West Virginia

[bluecountry]

Good, this will be my new route from NOVA to Pittsburgh.
I HATE route 15.

[Dirt Roads]

Good, this will be my new route from NOVA to Pittsburgh.
I HATE route 15.

If you like two lane roads, try US-522 to VA-127/WV-127 to WV-29 to WV-9/MD-51.  For the past 30 years, this was my route from Northwestern Virginia to Cumberland.  It sound convoluted, but it's a relatively straight shot (and should be signed as a US highway).  There's a bunch of great two-lane routes from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, but the easiest way is I-68 to US-40 to Uniontown.

[bluecountry]

Good, this will be my new route from NOVA to Pittsburgh.
I HATE route 15.

If you like two lane roads, try US-522 to VA-127/WV-127 to WV-29 to WV-9/MD-51.  For the past 30 years, this was my route from Northwestern Virginia to Cumberland.  It sound convoluted, but it's a relatively straight shot (and should be signed as a US highway).  There's a bunch of great two-lane routes from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, but the easiest way is I-68 to US-40 to Uniontown.

Did it once, do not like it.  I LOVE I-68, love the mountains. 

[froggie]

Nearly $60 million for construction. Sounds awfully expensive, given the terrain of the area (especially as compared to the rest of the state.)

Despite the "calm terrain" compared to the rest of the state, the bypass will require a lot of excavation, especially at the WV 9 interchange.  Bedrock is also very close to the surface in some areas.

[seicer]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.
- I-64's major widening from MP 21 (just east of Mall Road/Barboursville) to the existing six-lane segment at MP 15 (at US 60/East Huntington) is well underway. The segment from MP 18 (WV 192) to MP 21 is much more advanced in terms of construction than the remainder and will essentially be six-lanes for through with an auxiliary lane between MP 18 and MP 20.
- I believe that the I-64 bridge over CR 52/6 and Hisey Fork Fourpole Creek at MP 9 is being widened to accommodate six lanes in the future. Work is underway now. Edit: This contract leads me to believe it's more replacement than widening. The deck was redone several years ago, overlaid with asphalt after it prematurely failed, then redone again. I wonder if it has ongoing structural issues that necessitate replacement.

[hbelkins]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.

What were they doing? Eliminating the weave for traffic entering 79 southbound?

[Bitmapped]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.

What were they doing? Eliminating the weave for traffic entering 79 southbound?

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

[Dirt Roads]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.

What were they doing? Eliminating the weave for traffic entering 79 southbound?

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

That's sad, since it was a one-of-a-kind (the only example of double cloverleaf without diamond ramps, southbound lanes only).

[Bitmapped]

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

That's sad, since it was a one-of-a-kind (the only example of double cloverleaf without diamond ramps, southbound lanes only).

I-70 Exit #15 on the west side of Washington, PA has the exact same setup as the old Exit #99 configuration. I-376 Exit #67 at the top of Green Tree Hill near Pittsburgh is pretty close, too.

Personally, I think WVDOH's Exit #99 rebuild was a waste of money. The I-79 SB bridge was extra-wide - 58 feet. With a minimal amount of new asphalt on each end, they could have restriped the existing bridge for a collector-distributor setup that would have addressed the weave issues and avoided eliminating free-flowing ramps.

[Dirt Roads]

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

That's sad, since it was a one-of-a-kind (the only example of double cloverleaf without diamond ramps, southbound lanes only).

I-70 Exit #15 on the west side of Washington, PA has the exact same setup as the old Exit #99 configuration. I-376 Exit #67 at the top of Green Tree Hill near Pittsburgh is pretty close, too.

Personally, I think WVDOH's Exit #99 rebuild was a waste of money. The I-79 SB bridge was extra-wide - 58 feet. With a minimal amount of new asphalt on each end, they could have restriped the existing bridge for a collector-distributor setup that would have addressed the weave issues and avoided eliminating free-flowing ramps.

Yup.  Never paid attention to the one on I-70, but I've used the Greentree exit many times (including those cloverleafs).

[froggie]

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

That's sad, since it was a one-of-a-kind (the only example of double cloverleaf without diamond ramps, southbound lanes only).

I-70 Exit #15 on the west side of Washington, PA has the exact same setup as the old Exit #99 configuration. I-376 Exit #67 at the top of Green Tree Hill near Pittsburgh is pretty close, too.

I-91 Exit 7 in Springfield, VT says hi.

[hbelkins]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.

What were they doing? Eliminating the weave for traffic entering 79 southbound?

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

Any aerials or diagrams of the new configuration out there? Last time I used that exit was a couple of years ago and work hadn't started yet.

[Bitmapped]

Some notes from today:

- The new ramp for I-79 SB to US 33/US 48 at Weston is now open.

What were they doing? Eliminating the weave for traffic entering 79 southbound?

