The US's most pathetic highways

[Screwballl 196]

how about St Louis going over the river?

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=38.619553,-90.177841&spn=0.018542,0.04549&z=15

you have I-64, 55 and 70 all merging onto one bridge, plus no less than 4 interchanges per side...

[Zokadin 0]

u.s. 99(alaskan way viaduct)old piece of garbage.i hope it stays though, taxes will be on the rise if the mayor says renovate it.

[Zokadin 0]

in seattle

[hamsterTK 93]

Yeah, I can't imagine what they will do with that thing. I agree with your statement, no more expensive wasteful big-dig type projects

On the other hand, it needs to be replaced before it literally falls down, with something earthquake proof I might add. But then it's Seattle and I kind of believe will sooner be replaced with some kind of surface boulevard a la the post-freeway Embarcadero in SF.

[hawkpride147 1]

@mother of invention, i was on I-65 a couple of months ago on that stretch and i don't remember it being that bad. and i spent 2 months driving in northern indiana, and it didn't seem that bad...some were a little small but nothing horrible.

[MrWacko 0]

Geography has far more to do with this than bad planning, but the MacArthur Maze (I-80/I-580/I-880/I-980/CA-24) in the San Francisco Bay Area is just a zoo. You can't get anywhere, no matter what time of day it is. Somewhere around 20 lanes of traffic has to condense to 5 lanes to cross the Bay Bridge. And the bad planning award goes to whichever moron decided the freeway with the heaviest freight traffic merges with the rest on the left. Force every truck to scoot over, why don't you...

[Talengryphon 0]

Personally I can't stand I-5 between about Marysville and Tacoma, Washington. During the day the whole thing turns into a gigantic 6-lane parking lot. I'm sure part of the problem is Seattle's abysmal mass transit system. Never fear! The monorail will save us.... oh, wait, we scrapped that idea because it worked to well to meet federal dysfuncionality guidelines.

I-5 bottlenecks down to 2 southbound lanes right in the heart of downtown Seattle, for the I-90 junction. Well really it's more like 1.5 lanes. The carpool lane doesn't count.

And then there is those awful express lanes, which seem to change directions at a whim. All I can do is cross my fingers, and hope they are pointed in the right direction when I want to go through downtown.

Another gripe is the flats between Marysville and Everett. Normally a rather low-traffic area at night, I've had several incidences where I have spent literally HOURS creeping toward the first Everett exit, due to construction through downtown. So I-5? Not in urban areas. 99 is a prettier drive anyway.

Then there is I-90. Sure it has a nicely landscaped below-grade section on Mercer Island, but other than that it is boring as hell. Plus there is the BRUTAL 22 mile Vantage Grade, east of Ellensburg. Ever seen 5 overheated semis in the space of one mile? I have. Other than that it is monotonous enough to put most folks to sleep, or make them wish road trips came with a fast-forward button.

Usually I take US-2 to Eastern Washington for the same reasons I take Hiway 99 locally.

Finally I must agree with the consensus that the Alaska Way Viaduct is a ticking time-bomb. Somebody needs to do something about ti before the next quake makes it collapse and kill potentially thousands of people. Instead Seattle's city council is wasting time and money arguing and consulting. Once again no one steps up to the plate and takes responsibility.

[Mellowneos 0]

I have to say, almost every highway/freeway in the Los Angeles area is jammed at certain times. And around here mass transit is usually not an option. I think the worst freeways are the Inland Empire routes I-10, CA 60, and CA 91

When I used to live in Riverside, Ca, my family had to commute on CA 60 & I-10 all the way to Santa Monica (My dad took CA-91 down to Long Beach which is an entirely different commuter's hell). It is a painfully long ride. I'm not sure how or why my parents did this for so long. The commute was TERRIBLE almost the entire way. The worst part was where CA-60 meets I-10, I-5, and U.S 101 at a monster called the East L.A Interchange. Traffic would regularly come to a complete stop here. The next part of our commute was pretty slow from Downtown to Mid City on I-10.

