What do you think is the worst interchange, as far as design, traffic flow, and congestion, on each interstate?
If you pick a 2di please specify a state to keep it manageable. That said I am mostly looking for 3di's.
Also, junctions of two interstates aren't allowed. Those are cop outs :D
Quote from: ParrDa on September 05, 2017, 08:50:34 PM
If you pick a 2di please specify a state to keep it manageable. That said I am mostly looking for 3di's.
Also, junctions of two interstates aren't allowed. Those are cop outs :D
Fine, fine. I-5 in Oregon's is at US 30 then.
I-24 in Georgia: Exit 169 (GA 299)
The I-95/MD 24 interchange east of Bel Air is currently a mess due to the lane drop on I-95 north, causing hordes of traffic to back up all the way to the MD 152 interchange three miles to the south. The interchange was actually made worse by a less than optimal insertion of an extra bridge in between the original MD 24 bridges for through traffic on MD 24 west, which causes traffic to MD 924 to hold up traffic to MD 24 on I-95 north.
The I-70/I-695 interchange in Woodlawn is an even bigger mess. Unless something is going to happen on I-70 in the city, keeping this interchange in its current form merely exacerbates the massive weaving problems and lengthy backups of traffic trying to merge to I-695 north (Inner Loop).
I'm going with I-95/I-295/I-495, Wilmington, DE. This thing always backs up for beach/vacation traffic and I assume rush hour. t's a left merge for you if you're coming off the Del. Mem. Bridge, which sucks when you consider up to half the traffic coming from that ramp probably wants to use DE 1. There also is no direct access to I-295 from I-95 S. So I would say move the ramp from I-295 S to the right side of I-95 S, re-align I-95 N so its in line with the Christina River crossing and give I-295 3 lanes thru to the DMB. 2 lanes thru to I-495 N via the old I-95 ROW.
Quote from: Bickendan on September 05, 2017, 08:58:21 PM
Quote from: ParrDa on September 05, 2017, 08:50:34 PM
If you pick a 2di please specify a state to keep it manageable. That said I am mostly looking for 3di's.
Also, junctions of two interstates aren't allowed. Those are cop outs :D
Fine, fine. I-5 in Oregon's is at US 30 then.
US-30/I-405 or US-30/I-84? :D
On I-40 in NC, since you can't count I-26/I-240 or Bus I-85S from I-40E, I would have to say the Business Loop I-40E exit onto US 52N
Second might be the DDI at US 21, especially taking I-40W to US 21S. What genius thought not putting a light for that turn should turn in their road design license
Perhaps I-91 North to the Charter Oak Bridge (US 5/CT 15) in Hartford. It's a one lane ramp up on a steep incline. It's backed up onto mainline I-91 almost constantly. It doesn't help that US 5/CT 15 weaves with I-91 immediately south of here.
Quote from: JasonOfORoads on September 06, 2017, 01:31:58 AM
Quote from: Bickendan on September 05, 2017, 08:58:21 PM
Quote from: ParrDa on September 05, 2017, 08:50:34 PM
If you pick a 2di please specify a state to keep it manageable. That said I am mostly looking for 3di's.
Also, junctions of two interstates aren't allowed. Those are cop outs :D
Fine, fine. I-5 in Oregon's is at US 30 then.
US-30/I-405 or US-30/I-84? :D
I-84... but that narrows the field, doesn't it? :bigass:
Although, Rose Quarter-Broadway/Weidler would also qualify for I-5/US 30 and is nearly just as bad as I-5/I-84.
I-405's is at US 26.
I-205's is the Abernathy Bridge (OR 43 and OR 99E)
I-295/I-76/NJ 42: This qualifies for both 76 and 295 in NJ!
I-195: Probably Exit 6 for the NJ Turnpike, due to heavy traffic and a 15 mph ramp speed for the NJ Turnpike to I-195 West movement.
I-76/I-676 in both directions. WB 676 merges onto WB 76 from the left but not before a lane drop in the middle of the ramp that causes bottlenecks at all times of the day. EB 76 to EB 676 is equally as bad because any issue on 676 will cause a backup that spills back into 76.
