How a dang interstate highway ended up in the middle of the US Open

[chays]

http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2016/6/14/11878152/us-open-2016-oakmont-country-club-highway-interstate-76

Interesting story on how Oakmont Country Club is split by the PA Turnpike.  The ROW predated the club itself, as certainly this otherwise would probably never have happened.

GSV (https://goo.gl/maps/AyuCVRA7NXA2) of nearby Hulton Rd overpass reveals that you probably can't even tell a highway is there until you are almost on the footbridges.  Of course, with my golf game the way it is, I'd probably send a few shots careening into traffic

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Heck, this reminds me I once found a golf course that was also split by a freeway tollway. The golf course is located some 25 miles northeast of Barcelona, and like Oakmont Country Club the C-32 tollway that runs through the course predates it. Google Earth imagery from 2002 shows the golf course U/C around C-32.

[vdeane]

A weekly gallery pass to this week's U.S. Open costs $450. But cruising right through the center of American golf's national championship only costs a handful of coins to pay a toll on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

At the rate the tolls are increasing each year, that weekly pass will soon be the cheaper option.

[AMLNet49]

The turnpike affects play on the course, because the land tends to generally fall towards the turnpike, many putts are pulled in that direction by a slight amount. So if you have a straight putt and are trying to hedge your bet, you have to take into account where the turnpike is

[The Nature Boy]

The use of "dang" in that headline just sends shivers up my spine.

Interesting read otherwise though.

[WNYroadgeek]

I wonder if anyone's ever shanked one onto the Turnpike... 

[kalvado]

I wonder if anyone's ever shanked one onto the Turnpike... 

I often think about that possibility when driving here: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.12911,-75.3313454,17z/data=!3m1!1e3

[SP Cook]

You mean that given proper design, zoning, exit placement, and reasonable people on all sides, a luxury golf course and a highway can co-exist?  That really the impact is limited to pretty close to its footpring and that in talking about a proposed road (such as say, Corridor H) through a heavy woodland, all we are really talking about is the road's footprint and that we will still have millions of acres of dense woodlands totally unaffected by the modern safe highway?  That good roads and fruit bats (literal and figurative) can coexist?

Who knew?

[mgk920]

Actually, the PATurnpike does not predate Oakmont CC (1903), however the railroad that parallels it does.  How busy is it?

Mike

[hm insulators]

Now how about a golf course where the hazard is airplanes using it as a runway? There is a golf course in Laurens, Iowa that's also an airport. Unfortunately, neither the airport nor the Laurens Golf and Country Club seem to have websites so you'll have to prowl around some if you want information about them.

[cl94]

I might have to take a little road trip this weekend to say I was at the US Open 

[Bruce]

How deep is the trench for the turnpike?

If I were the club, I'd consider capping the freeway into more grounds (or staging areas for the Open in this case).

The 2015 Open near Tacoma, WA overlooks an active freight railroad and was built on the site of a former quarry.

[mgk920]

How deep is the trench for the turnpike?

If I were the club, I'd consider capping the freeway into more grounds (or staging areas for the Open in this case).

The 2015 Open near Tacoma, WA overlooks an active freight railroad and was built on the site of a former quarry.

Isn't BNSF (and Amtrak) planning to reroute that section?

Mike

[Bruce]

How deep is the trench for the turnpike?

If I were the club, I'd consider capping the freeway into more grounds (or staging areas for the Open in this case).

The 2015 Open near Tacoma, WA overlooks an active freight railroad and was built on the site of a former quarry.

Isn't BNSF (and Amtrak) planning to reroute that section?

Mike

Only for passenger trains (Amtrak and Sounder commuter rail) will use the Point Defiance Bypass when it opens next year. One of the key components is the relocation of Tacoma's Amtrak station to be in the same building as the current Sounder commuter rail station.

[noelbotevera]

Actually, the PATurnpike does not predate Oakmont CC (1903), however the railroad that parallels it does.  How busy is it?

Mike

Not that busy. Look at the T48-T57, by the way.

[mgk920]

Actually, the PATurnpike does not predate Oakmont CC (1903), however the railroad that parallels it does.  How busy is it?

Mike

Not that busy. Look at the T48-T57, by the way.

I'm also wondering about how busy the railroad is.

Mike

[Roadrunner75]

It can't be any worse than the train running through the outfield in Brewster's Millions.