The last section of the commute was where I-10 meets I-405 (One of L.A's famous parking lots). I remember we would spend at the least 5 hours round trip a day. Eventually the commute started driving my parents crazy and we settled for a smaller, more expensive but much closer house in Long Beach.

My parents still have to deal with snail traffic on the I-405 and I-110 freeways but it's a lot better than coming from Riverside.

I think highways are extremely important to the Los Angeles area and the city could not function without them, however we need to make some serious upgrades to them. The 3 freeways that take people to and from Riverside/San Bernardino counties(I-10, CA 60, & CA 91) need to be a lot wider to handle the ever-increasing amount of traffic. They would probably still be crowded, but it would be much better than it is now. I've also heard that US 101 coming from Ventura county is another L.A nightmare. 

[Mother of Invention 23]

Not in th US,but in Novi Sad, Siberia. there is a highway where the truckers are forced to drive it BACKWARDS!

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Mother of Invention Not in th USquote>

What was the topic again?

The US's most pathetic highwaysquote>

Oh yeah.

That shouldn't be in this thread, then.

[phoenix7 3]

Originally posted by: MrWacko Geography has far more to do with this than bad planning, but the MacArthur Maze (I-80/I-580/I-880/I-980/CA-24) in the San Francisco Bay Area is just a zoo. You can't get anywhere, no matter what time of day it is. Somewhere around 20 lanes of traffic has to condense to 5 lanes to cross the Bay Bridge. And the bad planning award goes to whichever moron decided the freeway with the heaviest freight traffic merges with the rest on the left. Force every truck to scoot over, why don't you...quote>

I live in San Francisco, but I visit the East Bay often. It is so bad that I go over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, then go down gridlocked I-580 before cutting onto Ashby/CA-13 and then CA-24 and the  hopelessly outdated Caldicott Tunnels. Another horrible road, although it was mentioned before, is I-99/Bud Schuster Pkwy. If you've never driven it, it is an interstate that goes no where, in the process passing through numerous expensive tunnels. Aren't you glad your tax dollars are going to that?

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: phoenix7 Another horrible road, although it was mentioned before, is I-99/Bud Schuster Pkwy. If you've never driven it, it is an interstate that goes no where, in the process passing through numerous expensive tunnels. Aren't you glad your tax dollars are going to that?quote>

There aren't any tunnels along that highway. And most of it existed before it became an interstate as part of US 220.

And it doesn't quite go nowhere. Altoona, PA is along the route. So is State College. There's still an unfinished portion directly south of there, though. Once it's complete (if it's ever completed), I-99 will connect I-70/76 to I-80. It's possible it may even follow the US 15 corridor to Painted Post, NY. Combined with I-390, this would then mean a connection to Rochester.

Still, a significant part of why it became an interstate has to do with former congressman Bud Schuster being from Altoona.

[rawr APPLES 15]

Highway 217 In Portland West, Oregon. It serves an important link between I5 and US 26, but its a 4 lane highway (2 in each direction) that gets congested every day. I hate this road.

[POPSTAINKING 0]

I-180 In Central/Western Illinois. It goes for maybe two miles north out of Peoria and then stops because the project was scrapped. There's no direct way from Peoria onto I-80, which merges with I-55, and is a route up to Chicago. So then, you're stuck taking state highways up north to !-39 or I-80 for like and hour and a half and it makes the trip that much longer just because of all the stops. Plus the numerous railroad crossings and because it's all 2-lane roads up to Chicago they're never plowed well in the winter and trucks on the road just make the trip a royal annoyance

[tjperry88 24]

Anyone been to Michigan?