I-35 in Kansas: Exit 227 for 75th Street. Although the northbound bottleneck has been alleviated by removing the weaving in advance of 75th Street, the southbound bottleneck still persists due to the lane drop, and traffic can be slow there well outside of rush hour.
I-70: Breezewood.
I-95 in Virginia: Exit 160(VA-123) no contest. Every day during the afternoon rush hour, the lane drop on southbound I-95 from 4 to 3 lanes, along with traffic merging in from Exit 161(US-1), usually gets traffic backed up all the way to Exit 166(Fairfax County Parkway) and sometimes even to the Springfield Interchange.
I-66: This one is a bit harder. Right now an argument could probably be made for either Exit 53(VA-28), Exit 62(Nutley Street), or even Exit 57(US-50). However, all of these interchanges will be either modified or completely rebuilt as part of the I-66 Express Lanes project. After that wraps up in 2022, I think the new honor might go to Exit 55(Fairfax County Parkway).
Quote from: stridentweasel on September 06, 2017, 05:14:40 PM
But that's a junction of two interstates!
In that case, I-70 at US 30 in Breezewood. Cannot get anything worse than an intersection with traffic lights :sombrero:.
Eastern I-84: For exit ramps, a tie between Exits 19 and 33 westbound in CT. The first is an extremely sharp curved left hand exit, while the latter involves dangerous weaving of cars trying to get from I-84 West to CT 72 West and vice versa. Entrance ramp has to be from I-684 North to I-84 East in Brewster, NY. Seemingly harmless curve becomes deceptively sharp in a very short amount of time. Those not familiar with it could end up going perpendicular to I-84 eastbound traffic.
I-395 in Virginia: Duke Street (VA-236) on the southbound side of 395. That side is a cloverleaf with no C/D road, a sharp curve on the entry ramp that slows traffic, and a lane drop on mainline 395 just before the weave area. All-around bad scene. The next interchange south, Edsall Road, has a similar design with a sharper loop ramp but no lane drop plus seemingly less overall entering traffic (that may be wrong, but it feels like less traffic), so it never seems quite as bad. The Duke Street interchange used to be even worse except the Landmark Mall nearby has closed down except for Sears.
I-80 in Illinois: The exit at route 53. Four cloverleafs and two exterior ramps. Weave issues everywhere, tight cloverleaf ramps, crumbling infrastructure, and an extremely high volume of trucks due to the intermodal facilities nearby. Desperately needs a rebuild and a reconfiguration.
I-74 in Illinois: The interchange at I-80. It's a classic cloverleaf, except that both I-74 and I-80 turn onto a different freeway. Going straight through the interchange puts you on a different interstate. Definitely needs to be reconfigured.
I-180 in Wyoming: The interchange at I-80 (it's the only interchange :spin: :spin: :spin: )
And, to set the record straight:
I-70 in Pennsylvania: Breezewood.
I-76 in Pennsylvania: Fucking Breezewood. It can count for both of them :-D
I-495 in MD: Route 450. The interchange as a whole is too close to the US-50 interchange, causing weaving patterns. The SB on-ramp is a tight loop-curve with a short acceleration lane, almost requiring right-lane traffic to slow down. (To be fair, a second SB exit loop-ramp was eliminated some years ago.) The NB on-ramp to 450 EB leads right into a traffic signal on the main road, which, during rush hour, often backs up on to the highway. (I once saw a sign near there describing a study for improvement.) And in addition to everything else, the bridge over 450 and a steep one right after have those uneven, open joints at every pier, along with a patched pothole or two. Finally, all this is on what's signed as mainline I-95, so even if locals know to slow somewhat for the conditions, the out-of-state motorists do not.
