How much has your home town changed (from a highway perspective)?

[OCGuy81]

You may live in the same town you grew up in, or like me, you've lived all over.

When you go home, what're some of the biggest changes in the highway system there?

I've spent most of my life on the west coast, but originally from SE Wisconsin. Whenever I go home the biggest changes I've seen since I left in the late 80s.

- Re designed Zoo, Marquette, and Mitchell interchanges, much nicer than they were in the 80s.

- 41 used to have at grade intersections between the Milwaukee area an Fox River Valley. Now its a full freeway to Green Bay and even has an Interstate designation.

- Pretty sure I-43 between Milwaukee and Beloit was WI-15 when I left.

- I-39 was WI-78 and became US-51 after Portage. 39 existed only in Illinois.

[GaryV]

Easy one.  Grand Rapids: M-6

[kphoger]

Depends what you consider my "home town".  The one I lived in from birth through fourth grade, or the one I lived in from fifth grade through high school?

As for the latter (Atwood, KS), nothing has changed from a highway perspective.  It's a small rural town, and the population is in decline.

As for the former (New Lenox, IL), I'm guessing the biggest change has been that the North-South Tollway was extended down to I-80.  Growth since I lived there has also meant that a bunch of formerly gravel county roads are now paved, but I'm sure all of that together pales in comparison to the North-South Tollway extension.

[Rothman]

MA 9 has had additional lanes added in the vicinity of my hometown in western MA.

[SkyPesos]

A big one for me is MO 364 Phase 3. I moved out of the St Louis area a few months after Phase 2 was completed, so I didn't get to see the Phase 3 construction at all.

Another one is the Stan Musial Bridge, and the I-70 reroute onto it.

This one is smaller in scale compared to the 2 above, but the I-70 and 5th St interchange got reconstructed from some sort of hybrid parclo interchange with loop ramps on the WB to SB and SB to EB movements (not sure with the name) to a DDI. This one actually surprised me when I revisited St Charles County after some years, unlike the first two, which I knew were coming. Also, an interchange got added between I-70 and the St Charles Convention Center as part of this project.

[dfilpus]

Alpena, Michigan: M-32 was relocated on its eastern end from Washington Avenue onto a one-way pair of 2nd and 3rd Avenues, which moved its terminus at US 23. There are one way streets downtown which were two way in the 1960's. Not much else roadwise has changed in this small town.

[thspfc]

Madison hasn't changed a whole lot. The Verona Road project is about it.

[jp the roadgeek]

Except for a couple of short spells, I've lived in the same town my whole life.  What I've seen:

The renumbering of CT 66 to an extended CT 322
The completion of I-691 to I-84 and the re-construction of that interchange.
The attempted closure of an exit ramp and a successful effort to save it.
A full interstate bridge replacement in one weekend.

Explosive traffic congestion on two corridors due to major development, with some necessary, (but not adequate improvements) made to each by extending dual lanes and adding turn lanes.

[webny99]

Rochester's road network has functioned pretty well for decades, so it hasn't seen any new freeway construction or major overhauls of existing freeways in my lifetime, but there's been steady change, mostly for the better.

Top five would be:

1. Inner Loop removal
2. I-490 reconstruction west of downtown, aka the Western Gateway Project
3. I-490/I-390/NY 390 interchange (active project)
4. I-390 Exit 16 reconstruction
5. Sea Breeze Drive reconstruction

[DandyDan]

I'll do all 5 cities I lived in:
1. Cottage Grove, MN: Not a whole lot within Cottage Grove itself. The Jamaica Avenue exit is a roundabout. I do know that 70th Street and the east end of 80th Street were rerouted. Further afield, US 61 has been converted into a freeway through Newport and has a redesigned exit for St. Paul Park. I-494 has the new Wakota Bridge and a redesigned interchange with US 61. And they closed that toll bridge. Hastings has a modern bridge there, too.

2. St. Charles, IL: There are 2 bridges over the Fox River which didn't exist there when I lived there. Kirk Road is no longer four-lane undivided and presumably not "Killer Kirk". The bridge for IL 64 downtown was redone. I can't say what else for sure.

3. Dekalb, IL: Some roads have been extended. There seem to be more randomly places 4 way stops than there used to be. Sadly, they demolished the dorm I lived in the first year I  went to NIU (Douglas Hall) and extended Lucinda Avenue through where it was.

4. Papillion, NE: In the 4+ years since I moved away, they have more traffic lights. 60th Street and NE 370 has been redone where you must turn right on 370 regardless of which direction you are going. Some roads have been paved and others have had their speed limit reduced.