[ky72x 13]

Originally posted by: spectrumtech My vote would have to be cast to California State Route 152. It connects the gigantic metropolis of the Bay Area to the east side of the Coast Range and I-5! From 2miles out of Gilroy, it turns into a windy, narrow, not-divided two lane road until you go the 30 miles to Casa de Fruta. While in the damned countryside, it is shuffled around onto a bunch of crap local roads until we hit the mountains. This stretch of road was given the moniker "Death Alley", whick still holds true today. Do you know what the gigantic project by CalTrans is to fix this? They are gonna put in a damn stoplight at 156-152! That interchange is another problem by itself. At rush hour, there is a parking lot from the interchange near all the way back to Gilroy. On a different topic, let's go to the other side of the mountains to a nowhere town called Los Banos. THe stoplights, turning lanes, and traffic cops there are so completely inaccurate. WHile pulling out of a sidestreet, I got in an accident on CA-152 thru Los Banos! Even further along is the terminal junctore with Hwy 99. Also nicknamed "asphalt hell" THe exit has wrong signs, ramps leading to nowhere, and an incredible large amount of traffic. Although I hate this stretch of hell, I have to say the road between 152-156 interchange and I-5 is very well planned out. Thank you for listening to my tirade.quote>

 

Yeah, it's a pretty dangerous highway.  Especially since there's quite a few cross streets between Los Banos and Highway 99, and plus there are a lot of spots without a median separator like a guardrail.  The traffic isn't bad at all between Los Banos and Hwy 99, but like you said, the other side can get pretty ugly.  At least the finally changed the Highway 156 intersection by constructing an overpass for the eastbound lane of 152 so that westbound traffic doesn't have to wait forever to turn left onto 156.

I would say that Interstate 5 from Bakersfield all the way up the Central Valley to Sacramento is pretty bad.  It always seems to have more serious accidents than normal.  Plus, it's boring.  Although I've never driven through it, I know that all there is to see is farmland.  At least there are many more cities to see along California State Route 99 (I happen to live in one, Kingsburg, California).

[sim-fan192 4]

My vote goes to the new, to be completed Houston loop. The portion thats been completed (starting point) crosses the FEEDER roads of I-10. Afterwards, goes through pretty much nowhere USA. It is a 30 minutes drive outside of Houston. Now how does that make it a loop? There is practicaly no traffic and is completely useless. This 4 lane wonder of engineering has less traffic than my neighborhood (which has only about 40 houses at the most). It is a useless waste of money if you ask me. From your fello Houstonite (well I live half an hour from the city), Sim-fan192

[jak73 0]

i'd have to say right now, fm-1314 at I-59 (Eastex Freeway)....now thats a mess up this way with the construction on fm 1314 (like construction is new around here...lol)(north houston...Kingwood)

[WillG_75 19]

I have another one. SR 4 in Northern Ohio. This is a two lane highway that connects Marion and Bucyrus, and it's in the middle of nowhere. The road condition is terrible and there is an animal crossing at the Rt. 23 exit. Semi's use that route and destroy the animals that cross. I have never gone down that road and not seen the road soaked in blood and animal guts.

[hamsterTK 93]

Gotta love 71 entering Austin

1. There are still numerous traffic lights next to the airport, which back up for at least 3 light cycles.

But what is the worst is the T-stack type interchange at I-35 with it's soaring flyover ramps...uncompleted. To go south you have to wait at lights at the feeder road, which like the segment near the airport take like 3 turns to get through.

What's funny is this road parallels a industrial rail line that I am about 90% is abandoned. It's periodically proposed as some kind of light rail, but sadly this will never ever happen if you know anything about Austin and politics. Personally I'd propose using this ROW for widening and fully enlarging the interchange.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

