Cities Under-Served/Over-Served by the Interstate system

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

With vdeane's post about cities well-served by the interstate system in mind, do you believe there are certain cities that are over-served by the system? And by the same token, do you believe there are cities under-served by the same system? If so, how would you remedy these issues?

[silverback1065]

With vdeane's post about cities well-served by the interstate system in mind, do you believe there are certain cities that are over-served by the system? And by the same token, do you believe there are cities under-served by the same system? If so, how would you remedy these issues?

Austin is underserved. It needs an east west route.

[hotdogPi]

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=27027.0

[Konza]

Underserved:  Dubuque, Iowa.

Cedar Rapids and Waterloo probably merit more than an I-80 spur route, as well.

[thspfc]

Underserved: Fresno, Seattle, Portland OR, Charleston SC

Overserved: All of Appalachia

[bassoon1986]

For those underserved, Albuquerque comes to mind. And maybe Orlando, although it has plenty of freeways and tollways to complement its one blue shield.


iPhone

[sprjus4]

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=27027.0

Does not cover underserved cities.

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

Overserved: All of Appalachia

I disagree. The only real thoroughfare through Appalachia is I-81. Sure, you got parts of 77, 64 and 40, but there are still several places lacking major routes (eastern KY, southern OH, northern PA, southern VA come to mind.)

[sprjus4]

South Hampton Roads, VA

Internally, there's a good system of interstates and freeways - I-64, VA-164, I-264, I-464, I-564, I-664, VA-168 - though there's ultimately only one interstate leaving the area - I-64 - to the northwest towards Richmond. I-64 can be utilized as a direct connection to I-95 North, I-81 South, and obviously onto I-64 into West Virginia.

Connections to the northeast (I-95 / NJTP in Delaware), and southwest (I-95 and I-85 South) however require traversing many miles of arterial highway (60 miles to I-95 South, 100 miles to I-85 South, both along US-58, and 185 miles to DE-1 freeway along US-13) and currently have no interstate highway access, at least directly (you could theoretically connect to all of these via I-64, though would add hours onto a trip).

For the Peninsula part of Hampton Roads, it's fairly reasonable to use I-64 to connect to I-95 and I-85 South via I-295 and VA-895 in Richmond and not add on more than 5 or 10 minutes, assuming there's no bottleneck on I-64, and is why I specified South Hampton Roads for this post as it would be closer to an hour added to traverse I-64 northwest to reach I-95 and I-85 South.

There have been various proposals over the years to complete these gaps and construct additional interstate / freeways links out from the area, though only one solid proposal still stands. One of the largest schemes was to construct an interstate highway along the US-17 and US-13 corridors between Savannah, GA and Wilmington, DE. This would serve the coastal cities that were ultimately bypassed by I-95, along with providing southerly and northeastern interstate access to Hampton Roads. The latest study of this corridor was completed in 2006 by VDOT and was practically scrapped. No detailed cost estimates were provided, though would likely be over $5 billion for the entire corridor.

Another concept, recently scrapped in 2014 due to high wetland impact, though smaller down plans still linger, would've constructed a $1.4 billion 50 mile freeway / toll road along the US-460 corridor linking Suffolk and Petersburg. On a larger scale, this would allow South Hampton Roads traffic an alternate connection to Richmond, I-95 North, and I-64 West without having to traverse either the HRBT and MMMBT over the harbor. It would've also provided a freeway connection from South Hampton Roads to I-85 South, meeting at Petersburg, providing similar travel times (~5 minutes) over taking US-58 across. While the entire corridor has been scrapped, a scaled down freeway concept from Suffolk to Zuni (around 16 miles long) was studied around 2016 though has not been funded. It still remains on the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and is being considered for the 2045 LRTP upcoming.

With plans for an overall corridor dating back to 1990 with the designation of High Priority Corridor #13, the US-64 / US-17 corridor between Raleigh, NC and Chesapeake, VA was recently designated as Future Interstate 87 in 2016 by the AASHTO. Currently, this is the only standing official proposal to create another connection to South Hampton Roads. This would ultimately provide an interstate corridor linking the South Hampton Roads region to I-95 South and Raleigh. The US-64 corridor is currently built out to freeway standards, though about 60 miles of US-17 remain as non-limited-access highway. The first segment is set to begin in 2027 with a 13 mile segment between the Virginia state line and the Elizabeth City bypass, along with a 10 mile segment between Hertford and Edenton by 2029 partially allocated funding. Both projects would cost around $300 million combined. Ultimately, the corridor is projected to cost around $1 billion to complete, presumably around 2040 or 2045. In Virginia, the corridor has currently not been approved, though there is active interest from the HRTPO (Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization) and the City of Chesapeake in the potential future of the project. It has also been included as a candidate project in the 2045 LRTP.

The last potential connection would be along the US-58 corridor. While no detail study has been completed, there have been talks about conducting a further study to evaluate a potential interstate / freeway between I-64 and I-95 at Emporia. Officially, it's only been mentioned once in a recent US-58 Arterial Management Study that looked at minor upgrades, such as intersection improvements, innovative intersections, etc. and a brief analysis produced a cost estimate of between $2.3 and $3.5 billion and recommended further detail study in the future. It's unknown how the potential future of the aforementioned I-87 corridor, which would provide a similar southerly connection to I-95, may impact the decision for additional spending on upgrading US-58 in the long term. Virginia could ultimately stick with upgrading the 60 mile US-58 corridor in order to provide a shorter route, or stick with upgrading the 12 mile US-17 connector in order to keep costs low and keep the bulk of the work in North Carolina. Another option to completing the US-58 corridor could be construction of a toll facility similar to what was proposed for US-460, though this has not been an official proposal.

