Some Carolina Interstate pics

[Tom958]

I took a few photos last weekend and I'm not sure what to do with them, so I'll post them here. Starting out, this is arguably a continuation of a photo feature I started at skyscrapercity.com in 2008. If there's a gold medal for procrastination, it's mine. 

I'm starting at the southern end of Business 85 outside of Spartanburg. I've always lived around Atlanta, and my Mom's family lives in Hampton and Newport News, so I've been travelling this way for virtually all of my 56 years. Of course, I-85 was relocated to a fine new bypass route in 1993 (IIRC), but I always take the old route northbound. Other than the Clearview signage and the cable rail median barriers, it's a lot like what it was like as far back as I can remember. And there's no traffic! The speed limit's 60, though.



This is a bit north of the I-26 interchange and shows the standard cross section. On the right is a large cement plant with an elevated rail spur that I always thought was pretty cool.



The highway narrows as it overpasses streets and railroads, and the obsolete concrete open-rail bridge guardrails are augmented by thrie beams. If there was ever a shoulder (I don't think there was), it was pressed into use as an auxiliary lane. Imagine this on a rainy day in the early '90's carrying 70k vehicles per day. 



Here's a surprise: A roundabout interchange, right here in '50's South Cackalacky. Actually it's more of a traffic circle, but hey... As an ignorant American I always thought it was backward, but it was pretty much state of the art in terms of timing if not of design. It doesn't appear to have been modified-- hopefully that means it works OK.



Getting back on the freeway, the weaving section between here and the offramp to I-585/US 176 is really short, and the interchange is missing one movement despite extensive, recent reconstruction of the freeway portion of US 176.



Just past I-585... I like Clearview, but some words are hard to read in any font. 



Leaving jolly olde England, we find ourselves in exotic Arkansas. Here's an Arkansas-type interchange in which the overpass spans both the freeway and the frontage roads on both sides. I recall there being quite a few of these, but my oldest official SC map (with layouts of every Interstate interchange!) doesn't bear that out, and SC has reconfigured (I guess) nearly half of the service interchanges on I-85 anyway. So, this may be the sole survivor.



North of Spartanburg, there's this wonderfully hideous railroad bridge (the photo was taken going southbound, BTW). This, too, I remember from way early in my life, partly because the rail line serves a chemical plant that was lit spectacularly at night and which therefore became a bit of a landmark. 



Last for now: Ever take a photo of something that was supposed to be typical and it turned out not to be? For whatever reason, I decided I needed a photo of typical I-85 north of Spartanburg right as I approached the last interchange in SC. But the legacy bridge guardrails have been fully demolished and replaced with Jersey barriers, something that hasn't been done on any of the other bridges over 85 nor even on quite a few of the ones carrying 85! So, this bridge looks decades newer than it actually is.

Coming back southbound, I noticed too late to photograph that a large section of the legacy bridge guardrail on the next interchange south from here had been rebuilt to its original configuration, I presume after having been damaged. The repair work looked really sloppy, and that suggests that it cost way too much, too. I suspect that after that episode, the decision was made never to attempt to rebuild '50's-era concrete guardrail again. 



Next, modest adventure in NC. 

[Tom958]

Next, we're right across the border in NC. From north of Spartanburg to the US74 junction, I-85 is about the same age (quite elderly) on both sides of the border, with four lanes and a similar amount of traffic. However, SC's segment appears to be well into the period of neglect that precedes a major rebuilding project, in this case the planned six laning of I-85. NC's section presents a much more finished appearance. Here's the typical condition in that area:



Here, looking southbound just north of interchange 4, is something of an anomaly: the southbound roadway is much hillier than the northbound. Could the southbound roadway have been a part of US 29 that was later incorporated into I-85? What do you think? Or, better, what do you know? 





Skipping north to the other side of Charlotte, I felt obligated to take a shot or two of the almost-completed 85-485 interchange. It's big, but, gawd, it's so boring! 



Beyond there, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the construction zone from hell just north of 485 is no more. Eight laning of I-85 has been completed past NC 73 and barrels have been placed for the next lift through the Concord-Kannapolis cloverleaf. Disturbingly at odds with my memory, there is no more work underway on I-85 between there and Greensboro, which is where I was bound (for my daughter's wedding-- yay!).



This is at Old Union Church Road, exit 79, a couple of miles south of the Yadkin River. I took the photo because of the rumble strips bracketed by two yellow lines on the left shoulder-- I don't recall ever seeing that anywhere else. After seeing that video of the modified thrie beam guardrail in action, I'm unpleasantly amazed that they used an old-skool w beam for the barrier on such a narrow median. 



Last, a rather pointless shot of the exit to former Business 85 and future I-285. Or... by this time, I'd noticed that while NC seems to be  nominally following the 2009 MUTCD in regard to signing multilane exits, they'd somehow managed to avoid the (duly mandated) blatant mislabeling of option lanes that irritates the piss out of me in Georgia.

[Tom958]

Last, I-40 and friends, avoiding the Charlotte Motor Speedway area on Memorial Day weekend. Here are a few shots of Business 40- US 421 through Winston-Salem before they start tearing it up. Any day now, right?:







Next, the I-77 interchange, unphotogenic as hell in typical NC style. First, east of 77...



...then west, approaching the US 21 interchange.



Last, a shot of the really ancient part of I-40, somewhere between Statesville and Hickory. The bridge guardrail is what caught my eye here. Also, the median is very narrow, and the barriers are either two cable rail installations or a pitiful-looking double-sided W beam on what looks like chain link fence posts. The bridges that carry I-40 don't have shoulders, either. I suppose that upgrades are at least on NCDOT's to-do-someday list, but there are more urgent priorities.

[Mapmikey]

Hearon Circle in Spartanburg predates I-85.  Originally the super-2ish US 29 connected to the circle as an at grade before the interstate bridge was constructed in 1958.

I-85 was built on top of the original US 29 Bypass of Kings Mtn NC...



Mike

[Tom958]

Hearon Circle in Spartanburg predates I-85.  Originally the super-2ish US 29 connected to the circle as an at grade before the interstate bridge was constructed in 1958.

I-85 was built on top of the original US 29 Bypass of Kings Mtn NC...

Thanks!

EDIT: Whoa, wait a minute! Did US 29 through Spartanburg run somewhere other than where it is now? If so, I guess I need to read up. 

[Mapmikey]

A super-2ish road was built about 1954 from the state line at Grover southwest mostly along the original I-85 route to Lyman.  US 29 was put on this route, then I-85 was constructed on top of most of it.  The original route through Gaffney and Spartanburg became US 29 ALT.  In 1962, US 29 was restored to its original routing and the one part of the new 1954 road that didn't become I-85 became SC 129.

Historic Aerials has a 1955 view of this road from SC 9 northeast to the southern SC 18 interchange.

Mike

[Tom958]

Wow! I'd wondered why that part of I-85 was so completely provided with frontage roads. Again, thanks!