Quote from: 1 on September 05, 2017, 09:01:28 PM
I-24 in Georgia: Exit 169 (GA 299)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fzl8Be3w.gif&hash=6b2dc8cc97d8378405e40eb68e80d658c1984504)
On I-280 in the greater San Jose area: the Lawrence Expressway exit. NB (actually west) it doesn't take you to the destination street, which runs N-S, the ramp crosses Stevens Creek Blvd. (E-W; I-280 is diagonal SE>NW at that point) after a blind curve that includes an off-ramp from Lawrence (which also crosses Stevens Creek on an overpass). Lots of ways to go: but first you've got to contend with Lawrence to EB Stevens Creek traffic, which is trying to merge with you as well as move all the way to the right in about 100 yards or so. To get to Lawrence north (major morning commute direction to a lot of tech firms) you have to cross Stevens Creek at grade; the signal generally only lets 3-4 cars through at a time, which backs up the exit onto 280. To get to Lawrence SB, one needs to make a left on Stevens Creek, pass under both Lawrence Expressway and 280, them make a left on a 135-degree backward angle, which puts you onto a one-way freeway-side road back to Lawrence, where you merge onto the 6-lane expressway just before a signaled cross street; that ramp backs up as well -- since it also handles SB 280 to SB Lawrence traffic, which itself has to cross Stevens Creek at signaled grade. SB 280 to NB Lawrence (again, a commute route): left onto Stevens Creek, under 280 & Lawrence, and left on Lawrence. The only on-ramp to 280 north (west) is on Stevens Creek west of the Lawrence off-ramp; it simply peels off Stevens Creek. The sole saving grace of the interchange is a direct signaled left turn from Lawrence onto SB 280. If you're now confused by all this, imagine someone trying to negotiate it for the first time! And it'll get worse -- the new Apple HQ "campus" is just north of 280 and west of Lawrence (actually between Lawrence and the next exit, Wolfe Road; a lot of Apple folks will be using the Lawrence exit to access the employee parking lots.
I-85 in Virginia: heading the "opposite" direction to/from I-95. Northbound 95 to southbound 85 has a tight loop that occasionally sees trucks tip over, while northbound 85 to southbound 95 has a near-blind merge. Same-direction movements are much more straightforward.
In NJ:
I-76: Southern terminus. Going Eastbound, the large number of lanes, often jammed makes it very hard to get your direction of I-295 if you don't know in advance which one is the left exit and which one the right exit. Going west, depending on which entrance you use, you may have to weave to not end up on I-676 (or to end up on 676 if that's where you need to be).
I-280: Exit 13 Eastbound where the left three lanes lead to local streets requiring all traffic staying on 280 to merge into two lanes which just entered the highway at the previous entrance.
I-95: Just west of the George Washington Bridge. Going North, you have to figure out express, local, upper level, lower level, and the merging eastern and western spurs. Going south, all of the above plus not accidentally ending up on I-80. Also, the Exit 10 almost circle to enter I-287.
I-295: The I-76/NJ 42 interchange hands down, thru/lanes ending/exiting, sharp curve, etc, though it's mostly going away.
Quote from: paulthemapguy on September 06, 2017, 10:38:46 PM
I-80 in Illinois: The exit at route 53. Four cloverleafs and two exterior ramps. Weave issues everywhere, tight cloverleaf ramps, crumbling infrastructure, and an extremely high volume of trucks due to the intermodal facilities nearby. Desperately needs a rebuild and a reconfiguration.
I-74 in Illinois: The interchange at I-80. It's a classic cloverleaf, except that both I-74 and I-80 turn onto a different freeway. Going straight through the interchange puts you on a different interstate. Definitely needs to be reconfigured.
I-180 in Wyoming: The interchange at I-80 (it's the only interchange :spin: :spin: :spin: )
And, to set the record straight:
I-70 in Pennsylvania: Breezewood.
I-76 in Pennsylvania: Fucking Breezewood. It can count for both of them :-D
Only I-80 in IL and I-70 in PA (I already mentioned the latter) are valid, as the others are junctions of two interstates. Actually the worst interchange along I-180 in WY is any
interchange intersection along it apart from the I-80 one, at the same level of I-70 at US 30 in Breezewood.
I-4 at Conroy Road in Orlando, FL. It would have weaving issues with the forthcoming FL Turnpike exit as folks entered the freeway to go WB. There would be a lane drop first followed by a right lane exit default plus commuters exiting the interstate to go to the toll road, would clash.
I think the I-4 ultimate is to alleviate all of this, but no plans for braided ramps which are really needed to eliminate it all.
I-5 in Washington at WA 520.
Quote from: kkt on September 11, 2017, 09:42:01 PM
I-5 in Washington at WA 520.