[Some one]

Houston. Ironic cause the city has a freeway in every direction, but is under-served by interstates. And before anyone mentions I-69

1. It hasn't been completed yet (and probably won't be for years)
2. Most people around here still refer to it as "59."

[Hwy 61 Revisited]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

[Konza]

Houston. Ironic cause the city has a freeway in every direction, but is under-served by interstates. And before anyone mentions I-69

1. It hasn't been completed yet (and probably won't be for years)
2. Most people around here still refer to it as "59."

Not to mention the lack of a direct Interstate connection to Austin.

Houston suffers due to Dallas being more centrally located but I-14 to Austin and I-6 to Laredo should have happened long ago.

[sprjus4]

Houston suffers due to Dallas being more centrally located but I-14 to Austin and I-6 to Laredo should have happened long ago.

Houston suffers due to lack of interstate access to Austin along with the northeast and Great Lakes region, a gap to be filled with I-69.

Houston is connected with Laredo via I-10 and I-35.

[webny99]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

I don't think it's over-served. The amount of radiating interstates seems about right given the location and size of the area. All 5 directions have a pretty clear purpose:

I-84: New England
I-380: New York City/Northern NJ
I-476: Philadelphia/Mid-Atlantic
I-81 S: Harrisburg/points South
I-81 N: Upstate New York

[Roadgeekteen]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

How busy is I-380? That's the only one that you could make an argument for eliminating.

[sprjus4]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

How busy is I-380? That's the only one that you could make an argument for eliminating.

25,000 - 32,000 AADT.

No need to eliminate it. It serves a larger role connecting New York City to Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and other cities.

[Roadgeekteen]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

How busy is I-380? That's the only one that you could make an argument for eliminating.

25,000 - 32,000 AADT.

No need to eliminate it. It serves a larger role connecting New York City to Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and other cities.

Will that go down once I-86 is completed?

[sprjus4]

Scranton is pretty over-served, having a total of four Interstates within its immediate area: I-81, I-84, I-380, and I-476. I mean, sure, it's two 2dis, but even still.

How busy is I-380? That's the only one that you could make an argument for eliminating.

25,000 - 32,000 AADT.

No need to eliminate it. It serves a larger role connecting New York City to Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and other cities.

Will that go down once I-86 is completed?

Perhaps, though the I-380 routing is still shorter by 10 - 15 miles.

[Ketchup99]

I-380 is way, way too useful to eliminate. It's one of the most important corridors serving Scranton - the NYC connection - and is way more important than, say, I-81 to Binghamton.

[MikieTimT]

Northwest Arkansas metro.  Only a single Interstate, partially completed, while home to over half a million residents and home to the largest private trucking fleet as well as the largest public trucking company.

[Konza]

Overserved:  Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  Each has a population of les than a quarter million, and each is served by three mainline Interstate routes, albeit in both cases the metro lies at the termination of the route.

[webny99]

I-380 is way, way too useful to eliminate. It's one of the most important corridors serving Scranton - the NYC connection - and is way more important than, say, I-81 to Binghamton.

The connection to NYC isn't necessarily the most important just because NYC is the biggest and best.

I often travel to northern NJ through Scranton, and use both I-81 and I-380, so they're equally important to me, and to anyone else traveling from Upstate NY or Ontario to the NYC area. I-81 North connects Scranton to more of the country compared to I-380, even if the areas served by I-81 are more sparsely populated.

[Revive 755]

Overserved:  Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  Each has a population of les than a quarter million, and each is served by three mainline Interstate routes, albeit in both cases the metro lies at the termination of the route.

Population-wise, I might agree with Bloomington-Normal.  However all three interstates are currently very useful routes, with I-74 being a useful diagonal from I-80, I-39 being a very useful bypass of Chicagoland, and I-55 serving Chicagoland.  Probably better to have I-39 end at Bloomington Normal than over near Lexington had a more eastern route been selected.

Champaign - Urban is also debatable, considering how much it used to be growing, Decatur used to be over 100k, and Springfield being the state capital.  Definitely warrants at least a 3di for the Champaign - Decatur - Springfield corridor IMHO.

[Sctvhound]

Underserved: Fresno, Seattle, Portland OR, Charleston SC

Overserved: All of Appalachia

Yep. Charleston is underserved. One 2 digit interstate, basically the lifeblood of our area (I-26), with the rest of the area connected by a web of bridges. 60+ mile drive down 17 to get to I-95 South. 17 was a 2 lane road through most of this till about 2010 or so. Major deadly accidents at least once or twice a year on that stretch.

526 has been "under construction"  for 30 years. Should have been completed to James Island long ago, but NIMBYs have stopped it so many times. We might be headed toward that being built though.

[Konza]

Northwest Arkansas metro.  Only a single Interstate, partially completed, while home to over half a million residents and home to the largest private trucking fleet as well as the largest public trucking company.

1956 was fifteen years before Sam Walton went public.  Not that I disagree with you; my parents retired to northwest Arkansas, so I'm quite familiar with how one gets around there.  But to where would you connect?  Tulsa to the west.  To the east:  Memphis?  Little Rock?