Criss-crossing I-80

[Chris19001]

I remember these in use.

The first times I crossed Pennsylvania on I-80 were in the mid-1980s, during which time there was a years-long full rebuilding of the road going on, all the way down to the roadbed. I think they actually poured concrete, though current aerials show an asphalt surface. It was probably the first full-scale rebuilding of the pavement and roadbed.

These crossovers were in active use at the time, and both directions of traffic would indeed use one carriageway for several miles at a time while the other was rebuilt.

It made crossing the state via I-80 a miserable experience for several years.

It's been 30+ years. I hope there's not another round coming up anytime soon.

That brings back the memories.  For my entire childhood, whenever my family trips would take us from Southeastern PA up towards State College or anywhere along the I-80 corridor, we ran into the same construction projects.  My recall is they stretched over the eastern two thirds of the interstate and the reconstruction was over the course of at least 15 years.  Those access lanes were in heavy use, and possibly have been more recently for repaving projects.  I remember hearing more than a few jokes about how I-80 was always going to be under reconstruction due to the lousy PENNDOT finances and the length of the highway..  At the time, it seemed like a reasonable possibility.

[storm2k]

Last week, I drove Interstate 80, end-to-end in Pennsylvania, while traveling between New England and Ohio.  It's quite the interesting road to drive and a relatively quiet road, meaning it bypasses all the major cities and is a solid 2 lanes each way throughout.  Once you get east of I-380, however, it sees a lot more traffic.

Anyways...

Throughout I-80 there are what I call criss-crosses.  They appear to be in place before overpasses, which facilitate the closing of one side of an overpass in order to replace the other side.  In some cases, these criss-crosses are still paved, in others, they are dirt or just graded.  An example of one is here:  https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0673255,-77.0612173,288m/data=!3m1!1e3

So is this a PA thing?  There wasn't a single active bridge reconstruction project along the route, but there they were.  Were these put in as part of the original construction of the highway, or were they leftovers from bridge projects, just not fully removed?  Other states which have used "crossovers" to rebuild bridges have removed them completely upon completion, leaving no evidence.


Then, at the Susquehanna Bridge, there is not just a crossover but a lot of unused pavement in the form of extra wide inner shoulders westbound, as seen here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0195319,-76.3093854,3a,27.7y,147.83h,90.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRcnz_IdDKEJsE6dEvfaW7w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Switching to satellite mode, you can see what was going on:  https://www.google.com/maps/@41.018172,-76.3074322,390m/data=!3m1!1e3

I just find it odd that they left the crossover intact. 

Maybe it's not odd, but you're on I-80 for 310 miles in PA, there isn't much to see, and I had fun shouting "criss-cross!" every time I saw one, in reference also to the Simpsons episode.  Travelling east, when one sees "New York City" as a control point, and the only control point in eastern OH, it really makes sense, as there is no suitable out-of-state point other than NYC, even if it does snub PA and NJ entirely.  In PA, you get second-rate control points such as Clarion and Bloomsburg, with New York City not appearing again until the I-81 interchange.


Here's the link to some of the photos I've taken on I-80:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shadyjay/albums/72157711494425893

I remember these in use.

The first times I crossed Pennsylvania on I-80 were in the mid-1980s, during which time there was a years-long full rebuilding of the road going on, all the way down to the roadbed. I think they actually poured concrete, though current aerials show an asphalt surface. It was probably the first full-scale rebuilding of the pavement and roadbed.

These crossovers were in active use at the time, and both directions of traffic would indeed use one carriageway for several miles at a time while the other was rebuilt.

It made crossing the state via I-80 a miserable experience for several years.

It's been 30+ years. I hope there's not another round coming up anytime soon.

I remember this. In the late 80s I was a young kid and did several trips back and forth from NJ to my dad's in Chicago. I remember the long vast stretches of 80 where it was one lane in each direction in one roadway because they were doing that full depth reconstruction on the other side.