What would be your area's "Carmageddon"?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Oklahoma City's freeway system is robust enough that if any one freeway were shut down there would still be multiple ways of bypassing it. Even if the Dallas Junction (I-35/40/235) were shut down, I-40 traffic could bypass on I-44->I-35 or I-44->240 and I-35 and I-235 traffic could bypass with I-44->I-240. There are tons of surface arterials too so depending on the blockage you might not even need to use a freeway.

It's pretty much the same way in the Twin Cities. I ended up saying I-94 between the downtowns only because of the size of the two cities; it's easy enough just to follow I-494/I-694/MN 36 to I-35E/35W or vice versa to get into or out of a downtown area if I-94 is closed.

Another Twin Cities killer would probably be closing the Fish Lake interchange in Maple Grove.

[US71]

I-540 between Alma & Fayetteville, AR in the middle of a snow or ice storm.

AHTD won't close the road until trucks get stranded.

[jwolfer]

In Jacksonville it is the 10/95 merger which has been thankfully rebuilt over the past few years.  About 10 years ago a logging truck lost its load on I-95 just north of the merger at the start of the morning rush hour.  The logs blocked both the North and Southbound lanes and traffic backed up onto I-10.  The logs killed a guy that worked for Bellsouth he was in a company car that got crushed by an avalanche of logs  I was working in DT Jax at the time and the normal 5-10 minute drive took over an hour.. THe Interstates were closed and every surface arterial was clogged too

[PAHighways]

It was supposed to be the closure of the Fort Pitt Bridge/Tunnel for rehab work back in the early 00s, but that wasn't as bad as people expected.

Now that title would shift to the conversion of East Ohio Street, but I won't be surprised if it has the same result as above.

[iwishiwascanadian]

It's funny that the last traffic nightmare in recent history in Hartford was due to snow.  And it wasn't last winter with all the record snowfall.  A few years ago we got dumped with about a freak of nature storm that dumped a foot of snow on the region.  (We expected snow, about 4", not 12")  Most of the time whenever we hear about a major snowstorm major employers (The State of CT, Travelers, The Hartford, Cigna, Aetna, etc.) release employees early.  Because we didn't know that we were getting a lot of snow most people worked all day.  The brunt of the storm hit the City just as the Afternoon Rush began.  Cars were stuck on 91 between Hartford and Springfield (20 miles, 30 minutes) for about four to five hours.  People abandoned their cars on the road and walked home in the storm, the Governor banned all commercial truck traffic in the state and 84 in Fairfield County was shut down.  It was a mess, the storm is always mentioned when talking about major snow, and now employers release employees early whenever snow is mentioned.   

[thenetwork]

In Western Colorado along I-70:

-- Between Palisade & Cameo/CO-65.
-- Between Canyon Creek & West Glenwood Springs.
-- Vail Pass

If any of these areas are closed,  you are now looking at 100-200+ mile detours as there are no local back roads that you can use to get around the closures. 

There are back roads one can take to bypass Debeque Canyon and Glenwood Canyon, weather permitting. But if you are a semi or RV, you are screwed on the 2 canyon back routes too.

East of Vail, ANYTHING along I-70 would be/usually is carmageddon if there was/is a closure on any given winter weekend.

[kurumi]

I'll go with the I-95 Gold Star Bridge in New London, CT. 10 lanes of traffic. If that's closed, everyone gets to drive 9 miles north, on CT 32 or CT 12, to the 2-lane CT 2A bridge. When that clogs up, you can drive another 3 miles north to downtown Norwich.

[DeaconG]

Before the widening of I-95 in Brevard, the section between FL 520 (King Street) and CR 518 (Fiske Blvd).  Once a month a rig would jackknife in that area and you could forget about getting anywhere for at least two to three hours if you were trapped on that section.  Pubcrawling through West Cocoa and Rockledge via King Street and Fiske blew chunks.

The major bottleneck would be if the I-95/FL 528 intersection went away-there goes one of your two major north-south routes and one of three major east-west routes.  No, I don't even want to think about it.

[kharvey10]

Before the widening of I-95 in Brevard, the section between FL 520 (King Street) and CR 518 (Fiske Blvd).  Once a month a rig would jackknife in that area and you could forget about getting anywhere for at least two to three hours if you were trapped on that section.  Pubcrawling through West Cocoa and Rockledge via King Street and Fiske blew chunks.

The major bottleneck would be if the I-95/FL 528 intersection went away-there goes one of your two major north-south routes and one of three major east-west routes.  No, I don't even want to think about it.

My sister has a friend from high school that lives near the 95/528 area, and you can only imagine that bottleneck on US 1 and FL 50 that could happen.  It was bad enough during those shuttle liftoffs.

[agentsteel53]

East of Vail, ANYTHING along I-70 would be/usually is carmageddon if there was/is a closure on any given winter weekend.

it was not a Carmageddon situation, but two weekends ago I saw traffic in Colorado backed up over 20 miles - wasn't a winter situation either ... so, tell me, what failure of design caused I-70 to be backed up from the 70/6 split (Eisenhower Tunnel vs Loveland Pass) all the way west to Glenwood Canyon, about 100 miles west?

this is the summer.  why are we so enthusiastic in demonstrating winter behavior?