5. Mason City, IA: Since I moved, they repaved IA 122, with eastbound IA 122 getting the one curve straightened out. US 65 north of downtown is now one lane each direction and 1 of the traffic lights on it was removed. There is a plan in the works to redo US 65 south of IA 122. Two railroad crossings were removed and all of them on the UP line have a barrier of some kind upon approaching the crossing. Further afield, they have plans to build an interchange in Floyd which should have been done when they built the Avenue.

[Great Lakes Roads]

La Porte-

New bridge deck over the railroad tracks and a nice bridge painting job!
Reconstruction of Monroe Street (SR 4) with the addition of a stoplight at Boyd Boulevard
NewPorte Landing (new developmental site over a former plant that closed down in the '80s)
A new roundabout interchange at SR 2/US 20 in Rolling Prairie

[SEWIGuy]

Madison hasn't changed a whole lot. The Verona Road project is about it.

That's because cause you are young.  When I was growing up there in the late 70s / early 80s...

**The west Beltline (US-12/14) was a two lane highway with driveways between Mineral Point Road and US-14.

**Of course the east Beltline ran along what is now County BW (Broadway) between what is now South Towne Drive to US-51.  (South Towne was only built in the early 80s.

**US-151 was a divided highway with surface intersections between Madison and Sun Prairie, and a two lane road north of SP.  US-18/151 was a two lane road after McKee and there were no bypasses of Verona or Mount Horeb.

**Fish Hatchery Road (County D) was largely rural and took a different path than it does today.  (It followed what is now Glacier Valley Road.)

[hbelkins]

For a small town (population 1,000) a whole lot has changed in my lifetime, particularly since the 1970s.

A bypass of Main Street, running along the river, was built. It opened in the fall of 1979.

That same year, construction was announced to begin on a new section of KY 11 to replace a steep hill that had been the scene of a fatal gasoline tanker accident two years prior. The truck lost its brakes coming down the hill, went through an at-grade railroad crossing (that didn't have a train on it at the time, which was odd, considering how much coal was being hauled along that old L&N line at the time), and crashed into a block of buildings. A river of flaming gasoline ran down the street and several buildings were destroyed.

Finally, a new alignment of KY 52 was built and opened about 11 years ago to bypass a flood-prone, narrow, height-restricted railroad underpass at the west end of downtown.

So, in short, in the 45 years since I started high school, the highway landscape has been altered drastically.

[pianocello]

I grew up in Davenport, IA, but haven't lived there full-time since 2013. Since then:

• IL 5 (John Deere Rd) has been expanded to 6 lanes east of I-74 in Moline
• A new E-W thoroughfare has been built across the north side of Davenport and Bettendorf, improving connectivity and relief from the retail-heavy 53rd Street corridor
• The I-74 bridge project is in progress. I think it was still in the design/ROW acquisition phase when I was in high school.

I'd say that's pretty significant, for only having been gone 8 years.

[EpicRoadways]

My hometown of Saint Cloud, Minnesota grew considerably in the 1990s and early 2000s so as a result the past two decades have been more or less a game of catch-up with improvements to local roadways. Here are some of the major highlights:

New river crossings:
-9th Avenue North "Sauk Rapids" bridge (2007)
-Granite City Crossing (MN-23) (2009)
-CSAH 134 Pine Cone Road extension Sauk River bridge (2011)

New Interchanges:
-I-94/ Opportunity Drive (Saint Cloud Industrial Park) (2004)
-MN-15/ CSAH 120 DDI (2013; often touted as the first DDI in Minnesota despite actually opening a couple weeks after its "twin" on US-52 near Rochester)
-MN-15/ 33rd Street South (2014)

Major Capacity Improvements:
-University Drive expansion to four lanes from the Mississippi River to Cooper Avenue (2001) and the construction and expansion of a four lane Cooper Avenue from 3rd Street North to CSAH 75 (2006)
-East Saint Germain Street expansion to four lanes from the Mississippi to US-10 (2006; this was VERY controversial as it eliminated on-street parking to preserve the existing ROW)
-MN-23 complete rebuild from Cooper Avenue to Wilson Drive (2009, done in tandem with the Granite City crossing bridge project, probably the biggest reconstruction project the Saint Cloud area has ever seen both in terms of disruption to traffic and $$$)
-Veterans Drive/CSAH 4 expansion and reconstruction to six lanes from Rolling Ridge Road to Anderson Avenue (2012, done in tandem with the Pinecone Road bridge project)
-33rd Street South from CSAH 75 to MN-15 expansion to four lanes... S L O W L Y (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)

Other trends over the past 20 years, which more or less seem to follow national trends:
Loads of new roundabouts, loads of new FYAs, more dual-left and even some dual-right turn lanes, more decorative elements (fancy lighting, benches, stone, landscaping, etc.), more emphasis on bike lanes and pedestrian safety.

