Florida

[D-Dey65]

20 mile project to widen I-4 to six lanes:

$85 million for Florida DOT to construct a general use lane in each direction along approximately 20 miles of I-4 between State Road 434 and State Road 472 in Seminole and Volusia Counties. The project will expand freight capacity and relieve bottleneck congestion, saving time and money for American families and freight carriers.

- https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-invests-426-million-eliminate

I'm assuming this does not include the Express Lane project?

If any segment needs a local/express lane project, it's northeastern Polk County. FDOT really goofed with the reconstruction at Exit 48.

And if they're going to build that truck parking area over at the I-4/US 92 connector, they should reopen the Lake Mary Rest Area for the general public.

[D-Dey65]

I almost considered starting a whole new thread on the Bridges board, but I changed my mind.

If the MV Summit Venture had never hit the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge back in 1980, I suspect that the FDOT would decide that the bridge wouldn't be stable enough for existing traffic conditions in the early-21st Century. As a result, they'd probably have to replace it with another cable-stayed bridge like they have today, but tall enough to handle larger passenger ships.

[Beltway]

I almost considered starting a whole new thread on the Bridges board, but I changed my mind.
If the MV Summit Venture had never hit the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge back in 1980, I suspect that the FDOT would decide that the bridge wouldn't be stable enough for existing traffic conditions in the early-21st Century. As a result, they'd probably have to replace it with another cable-stayed bridge like they have today, but tall enough to handle larger passenger ships.

Possibly. Traffic growth alone does not necessarily mean the original Skyway would have been replaced, since many major truss bridges have been rehabilitated repeatedly.  Many large steel truss bridges have remained in service for decades beyond their original design life through extensive rehabilitation.

However, increasing navigation demands, evolving design standards, and concerns about ship-collision risk could have eventually driven FDOT toward a replacement project even absent the Summit Venture accident.

The original bridges had 4 lanes just like the current bridge.

If they wanted 4,000+ feet of horizontal clearance and unlimited vertical clearance, the could have built a bridge-tunnel like on I-664 in VA.

[ElishaGOtis]

Regarding SR 47 at Exit 423 on Interstate 75. What's with the two extra right-of-ways along the southbound lanes? Are they for relocated southbound lanes? Bicycle paths? Flood control? I'd even consider an old railroad right-of-way, but something about that doesn't seem right.

It looks like a dried-up streambed. Turn the camera around the other way and you'll notice that a ramp, and all the streets and driveways, have culverts running beneath them and the sidewalk has a fence all the way down one side. And if you flip it into map view, you'll see it shows a creek there. There's also a drainage pipe visible across from the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp, apparently coming down from the Super 8 up on the hill.

None of the older Street View images show any water there, so perhaps there was once a creek that dried up, or perhaps it's a stormwater-management feature.

1983 Historic Aerial shows it full of water.

That makes more sense. And yes, I turned the camera around and saw the culverts.

Apparently it has a name. Cannon Sink / Cannon Creek.

[D-Dey65]

New question about SR 47. Where is or was Florida State Road 47A?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Florida_State_Road_47A

[Dirt Roads]

New question about SR 47. Where is or was Florida State Road 47A?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Florida_State_Road_47A

I suspect that FL-47A is the secret route number for most of Truck US-441 around Lake City.  The truck bypass for US-441 around Gainesville is posted along FL-331 and FL-222.

[NE2]

Yes, 47A was the initial number for 25 between 25A and 47. I'll eventually make a map.

See page 19 of 1946-1951 changes.pdf.

[NE2]

August-October GIS changes (other than minor recalculations):
Clay County got duplicate lines going the other direction (ending in 800) for some reason. It also got the SR 23 extension to its current end at SR 16. The only other change was the truncation of the Deerwood Farms Road piece of SR 46 from Spear Road (old SR 433) to the turnaround about midway.