of a wide range of highway-related topics, from the history of highways to the pleasures of the open road.)

Seely, Bruce E., Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers, Temple University Press, 1987. (Outstanding scholarly history of the FHWA, from its origins as the Office of Road Inquiry to the 1980's.)

Witzel, Michael Karl and Steil, Tim, Americana:  Roadside Memories, Lowe and B. Hould Publishers, 2003.  (The road is a pavement.  Just beyond the road is life–the gas stations, drive-ins, restaurants and Historic Route 66 that are among the subjects of this book.)

For a more extensive bibliography of a range of highway-related publications, see:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/biblio.htm

[mightyace]

There are four copies of The Story of the Keystone Shortway available from used book stores through Amazon.  I picked up a copy back in 2001 which helped fill in details to its construction while doing I-80's history page.

Yes that is the book that I was talking about.  I got my copy back in the late 70s or early 80s in Bloomsburg.

All links corrected ~S

EDIT:
FYI The cover picture is looking eastbound at approximate mile marker 249 near Hetlerville, PA and less than 10 miles from where I grew up.  (That picture also makes the book kind of special to me as I passed by that spot many times.)

Here's what it looks like today:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Hetlerville,+PA&sll=41.105953,-73.54821&sspn=0.011399,0.01266&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hetlerville,+Pennsylvania&ll=41.016628,-76.198769&spn=0.023087,0.055747&z=15&layer=c&cbll=41.016565,-76.199163&panoid=_eXYsdkMz9qGkVwiQ0sgyA&cbp=12,75.13,,0,8.95

[Kniwt]

A quick note on finding this book at your local friendly neighborhood bookstore:

Today at a normally with-it and smart bookstore, Kepler's in Menlo Park, Calif., I couldn't locate the book even though their website said it was in stock and in the store. After enlisting the help of a friendly info person, she directed me to the "California and The West" shelf, where there were indeed two copies of the book, one of which is now mine.

Somebody somewhere seems to have misclassified this title.

[Grzrd]

2 more reviews of the I-69 book:

The Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703995104575389331432732438.html

BOOKSHELF AUGUST 25, 2010.
Unpaved, Good Intentions
The dream: a Canada-to-Mexico superhighway. The reality: haggling

.... What we get is more than the story of a road. "Interstate 69" is an American-civics reality show, featuring pitched battles among special interests, grass-roots activists, environmentalists, politicians and Beltway bandits. Through it all the author, a former editor at The New Yorker, sticks to the narrative and remains largely apolitical ....

Depauw U. is proud of their Class of '97 alum:

http://www.depauw.edu/news/?id=25552

NPR interview: http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/08/interstate-69

[Grzrd]

At the extreme risk of boring everyone ...

I was struck how Dellinger has been a "road geek" in specific regard to I-69 in terms of his use of Google:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/08/25/id-like-to-thank-my-agent-my-publisher-andgoogle/

"I thanked Google. How could I not?...

My interest in the Interstate 69 project – a proposed new highway that would connect Canada and Mexico through eight middle-American states – arose in the fall of 2002 ...

in 2003, I set up a Google News Alert for "Interstate 69,"  and my inbox was injected with a steady stream of passive research ...

Then there was Google Street View. After many long drives and hundreds of conversations, it came time to piece together descriptions of the growing cities and dwindling small towns through which I'd traveled. My notes were okay, but recreating my civic car tours and the minor highways I-69 will replace with the help of block-by-block wraparound photographs was far better.

I used Google Reader to collect rss feeds from transportation policy journals. I used Blogger to make a private, searchable archive of reference articles and notes. And my fact-checker and I used – don't snicker – Google Wave to track queries and answer them with links, photos and snippets of audio..."

The above are tools we are all (some more slowly than others, like me) using to get as much information as possible about roads.  BUT the key point is as follows:

"... No web site can replace personal conversations and observation..."

I respectfully disagree.  AARoads Forum comes as close as web-possible to provide both comprehensive conversations and personal observations.  The Forum does a great job!  Many thanks to all of those who make it happen!

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

^Yeah, but the average layman doesn't know about AAroads and all the other websites we've created over the last 15 years. (tongue in cheek)

[Kniwt]

And yet the author makes a baffling reference to "I-50" in the early part of the book. I won't say more because it probably qualifies as a spoiler for those who want to be surprised by what they find in the book. Roughly 100 pages in, it's mostly a good read.

[Troubleshooter]

Several comments:

1. I-69 will be built. Congress decided that.

2. There is only one community in Indiana that does not want it: Bloomington, a university hotbed of liberal activists. But these activists have been traveling to the meetings in other towns, pretending to be locals there. They aren't fooling anyone but the press.

3. With the stimulus money, they are building I-69 to reach Indiana 37 just south of Bloomington by 2014.

4. The only protracted segment is now the segment between Bloomington and Indianapolis, as they are trying to decide where to put it at the Indianapolis end. One state legislator snuck a rider into a bill that prohibits I-69 from going through a certain township. It turned out that the highway would have taken his house (sneaky!). But now they can't find a good route through Marion County because of this law.

[PAHighways]

Cupper, Dan, The Pennsylvania Turnpike: A History, Applied Arts Publishers (P.O. Box 479, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17042), Second Revised Edition, 2001. (Excellent history of this landmark turnpike, updated for the 60th anniversary.)

I used the 50th anniversary edition to build my Turnpike page up to the 1990s.

I bought a copy of the 60th anniversary edition right after they came out, and it appears that no one proofread the book before it went to print as there are epilogues at the end of the final two chapters.  The copies I got for free from the PTC back in 2004 for the Breezewood Meet had corrected this issue.

[Quillz]

Apparently, once construction is complete, I-69 will be the longest south-north interstate highway, at over 1,000 miles long. I wonder if they should renumber it to a x5 number?

[Scott5114]

Apparently, once construction is complete, I-69 will be the longest south-north interstate highway, at over 1,000 miles long. I wonder if they should renumber it to a x5 number?

Good luck finding one that would make sense.

[Quillz]

Apparently, once construction is complete, I-69 will be the longest south-north interstate highway, at over 1,000 miles long. I wonder if they should renumber it to a x5 number?

Good luck finding one that would make sense.

It could be portions of I-45, I-55 and I-75. There's nothing wrong with 69 at all, it's just that it sort of goes against the spirit of the numbering scheme, where x5 is supposed to be the longest, most important corridors.

[Scott5114]

The goal of the project is to complete a single numbered highway directly linking Canada to Mexico...

[Quillz]

The goal of the project is to complete a single numbered highway directly linking Canada to Mexico...

Interstate 5...

I've looked at a map of the proposed I-69 corridor and it reminds me a lot of those US Routes that were intentionally diagonal by design, usually the ones that had x6 in the number.