[SP Cook]

Charleston isn't that big, but I-64 from its "split" (what the locals call it) with I-77 out 10 of 15 miles toward Huntington carries the highest traffic loads in the state, and the alternates are just the surface streets that are not any different from when the interstate was built decades ago and which already carry more traffic than they can handle.

[ftballfan]

In Grand Rapids, when Rodrick Dantzler went on his rampage last week, I-96 was closed between US-131 and I-196. At least there are two freeways to get traffic from I-96 to US-131 on the east side of Grand Rapids.

Also, when US-131 was closed between I-196 and Wealthy St for reconstruction of the S-Curve a few years ago, forcing through traffic onto already crowded M-11 and M-37.

Before M-6 opened, trying to get down M-11 (especially between Kalamazoo Ave and I-96) on any evening was almost impossible. Thankfully, it has improved.

Go over to Grand Haven, where if there is an accident on US-31 or if the drawbridge breaks down, traffic is in for a very long detour and long traffic backups. The US-31 bridge is six lanes, while the next bridge inland (68th Ave) is only two lanes.

Any state highway in Traverse City during the summer.

There would be one if the US-31/I-96 interchange in Muskegon went offline for a traffic accident. There is no easy way to get around this interchange.

[mgk920]

East of Vail, ANYTHING along I-70 would be/usually is carmageddon if there was/is a closure on any given winter weekend.

it was not a Carmageddon situation, but two weekends ago I saw traffic in Colorado backed up over 20 miles - wasn't a winter situation either ... so, tell me, what failure of design caused I-70 to be backed up from the 70/6 split (Eisenhower Tunnel vs Loveland Pass) all the way west to Glenwood Canyon, about 100 miles west?

this is the summer.  why are we so enthusiastic in demonstrating winter behavior?

It's called running six lanes worth of traffic through four lanes of canyons, ledges and tunnels.

Here in NE Wisconsin, overall it would be whenever the US 41 Lake Butte des Morts causeway in Oshkosh goes down - the city street detour routings have nowhere near the traffic-carrying capacity to take over.  IMHO, it is one of the Top Ten™ weaknesses in the entire State of Wisconsin highway system.

In the City of Appleton itself, it is whenever a CN train stalls while passing through downtown.  An average long one will cut the entire city in half with only two grade separations as clear alternatives, one on a street several blocks from the downtown area that prohibits trucks and has a low clearance and the other on a major street, but far away from the downtown area and inconvenient to it.

Mike

[Dr Frankenstein]

In Montreal:
Scenario 1: Two major bridges closed.

Reality: Chances of this happening are increasing. Half of the Mercier bridge is on an emergency closure until September while Champlain is having major construction work in progress, and has closures in weekends. Jacques-Cartier has closures every Saturday night because of the nearby fireworks.

Scenario 2: Turcot interchange collapses.

Reality: Lanes are closed from A-720 WB, also for emergency repairs. The structure shows its age a lot.

[vtk]

Columbus (at least, the north side) would be crippled pretty soundly by a shutdown of I-270 between (for example) Sawmill Rd and Cleveland Ave.  Even if the closure was limited to between OH 315 and I-71 it would be bad, but I think the former scenario is slightly more likely.  The closest alternate routes would have to be OH 161 and OH 750, which would jam, with additional congestion on Sawmill Rd / Sawmill Pkwy, Hard Rd, Morse Rd, Henderson Rd, Cooke Rd, Cleveland Ave, OH 3, and North Broadway.  I-670 would probably also see significant additional traffic over its entire length, and that road really isn't designed to accommodate a lot of through traffic downtown.

A major closure on the Innerbelt would be a significant inconvenience, but its ring structure lends itself to redundancy.  We did OK in 2001-2003 when the north and west legs were being rebuilt.  We'll do OK when the east and south legs are rebuilt in 2011-20??, though I suspect that will somehow be done without completely closing I-70 or I-71 for any significant period of time.

[ftballfan]

Carmageddons by area, if these highways were closed:
Ann Arbor: I-94 from M-14 to US-23
Benton Harbor-St. Joseph: I-94 from M-63 to I-196
Detroit (downtown): I-75 from I-96 to I-94
Detroit (east side): I-94 from I-696 to M-59
Detroit (north side): I-75 from I-696 to M-59 or anywhere along I-696
Detroit (south side): I-75 from US-24 connector to Detroit city limits
Detroit (west side): I-94 from I-275 to US-24
Flint: I-75 from US-23 to I-475 (north)
Grand Haven: US-31 over the Grand River
Grand Rapids: US-131 from M-6 to I-96
Kalamazoo: I-94 from US-131 to BL I-94 (east)
Jackson: I-94 while concurrent with US-127
Lansing: I-96 while concurrent with I-69
Muskegon: US-31 from I-96 to M-120
Saginaw: I-75 between I-675
Traverse City: US-31 from South Airport Rd to Three Mile Rd

[nyratk1]

Can't really think of one for NYC - there's a decent amount of redundancy. The only thing that would be similar to a Carmageddon is when the MTA workers strike.