[TheStranger]

- My suburban hometown, South San Francisco.   New ramps at the Oyster Point Boulevard interchange over the last 20 years, starting with a significant realignment ca. 1993 which removed the old overpass crossing US 101 to Butler Avenue, and shifted it towards Sister Cities Boulevard instead.  Removal of the old SB onramp from Airport Boulevard near Linden Avenue, replaced with a SB flyover from Dubuque Avenue on the east side of the freeway.  Addition of a new southbound onramp in the last decade from Airport Boulevard north of Sister Cities Boulevard.  Addition of a new flyover from SB US 101 to EB Oyster Point.  New sign installation project along US 101 in late 2020-early 2021, in progress.

Proposal (but no construction started yet) out there too for a complete reconfiguration of the South Airport Boulevard/US 101 interchange.

- San Francisco, where I've worked for about 7 years:

Removal of Central Freeway north of Market Street in 2005, realignment of I-280 to feed into King Street/Embarcadero ca. 2000 as part of the Giants' stadium project.  Reconstruction of US 101 in the Presidio to modern Interstate standards as the Presidio Parkway in 2015-2016.  East span Bay Bridge.   Tabling of mid-2010s proposal to demolish 280 north of Cesar Chavez (Army) Street.  Planned carpool lane eventually from Redwood City on US 101 north to the 280 extension.   Recent seismic work on the Alemany Maze (101/280 junction).   Addition of movable concrete barrier on Golden Gate Bridge in 2015.

- Sacramento, where I lived and worked 2007-2014:

Introduction of new highway signage with exit numbers in 2009.  Decommissioning of Business 80 west of Oak Park in 2016.  Reconfiguration of Watt Avenue/US 50 cloverleaf into a parclo ca. 2011.  Widening of I-80 through Natomas (north beltline).  Completion of conversion of Route 275/former US 40 and US 99W in West Sacramento from freeway to short boulevard.  Cosumnes River Boulevard being built between Route 160/I-5 in Freeport and Franklin Boulevard.  Capital Southeast Corridor currently being proposed.

- Davis, where I lived 2003-2007:

Addition of exit numbers in the mid-2000s.   Improved signing of Route 113 along its concurrency with I-80.

---

Other areas I have been to extensively:

Louisville, Kentucky

- East End Bridge.  Second bridge for I-65 and the changes to the Kennedy Interchange.

Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines

- Completion of Skyway Stage 3 from Buendia Avenue to Paco, Manila (2019) and then to Libis Baesa, Caloocan via Quezon City (2020).  Addition of southbound offramp and northbound onramp from Buendia.  Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge under construction.  Reconfiguration of South Avenue to one-way street northbound towards Ayala Malls Circuit Makati (between 2018 and 2019).   Pasig River Expressway east segment proposed to include an interchange at Circuit Makati. 

Paranaque, Metro Manila, Philippines

- Commencement of construction of C-5 South Link Expressway.  Completion of NAIAX between the Skyway and CAVITEX.

Tarlac, Philippines

- Near-completion of Central Luzon Link Expressway (opening May 15th between Tarlac and Aliaga, Nueva Ecija).

[The Ghostbuster]

I agree with thspfc. Not much has changed in Madison within my lifetime. Now that the Verona Road project is completed, there are two future projects within the city I am greatly interested in. The first one is the US 51 Stoughton Road Corridor Study: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/sw/51/default.aspx. The other one is the Beltline Corridor study: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/sw/madisonbeltline/default.aspx. However, it will probably be some time before any final decisions on what to do with both corridors.

[CtrlAltDel]

Well, in my home town of Berkeley IL, I-294 keeps getting widened, and so they keep taking houses to get room. Oddly enough, these houses will still remain after the upcoming widening project, presumably because there is space to the west. 

[Ketchup99]

State College has had about a million new roads recently. I-99's been built (a game-changer), the US-322 bypass was done in the eighties, US-322 was twinned for a few miles out of Port Matilda, the US-322 freeway to Harrisburg is now nearly done, and money's aside to finish that soon too.

[jeffandnicole]

When I was about 10 years old, NJ 55 was built through my town. The intersecting road had an interchange, and was widened as well. In my 46 years of living, other than a few traffic lights added and a few turn lanes being built, no additional widening has happened in the 16 square mile town whatsoever.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Heh, apparently I forgot to hit submit. Here's what's happened in my lifetime in MSP: it was getting lengthy so I might forget some stuff I had in it. Seems like a lot has happened in 30 years.