Thanks to Mercer and NE 45 St. Either the 520 interchange wasn't designed around those two, or those two weren't designed around the 520. Either way, pure idiocy.
FWIW, I agree with your choice. Couldn't say which junction for I-90 or I-82 would be worst. All seem to be pretty good.
Quote from: jakeroot on September 11, 2017, 11:03:01 PM
Quote from: kkt on September 11, 2017, 09:42:01 PM
I-5 in Washington at WA 520.
Thanks to Mercer and NE 45 St. Either the 520 interchange wasn't designed around those two, or those two weren't designed around the 520. Either way, pure idiocy.
FWIW, I agree with your choice. Couldn't say which junction for I-90 or I-82 would be worst. All seem to be pretty good.
520 was supposed to extend west of I-5 and turn into the Bay Freeway, elevated paralleling Mercer with exits for the north end of downtown, Seattle Center, and 99. There would still have been a weave, but it would have had a lot less traffic.
Also there was supposed to be the Thomson Expressway, a north-south route proposed from Empire Way, I-90 east of Mt. Baker, the Arboretum, a tunnel under the Montlake Cut, University Village, and Lake City. It would have diverted a lot of traffic away from I-5.
I'm not sorry those freeways were cancelled, but it's too bad they didn't redesign the I-5 to 520 interchange to cope with the amount of traffic it would get as a result.
Quote from: kkt on September 12, 2017, 12:55:22 AM
520 was supposed to extend west of I-5 and turn into the Bay Freeway, elevated paralleling Mercer with exits for the north end of downtown, Seattle Center, and 99. There would still have been a weave, but it would have had a lot less traffic.
My understanding was that the Bay Freeway was to start where the Mercer ramps are today (and that the Mercer ramps were actually part of the original Bay Freeway before being cancelled). Unless they planned to build some C/D lanes somewhere, the weave would have been catastrophic (freeway to freeway I assume would be worse than freeway to arterial).
Quote from: Jmiles32 on September 06, 2017, 05:16:51 PM
I-95 in Virginia: Exit 160(VA-123) no contest. Every day during the afternoon rush hour, the lane drop on southbound I-95 from 4 to 3 lanes, along with traffic merging in from Exit 161(US-1), usually gets traffic backed up all the way to Exit 166(Fairfax County Parkway) and sometimes even to the Springfield Interchange.
I-66: This one is a bit harder. Right now an argument could probably be made for either Exit 53(VA-28), Exit 62(Nutley Street), or even Exit 57(US-50). However, all of these interchanges will be either modified or completely rebuilt as part of the I-66 Express Lanes project. After that wraps up in 2022, I think the new honor might go to Exit 55(Fairfax County Parkway).
For I-66, I say WB Exit 47 (Sudley Road). It may not be objectively the worst, but it's a pet peeve of mine. I grew up to Manassas and went to high school in Alexandria in the late '80s, so I "commuted" home every day on WB I-66 from the Beltway to Exit 47. As bad as traffic might be on a given day, you always knew that once you crossed Bull Run, you were home free. Now, when I go back to visit family, it seems like the exit onto SB Sudley Road always backs up, sometimes all the way back to Bull Run. I know this is a surface-street problem, not an I-66 problem, but I still hate it.
Quote from: ParrDaAlso, junctions of two interstates aren't allowed. Those are cop outs
It's not a cop-out when it's the reality. The I-35W/I-494 interchange in Bloomington, MN is by most metrics considered the
worst interchange in all of Minnesota and not just those two Interstate routes.
Needed some time to think more about Washington's other interstates...
For I-90, probably the Hwy 18 interchange outside of Snoqualmie. It's a diamond interchange right now, but it's busy enough that there's plans to turn it into a fully directional T-interchange (freeway-to-freeway), keeping the original ramps for access north of the interchange (which is not part of any state highway).
For I-82, the entire freeway is rural (suburban at best). No particular junction seems sub-par.
For I-705 (in Tacoma), either the off-ramp towards S 15 St, or the entire interchange with SR-509, which is a freeway approaching the 705. The SPUI cannot handle the amount of cars that now use the 509.
