On the corner of Cuthbert Blvd and North Park Drive in Cherry Hill, NJ, on an old concrete wall that apparently bordered the property of earth-sheltered architect Malcolm Wells, is printed this barely legible, fading quote:
"If we are not careful we shall leave our children a legacy of billion-dollar roads leading nowhere except to other congested places like those they left behind." - [General] Omar Bradley
I first got a good look at that quote today, and it's certainly something to meditate on - see where we have come and where we are going, with its uncanny prescience (While I cant get a date on the actual quote, General Bradley's post-war years of policy-making, council advisory, etc were during the 1950's and 60's, when the Interstates made their debut.
If they (FHWA) had concentrated on getting the urban sections built first (late fifties/early sixties) instead of going for rural mileage first, the whole system would have worked better. Some very glaring missing sections. Some are actual, some are what should have been developed. Of course there are others, not mentioned here.
I-40 Memphis
I-70 Baltimore
I-78 Lomex to Idlewild/Kennedy
I-495 Cross Manhattan
I-710 Pasadena
I-95 Boston (along with the needed Inner Belt)
I-95 New Jersey (direct connection to NJT through and via Trenton)
I-95 Washington
I-410 Phoenix Belt (Today's Loop 101, without the Dogleg)
I-210 El Paso Bypass
I-425 West Albuquerque Half Circumferential
Quote from: DJStephens on April 02, 2020, 12:36:47 AM
If they (FHWA) had concentrated on getting the urban sections built first (late fifties/early sixties) instead of going for rural mileage first, the whole system would have worked better. Some very glaring missing sections. Some are actual, some are what should have been developed. Of course there are others, not mentioned here.
I-40 Memphis
I-70 Baltimore
I-78 Lomex to Idlewild/Kennedy
I-495 Cross Manhattan
I-710 Pasadena
I-95 Boston (along with the needed Inner Belt)
I-95 New Jersey (direct connection to NJT through and via Trenton)
I-95 Washington
I-410 Phoenix Belt (Today's Loop 101, without the Dogleg)
I-210 El Paso Bypass
I-425 West Albuquerque Half Circumferential
California's old Division of Highways (since subsumed into Caltrans) was quite prescient regarding this, particular in regards to Los Angeles; the Interstates in that particular urban area were essentially built out by the late '60's, with the exception being I-210. There were some arguments made regarding that particular route, but unlike the urban-incursion arguments forwarded against Interstates elsewhere, those were largely NIMBY protestations lodged by wealthy suburban residents in the tony La Canada area north of Pasadena and Glendale. Those were eventually resolved by a redesign of the facility through the central business area of the neighborhood. Of course, San Francisco freeways ran into a buzzsaw of opposition; but in retrospect freeway deployment in that dense city would have done more damage than could be recouped by a small measure of benefit. But the DOH was also able to fully complete the Interstate mileage in LA's southern neighbors, Orange and San Diego Counties, without serious organized opposition; ironically, such opposition would eventually come
internally, when the Caltrans directorship fell to Adriana Gianturco during the first Jerry Brown administration ('75-'83); much more freeway mileage, including planned Interstate segments in Sacramento, was deleted during those years than was ever the victim of urban-based protestations.
Sounds like Gen. Bradley was discussing induced demand. :-D
Quote from: Bruce on April 02, 2020, 05:14:35 AM
Sounds like Gen. Bradley was discussing induced demand. :-D
That sounds about right!
And as for the above assertion that urban freeways should have taken precedence... do you think that would have made things cost more today? I'm thinking the rural links are what stabilized prices of goods somewhat, since trucks are able to move good produced around the country to metro areas pretty efficiently thanks to the greater network. Which may have not happened had urban freeway planning been the priority.
Quote from: J3ebrules on April 02, 2020, 11:31:10 PM
Quote from: Bruce on April 02, 2020, 05:14:35 AM
Sounds like Gen. Bradley was discussing induced demand. :-D
That sounds about right!
And as for the above assertion that urban freeways should have taken precedence... do you think that would have made things cost more today? I'm thinking the rural links are what stabilized prices of goods somewhat, since trucks are able to move good produced around the country to metro areas pretty efficiently thanks to the greater network. Which may have not happened had urban freeway planning been the priority.
Since one of the principal rationales for the Interstate system from the beginning was to expedite
farm-to-market movements, many Midwest and Plains states
did the opposite of CA and deployed long rural sections prior to tackling segments through cities. As a kid, my first road trip back east in 1960 followed US 40 east from Colorado; the first completed I-70 segment to be encountered was at Abilene, KS and extended east around Junction City; the remainder to Topeka was under construction at the time -- but the work stopped just west of Topeka itself. Those states seemingly took the rural-expedition aspect of the system to heart by laying down as much rural mileage as possible during the first few years of system deployment.
But CA demurred not so much regarding
urban prioritization but because they had considerably more experience building freeway mileage (they'd been at it 15+ years when the I-system was authorized), and they knew what components of freeway building cost the most -- the structures and construction on difficult terrain -- which were plentiful in both urban and mountain settings but relatively few in rural areas such as the Valley. So to keep ahead of inflation as much as possible, the more expensive projects were "front-loaded", with many of them well under way while still in the 1950's, such as I-80 over the Sierras, which was completed up the hill to about Gold Run by the turn of the decade. Conversely, the Westside/I-5 alignment through the Valley didn't commence construction until late '62 and didn't see full completion until 1981. But ironically its value as an agricultural server -- although it traverses hundreds of miles of farmland -- is dwarfed by CA 99 to the east, which serves many more agricultural "load-outs" and terminals than its Interstate counterpart to the west.