The converted southbound to a folded diamond. The I-79 SB offramp now is a straight-ish leg that meets Mud Lick Road and US 33 at a 4-way intersection. They've also realigned the NB off ramp, I think eliminating the direct EB merge ramps. Traffic signals now at both off-ramps.

Any aerials or diagrams of the new configuration out there? Last time I used that exit was a couple of years ago and work hadn't started yet.

There's a video flyover from August on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/151252694931477/videos/299265814686170/

[seicer]

The widening of Interstate 64 between Huntington and Barboursville in Cabell County, West Virginia continues. The section between Exit 15 (US 60/East Huntington) and Exit 18 (WV 193) will be widened to six lanes while the portion from Exit 18 to Exit 20 (Mall Road) will be widened to eight lanes. I believe that the bridges are being replaced outright. The Guyandotte River crossing, built in 1959, is structurally deficient. The bridges over WV 193, also built in 1959, cross over a now-buried creek. The replacements are far shorter. When complete, I-64 will have six through lanes from Exit 10 (WV 10) to Exit 20.

[Dirt Roads]

The widening of Interstate 64 between Huntington and Barboursville in Cabell County, West Virginia continues. The section between Exit 15 (US 60/East Huntington) and Exit 18 (WV 193) will be widened to six lanes while the portion from Exit 18 to Exit 20 (Mall Road) will be widened to eight lanes. I believe that the bridges are being replaced outright. The Guyandotte River crossing, built in 1959, is structurally deficient. The bridges over WV 193, also built in 1959, cross over a now-buried creek. The replacements are far shorter. When complete, I-64 will have six through lanes from Exit 10 (WV 10) to Exit 20.

Old memories here.  My scoutmaster died in a fiery car accident after his car flipped off the bridge onto the railroad tracks here in 1975.  His daughter survived.  My first apartment after college is just off to the left of this picture at the end of the street that crosses under the crane (Beech Drive, which ends at Garden Lane). 

[seicer]

Interstate 64 is being widened to six and eight lanes through Barboursville. When complete, Interstate 64 will be six lanes from milepost 21 (past Exit 20/Mall Road) to Exit 10/WV Route 10/Huntington.

Of interest is the Merritt Creek bridge, which was built circa 1959 over Merritt Creek Road and Merritt Creek. When WV Route 193 was built in 2000, replacing Merritt Creek Road as the through route, the creek was placed into a culvert. The new bridge over WV Route 193 is much shorter as it now just needs to cross over the highway.

This is a view of Merritt Creek Road to the left and its replacement, WV Route 193, to the right. The four-lane expressway was built in 2000 and could lead to the development of an eastern highway crossing of Huntington.

[hbelkins]

The overhead to the ramp to I-64 is, again, on the left carriageway.

I see that WV 193 has been resurfaced since the last time I was on it.

[seicer]

Interestingly, WVDOH chose to close down one direction of the highway for paving at a time instead of phasing it out as is more typically done.

[wriddle082]

The overhead to the ramp to I-64 is, again, on the left carriageway.

I think I've seen similar treatments in OH, but the gantry usually has a sign on both sides.

[Dirt Roads]

Interestingly, WVDOH chose to close down one direction of the highway for paving at a time instead of phasing it out as is more typically done.

That's a blast from the past.  Those closures were common for DOH back in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s.  It was funny to see a bunch of leftover crossovers scattered up and down the medians near bridges (mostly underpasses), some of them with pavement still intact.  In some cases, those crossovers dammed up the median at certain places.  I vaguely remember one location on I-79 that stayed around so long that it was reused for a bridge reconstruction (probably in the early 1990s, IIRC).

[Bitmapped]

The overhead to the ramp to I-64 is, again, on the left carriageway.

I think I've seen similar treatments in OH, but the gantry usually has a sign on both sides.

Yes, Ohio does the same thing. See SR 435 at I-71 as an example: https://goo.gl/maps/mjF4D679gS991zZc8

Putting a double-sided cantilever gantry on the same side of the highway as the ramp is common for WVDOH. Normally, it's just with a narrower median than in the US 35 example mentioned up-thread.

[froggie]

Now I'm getting the same photo viewing issue with seicer's photos that others have commented on lately.  And I'm NOT using Chrome.

[1995hoo]

Now I'm getting the same photo viewing issue with seicer's photos that others have commented on lately.  And I'm NOT using Chrome.

Interesting because they're displaying fine for me in Firefox (and I did a Ctrl-F5 hard refresh to make sure it wasn't using cached data).

[hotdogPi]

Now I'm getting the same photo viewing issue with seicer's photos that others have commented on lately.  And I'm NOT using Chrome.

It's not the same issue, as those are HTTPS links. However, I can see them.

[seicer]

Weird. These are hotlinked from Facebook which uses https (secure protocols), and many sites are migrating to this standard. The issue can be remedied by enabling Javascript (if disabled) and by disabling extension conflicts. Certain antivirus programs can even disable https images oddly enough.