For I-205, no particular junction seems to suffer from congestion like the freeways south of the Columbia in Portland. The junctions with SR-500 and Mill Plain are the busiest, but most of the traffic is on those roads, not the freeway.
Quote from: jakeroot on September 13, 2017, 06:12:08 PM
For I-82, the entire freeway is rural (suburban at best). No particular junction seems sub-par.
This mess. (https://www.google.com/maps/@46.6269618,-120.5137532,979m/data=!3m1!1e3) Particularly the left-hand merge onto I-82 WB, which is followed immediately by a left exit on the other side of the river. Which at the risk of pulling this off topic, begs the question, are there any other cases of an arterial in the median of an interstate?
Quote from: Kacie Jane on September 15, 2017, 08:33:21 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on September 13, 2017, 06:12:08 PM
For I-82, the entire freeway is rural (suburban at best). No particular junction seems sub-par.
This mess. (https://www.google.com/maps/@46.6269618,-120.5137532,979m/data=!3m1!1e3) Particularly the left-hand merge onto I-82 WB, which is followed immediately by a left exit on the other side of the river. Which at the risk of pulling this off topic, begs the question, are there any other cases of an arterial in the median of an interstate?
Was that little arterial connector added later? It looks like it. Seems all the local traffic was originally funneled into I-82.
Quote from: Kacie Jane on September 15, 2017, 08:33:21 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on September 13, 2017, 06:12:08 PM
For I-82, the entire freeway is rural (suburban at best). No particular junction seems sub-par.
This mess. (https://www.google.com/maps/@46.6269618,-120.5137532,979m/data=!3m1!1e3) Particularly the left-hand merge onto I-82 WB, which is followed immediately by a left exit on the other side of the river. Which at the risk of pulling this off topic, begs the question, are there any other cases of an arterial in the median of an interstate?
I'm very familiar with that interchange. Every year, my family has a reunion right off Yakima Ave (next junction south), so we go through there a lot. The junction has always struck me as odd (my first experience with a left-hand exit -- we didn't go to Seattle when I was young) but never particularly "bad" or "worst-of". If traffic in Yakima grew exponentially (never heard those words used before) over the next twenty years, it may prove problematic. But for now, seems okay.
In the same vein, the I-90/150th/Eastgate junction near Factoria blows just because of all the ramps all over the place, yet somehow it's still a Cloverleaf. But it still handles the traffic that it receives, so I don't think it should count for this thread.
Interstate 270 St Louis.
Worst interchange: Erm, all of them.
Quote from: Roadsguy on September 15, 2017, 09:47:31 PM
Was that little arterial connector added later? It looks like it. Seems all the local traffic was originally funneled into I-82.
There has been an interchange in that gap since at least the 50s. Selah Road was the main thoroughfare until the 82 was built (through
there in the 60s, but not finished until the 80s). It fits in there quite nicely due to the geography (the "gap" in the hills between Yakima and Selah).
I78 in NJ's holland tunnel exits. Just an arterial that thinks it is an interstate. Plus the circle on the NY side.
I-95 in NJ at the Scudder Falls Bridge for NJ29. It's a complete mess of random ramps and full stops required
Quote from: jakeroot on September 15, 2017, 11:04:21 PM
Quote from: Roadsguy on September 15, 2017, 09:47:31 PM
Was that little arterial connector added later? It looks like it. Seems all the local traffic was originally funneled into I-82.
There has been an interchange in that gap since at least the 50s. Selah Road was the main thoroughfare until the 82 was built (through there in the 60s, but not finished until the 80s). It fits in there quite nicely due to the geography (the "gap" in the hills between Yakima and Selah).
The original bridges, southbound 82/ 97, were built in 1932, and the northbound side bridges were built in 1960. The bridges on WA-823/ Selah Rd were built in 1947. Improvements were made to the interchange in 1999, widening Selah Rd over the Yakima River, and adding the bridge in the median of 82/ 97. It should also be noted that before I-82 was built through here in the 1960's, US97 took a course to the east of Selah, like 82 does now. There is a stretch of road called E Selah Rd, between exits 29 and 26, that was US97 before the freeway.