-I-394 designated
-I-494 widened to six lanes on its entire route including rebuild/widens of all but about three miles of the N/S sections since 2006
-New US 212 in Chaska and Chanhassen
-MN 100 full freeway conversion; I do still remember some of the signalized intersections and RIROs between MN 55 and Brooklyn Blvd
-US 169 Shakopee bypass
-MN 610 completed
-US 12/52 moved off University Ave onto I-94
-New MN 36 St. Croix River crossing
-US 10 realigned in Shoreview and Arden Hills
-MN 55 removed from downtown Minneapolis
-MnPass lanes on I-394, I-35E, and I-35W, with more being built on 35W and future plans for I-494
-Major rebuilds of Crosstown Commons, 35E/694, and 694/US 10/Snelling Ave
-MN 95 rerouted away from the St. Croix River in Afton
-MN 110 eliminated and replaced with MN 62 extension
-MN 5 eliminated east of Century Avenue
-MN 120 eliminated south of I-94
-MN 65 eliminated between Washington Ave and the freeway stub
-I-35W major rebuild (ongoing) between Crosstown and 94
-I-94 major rebuild/widen in the northwest metro (ongoing)
-I-694 rebuild/widens between 494 and Brooklyn Blvd as well as between US 10 and 35E
-I-35E opened between West 7th and I-94
-MN 101 (mostly) freeway conversion from Rogers to Elk River
-MN 101 steadily eliminated in Carver County
-I-35E rebuild/widen between 94 and 694

Duluth
-I-35 tunnels completed
-MN 23, MN 61 turned back to termini with I-35
-MN 194 rerouted off 6th Ave East onto Mesaba Ave south of the mall
-US 53 widened to 4 lanes between I-35 and MN 194 (Central Entrance/Miller Trunk Highway). Believe it or not this was still largely two lanes north of 21st Ave West until the late 2000s despite being the primary route between the mall and the city core.

[froggie]

-I-494 widened to six lanes on its entire route including rebuild/widens of all but about three miles of the N/S sections since 2006

The ~3mi section in question was redone in the early '90s when the CSAH 6 interchange was added.  You could argue the short section between 394 and Carlson was redone when they did the 6-laning south of 394....at one point, they were considering NOT 6-laning that as part of the project, which would have been very foolish.

[WillWeaverRVA]

In Garrisonville, Virginia...SR 610 went from a 2-lane road to a 6-lane divided arterial with tons of traffic lights, and the road is at least 4 lanes divided for much of its length within Stafford County. Traffic has skyrocketed along the road over the past 30 years, and honestly it needs to be (re-)upgraded to a primary route (it was once VA 213). Traffic counts on the segment of SR 610 that has seen the most commercial development actually exceed those of US 1 in the area.

The I-95 Exit 143 interchange became more complex with the extension of the I-95 HOT Lanes down there. It was originally a diamond, became a cloverleaf in the early 1990s when SR 610 was widened, and additional ramp movements were added later.

[triplemultiplex]

For you Madison 'kids', if you're at least 20, a lot has changed.
Middleton bypass and expansion of US 12 to four lanes. (2005)
Conversion of US 151 to freeway between The Interstate and Sun Prairie. (2005)
Collector/distributor lanes added to the interstate at US 151 plus the High Crossing Blvd interchange being added (2000)
US 51 freeway in DeForest. (2014)
Yes, Verona Road project.
But also the western Verona business route interchange was made into a full access interchange as Epic's HQ started going up. (2004)
The Beltline interchanges with Park St and Fish Hatchery Rd have been reconfigured. (2011 & 2012, respectively)
Lacy Road interchange on US 14 in Fitchburg (2012)

This city has like 50,000 more people than it did in 2000 (including me. )

I compare that to my home town up north which still has the same singular state highway and four county highways it did when I moved there as wee child.  That state highway still has the same asphalt on it that was laid down in 1996.  About the only real change highway-wise was when they added the left turn lanes at two junctions on the north side of town in the mid 90's.
Oh and for a while, there was a right turn lane painted in front of the grocery story, but when it faded, they never restriped it.

[NWI_Irish96]

For the South Bend area:

1991-92: Bypass extension from South Bend/US 31 to Elkhart/CR 17 completed. US 20 was rerouted onto the freeway, US 33 was truncated to the US 20 interchange, and IN 933 took over the St Joseph County portions of the former US 33.

2012: The new section of Elkhart CR 17 between CR 28 and CR 38 completed.

2014: The new US 31 freeway section between South Bend/US 20 and Plymouth/US 30 is completed.