Interstate Highways

I-74 Bridge Replacement, Will it Ever Get Built?

What began as a local river crossing in 1935, the Interstate 74 & U.S. 6 bridges (Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge) across the Mississippi River between Moline and Davenport are reaching the end of their life span. Though never built to Interstate standards, the 1935-northbound bridge and 1959-built southbound span were added to the Interstate system in 1974. Each suspension bridge carries two lanes without left or right-hand shoulders. The safety issues [...]

By |2018-01-18T15:21:05-05:00June 7th, 2008|Illinois, Interstate Highways, Iowa|Comments Off on I-74 Bridge Replacement, Will it Ever Get Built?
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Corridors to Peoria

Peoria includes two Interstates, the main route through the city, I-74, and the bypass route, I-474. Lets take a look at the two and more... Interstate 74 cuts a swath through the downtown area, meandering along a curved path from junction Interstate 474 & Illinois 6 northwest of the city to a brief depressed section of freeway near the central business district. A high-level cantilever bridge carries the freeway across [...]

By |2018-01-18T15:21:05-05:00May 31st, 2008|Illinois, Interstate Highways|1 Comment
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Illinois Tollway Play

Dubbed the Congestion Relief Project, the Illinois Tollway system, an integral part of Chicagoland's highway network, is a series of construction projects aimed at modernizing and expanding the multiple-route system in northern Illinois. The overall project was approved in September 2004. Interstate 355 northbound at Illinois 171. One of the main aspects of the project was the modernization of the 20 main line toll collecting facilities. Work [...]

By |2018-01-18T15:21:05-05:00May 29th, 2008|Illinois, Interstate Highways|3 Comments
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The non interstate interstate

Continuing with our I-49 corridor theme, it's time to look at Shreveport's non interstate-interstates. The Clyde Fant memorial parkway runs southeast from downtown along the Red River. It goes through miles of parkland and passes by the city's major hospital and it's major tourist attractions (the casinos). The view below looks north at downtown Shreveport from the Parkway. Click any images for a larger view. I-20 east at [...]

By |2018-01-17T15:08:57-05:00April 21st, 2008|Interstate Highways, Louisiana|1 Comment
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Not quite a trilogy

Interstate 540 is a two-parter. The southern section runs from the Oklahoma state line and bypasses Fort Smith and runs over the wide Arkansas River to end at I-40 northeast of the city. The newer, northern section, runs north from I-40 to the state's northwest metro area. Continuing on our future-Interstate-49 trend, lets take a look at I-540 in Arkansas. This view looks eastward at the Arkansas State [...]

By |2018-01-17T15:09:59-05:00April 6th, 2008|Arkansas, Interstate Highways|3 Comments
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Interstate 635 (the boring one)

Interstate 635 is an approximately 12 mile long bypass running to the west of downtown Kansas City. It is mostly in Kansas, but runs into Missouri as well. The entire route was recently reconstructed by KDOT in a $98 million project that also saw the rebuilding of its interchange with Interstate 70. Lets take a quick look at Interstate 635 in Kansas. Click any of the image for larger versions. [...]

By |2018-01-17T15:11:19-05:00March 23rd, 2008|Interstate Highways, Kansas, Missouri|3 Comments
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The big arrow flower (Kansas City’s I-435)

Interstate 435 spends 80 miles circling Kansas City, and is one of the busiest roads in the metro area. It happens to be the world's fourth longest beltway with a single number (after Cincy, Berlin, and London). Recently, the busy southern portion of the route in Kansas was reconstructed, and parts of it are still being upgraded. Let's take a quick look at how KDOT is doing. As always click [...]

By |2018-01-17T15:11:50-05:00March 18th, 2008|Interstate Highways, Kansas|4 Comments
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Painting red, white and blue green, new I-40 opens at Greensboro

New Interstate 40 Interstate 73, a road locally known as Painter Boulevard, is now open to traffic southwest of Greensboro. Traffic cones and other barriers were removed the morning of February 21, 2008 on the newest section of North Carolina Interstate, a 7.5-mile stretch of freeway between Future Interstate 73 & 840 near Piedmont Triad International Airport and Interstate 85 & Business Loop Interstate 85 south of the city. Interstate 85 south [...]

By |2018-01-17T15:12:40-05:00February 25th, 2008|Interstate Highways, North Carolina|4 Comments
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Clearview vs. Highway Gothic Primer

Jeff Royston passed along a photo from Oklahoma City showing that Oklahoma now is using Clearview font on its signs. The state joins a growing number of jurisdictions that are implementing the new font throughout their highway signs. This led me again to ponder the question of which states are using it and which are not. To address the issue, we have created a guide to catalog each state and [...]

By |2018-01-18T15:21:08-05:00January 17th, 2008|Interstate Highways, Oklahoma, Sign Designs|7 Comments
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Interstate 95 Maryland Express Lanes

A $1 billion project is underway in the state of Maryland along Interstate 95. Being constructed are the Interstate 95 Express Toll Lanes. Beginning at the Interstate 895 merge in Baltimore and ending at the Joppatowne Road overpass, the express toll lanes project will widen Interstate 95 from eight general purpose lanes to eight general purpose lanes and four tolled express lanes. Elements of the project include the reconstruction of [...]

By |2018-01-18T15:21:23-05:00December 20th, 2007|Interstate Highways, Maryland|Comments Off on Interstate 95 Maryland Express Lanes
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