So is the interchange kind of "strange"? Yes, but there is a lot merging together in one small space. However, before the road was built in the median of I-82 in 1999 it was much worse. And to my knowledge, there really are no traffic problems at that interchange (at least yet).
To answer the thread's subject, yes it could be argued that this is the worst interchange on I-82, but it certainly by far is not the worst interchange in Washington.
P.S. Credit where credit is due; I got the bridge dates from Bridgehunter.com.
I'd have to say that for I-470 (MO), it'd have to be the interchange with US 40 near the north end. It's a diamond, nothing so wrong with it by itself, and on the south side of the interchange, it's fairly decent.
However, on the northern side of the interchange, there's EXTREMELY short auxiliary lanes that default to interchange with I-70, and the interstate itself usually has a fair bit of traffic there. This makes for nightmare weaving if you're trying to get onto 470 to either take I-70 West or MO 291 North. The same is true southbound - with the added caveat that traffic is coming off of I-70 East, and usually moving faster, so it's even tougher to get to 40's offramp. Then factor in all the shopping centers nearby, and you end up with an absolute mess of traffic all around.
The ideal solution would have been to have rerouted US 40 slightly and moved the interchange itself down about a quarter of a mile, but that's impossible now with as built up as it is. The same buildup also makes changing the configuration to a folded diamond impossible.
I-459 at US-280 in Birmingham. The interchange design was inadequate when it was built, but 35+ years later, it's an absolute disaster.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Summit+Birmingham/@33.4430983,-86.7349767,16.06z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8889177a0699ece7:0x6337ea9fc23726da!8m2!3d33.4488736!4d-86.7289262?hl=en
I-29 would be the interchange with I-480 and Broadway and the parasitic interchange 0 grafted immediately west of it and the missing ramps grafted on in 2 nearby 'corrective/partial' interchanges, Ave. G and 35th Street in Council Bluffs.
IaDOT is planning a replacement for all that and I have a feeling it won't be liked much either as adding stop lights to West Broadway as a palliative to include all the movements in one interchange is not going to be seen as the right answer for an interchange that is widely viewed as critically flawed since it was built in the 60s.
Quote from: Darkchylde on September 16, 2017, 01:36:16 PM
I'd have to say that for I-470 (MO), it'd have to be the interchange with US 40 near the north end. It's a diamond, nothing so wrong with it by itself, and on the south side of the interchange, it's fairly decent.
However, on the northern side of the interchange, there's EXTREMELY short auxiliary lanes that default to interchange with I-70, and the interstate itself usually has a fair bit of traffic there. This makes for nightmare weaving if you're trying to get onto 470 to either take I-70 West or MO 291 North. The same is true southbound - with the added caveat that traffic is coming off of I-70 East, and usually moving faster, so it's even tougher to get to 40's offramp. Then factor in all the shopping centers nearby, and you end up with an absolute mess of traffic all around.
The ideal solution would have been to have rerouted US 40 slightly and moved the interchange itself down about a quarter of a mile, but that's impossible now with as built up as it is. The same buildup also makes changing the configuration to a folded diamond impossible.
Braided ramps along I-470 between US 40 and I-70 would help. Flyovers at the I-70/I-470 interchange would help, too. But I doubt there's enough room to do all this without tearing some buildings down. I agree that that whole mess was designed way too tightly, and they should have at least allowed more weaving room between the I-70 and US 40 ramps.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9664055,-85.6759485,806a,35y,39.19t/data=!3m1!1e3
I-196 at US-131
I-94 at Mitchell Blvd by Miller Park. Very short left hand ramps. I don;t know what they were thinking. it is proposed to be removed if the I-94 project ever happens. Should have happened many years ago.
Worst on I-680 (Ne/Ia incarnation) is the interchange with I-29. It's an archaic cloverleaf and immediately east of it (if you continue east from I-680 to Crescent is an at grade railroad crossing for CN/IC. Granted, that line isn't used much, but since no one is accustomed to seeing actual trains on that segment, collisions happen rather more often than maybe they should.
LOL, the cloverleaf (except for the adjacent RR crossing) never bothered me till I started coming here and I realized how deficient it is in this era.
The rapid-fire ramps on I-90/I-94 north of the Loop. Why have left exits and entrances every block or two?