[InterstateNG]

Carmageddons by area, if these highways were closed:
Ann Arbor: I-94 from M-14 to US-23
Benton Harbor-St. Joseph: I-94 from M-63 to I-196
Detroit (downtown): I-75 from I-96 to I-94
Detroit (east side): I-94 from I-696 to M-59
Detroit (north side): I-75 from I-696 to M-59 or anywhere along I-696
Detroit (south side): I-75 from US-24 connector to Detroit city limits
Detroit (west side): I-94 from I-275 to US-24
Lansing: I-96 while concurrent with I-69
Saginaw: I-75 between I-675

There are far too many redundancies in these areas to allow for a Carmageddon situation.

[vdeane]

Can't really think of one for NYC - there's a decent amount of redundancy. The only thing that would be similar to a Carmageddon is when the MTA workers strike.

I would have thought that the traffic would mean that any closure in NYC would result in Carmageddon.

[barcncpt44]

Birmingham's carmageddon would be I-65 getting closed down.  There is no other freeway going through the metro going north and south and your only choice is local streets, just looking at the construction on I-65 causing traffic jams daily, i could not imagine the nightmare.

[realjd]

It won't be that bad now that Jet Blue is running non-stop flights between Burbank and Long Beach for $4 this weekend.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-carmageddon-jetblue-idUSTRE76D4GK20110714

[Anthony_JK]

Best Cajun imitation of "Carmageddon"??  How about if I-10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge through the Atchafalaya Basin was to close down in both directions??

The alternative is (from W to E) I-49 north to Opelousas, then US 190 east to LA 415, then LA 415 south to I-10 just west of Port Allen.

I-49 is adequate as it is...but US 190, though 4 lanes throughout, is virtually non-controlled access, and worse, it goes through plenty of local towns (Port Barre, Krotz Springs, Livonia, Erwinville) where the local traffic can get snarled up with the detoured mainline traffic.

I still have bad memories of three years ago when an oil well that was placed right on the side of I-10 near the Whiskey Bay Channel Bridge caught fire and forced the detour onto I-49/US 190 for 3 days. Two words: HOT. MESS.

Strangely enough, the route is well labeled on both I-49 and US 190, and there is even a VMS system in place to warn motorists of when the alternative detour is being put in effect...but that doesn't change how much of a nightmare it is.


Anthony

[andytom]

A powerline fell on the Sunset Highway March 14th, 2004, shutting down US 26 and the Blue Line MAX between Portland and Beaverton. With the freeway and light rail closed, traffic got tied up on all roads crossing the Tualatin Mountains -- OR 10 (Capitol Hwy/Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy), OR 8 (Canyon Rd, essentially inaccessible because it branches off the Sunset), W Burnside St and NW Cornell Rd.

This is nothing more than the usual traffic nonsense in this town.  A traffic accident will do the same thing.  Carmageddon was the second week in February of 1996 (The Great Flood of '96).  All of these were happening at the same time for a week (several for weeks).

-- I-84 closed completely by mudslide at Exit 35 forcing all traffic to/from the east through Government Camp (US-26, OR-35).

-- I-5 closed, except for the SB breakdown lane, by mudslide just south of Longview/Kelso, WA forcing traffic to wait for hours or use US-30 (2-lane).

-- I-5 closed by high water north of Salem forcing traffic onto OR-99E/OR-99W.

-- US-26 closed WB through the west hills by mudslide between the Vista Ridge Tunnel and the Zoo exit forcing PM rush hour traffic to the west side onto 2-lane routes through the hills (Cornell, Burnside, Beaverton-Hillsdale).

-- 2 of the 5 downtown drawbridges that used electrical mechanisms for lifting the bridge forced to be in the up and locked position so that loss of the electical systems due to flooding wouldn't lock the bridges in the down position.

-- The 2-lane ramp from I-5 NB to I-84 closed due to high water (it's slightly lower than the I-5 mainline at its lowest point) backing up through the storm drains forcing traffic north to Broadway (the next exit NB) for a U-turn back to the 1-lane ramp from I-5 SB to I-84 (or through downtown.

All the while, it's raining 2 inches per day for 4 days in a row.

--Andy

[vtk]

It won't be that bad now that Jet Blue is running non-stop flights between Burbank and Long Beach for $4 this weekend.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-carmageddon-jetblue-idUSTRE76D4GK20110714

That can't possibly be a money maker!

[1995hoo]

It won't be that bad now that Jet Blue is running non-stop flights between Burbank and Long Beach for $4 this weekend.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-carmageddon-jetblue-idUSTRE76D4GK20110714

That can't possibly be a money maker!

It's a publicity stunt and probably a loss leader as well where they figure some people might try it for kicks and then find that they like the airline. Basically a way to try to get some repeat business in the future.

Problem is, you'll spend more time standing on line at the TSA checkpoint than you will on the flight itself. It's about 37 miles by road, but it's shorter than that as the Airbus flies.

(The shortest scheduled flight in the world is by BA affiliate Loganair from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands. It takes all of about two minutes. The pilot looks across the strait to check the wind direction at the destination "airport"–which is in fact a beach–before taking off.)