To really boggle the mind, TxDOT's 1995 dream baby for I-35 through downtown Austin was to add an additional deck above the existing one, making a 4-tier highway with trench, ground level, first deck, and new deck. To access this new 4th-tier deck, tendril flyovers rising perpendicular to I-35 were designed, and because of the necessary height and resulting slope to reach over and around the new deck, these would fly outward from I-35 all the way to entry points on Congress Avenue, a span of half the downtown core just for one side of the highway. Every currently existing building between I-35 and Congress Avenue at the access points would have been demolished for these flyovers, such as all the buildings lining 6th Street torn down to make room for the 6th Street flyover. As similar flyovers would have been added to the East Austin side, the total project would have created a string of interchanges looking like a reinforced concrete centipede running through central Austin from Town Lake to the airport and whose downtown footprint and leg span would have been greater than the downtown area. This outlandish scheme, a grand compilation of all the disparate existing plans TxDOT had been currently running individually and of which they were asked to put together into a unified comprehesive model, was upon presentation thankfully rejected outright.  Their lovingly pieced together model, the encapsulation of all of TxDOT's inhouse plans for us, was cast out from the City Council chambers without comment.

Unfortunately, TxDOT never lost its penchant for heroic megalomania, instead transplanting such wunderschemes into the likes of the gargantuanly misbegotten Trans-Texas Corridor, whose outlandishness evokes the same reaction today that the Austin I-35 scheme received 14 years ago. However, where the Austin I-35 megaproject was created out of pulling together a myriad of separate and publicly unknown underway plans into a single comprehensive form for public examination, the teutonic Trans-Texas Corridor bypass, in the face of scathing public criticism from all sides to this behemoth delivered down from top of Mt. Sinai by Gov. Perry, will be broken up into a galaxy of localized projects to hide its mega scope and make each morsel more individually palatable under the new name "Innovative Connectivity Plan."

Don't get me wrong, I would certainly love to see a Texas Tokaido, and the I-35 corridor, the NAFTA Superhighway, is indeed the stretch for it, but the things being proposed need to be brough down to earth to deal with the reality of what currently exists, rather than poorly veiled Shangri-La plans set to Wagnerian stagecrafting.  Hmmm..."Texas Tokaido"...I like that as a vision better than the current polemic of urban bypasses funnelling traffic away from the economically hungry cities and into privatized toll traps on duplicated, State-funded infrastructure on seized farmland out in middle of the Texas countryside.

[k808j 0]

I cast my vote for the I64-I264 exchange in Norfolk/Va Beach Virginia from 4 lanes to 1 lane in 1/2 mile and not being allowed to cross double white lines. Amazing

[Mother of Invention 23]

Got another on

I-275 in Cincinatti

You go from crappy Northern Kentucky roads, one mile of good roads in Indiana and back to crappy roads in Ohio. Oh and you end with a loop going 20mph

it's not 20mph becuse of the radius,but because you have to go  slow enough to avoid the huge pothole's in the road.

[hamsterTK 93]

When was this plan proposed for downtown Austin?

My personal idea for 35 through downtown would be to go full trench, with 12 lanes each way from 71 to 290. At the double decker segment, you would have the feeder roads cantilevered over the main lanes. Overpasses would become-mini tunnels, with wide sidewalk plazas for pedestrians and helping connect the seperated areas of central and east Austin. Perhaps even at some point there would be a "roof" over the road, quieting the noise and creating park space. Basically a "central expressway" for Austin.

Of course I think everyone would like to dream that you could run 125-mph commuter rail on the UP corridor from San Antonio to Austin, up Mopacs to Round Rock, then up the old MKT to Pflugerville, Georgetown, and beyond, yet I see this becoming less and less doable every day due to all the growth and the NIMBYism that is likely to follow. Never mind the widening project on Mopacs which looks like it will constrict the rail-ROW to be unsuitable for double tracking. I think it would be interesting if there were more bus options, like Megabus, or even Chinatown buses like in NYC. Imagine if Fung Wah started running a I-35 express. Already from Texas State in San Marcos there is a contracted bus service run by First Transit called BT Interurban or something like that, if you want to go to Austin from campus it costs between 3-6 dollars. This is of course for commuter students, but if you don't want to give up your coveted on-campus parking spot by taking your car, I guess its a travel option.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

The mega-engineered plan was in 1995.  I wish I could remember what happened to the image I copied of the slide of their model, because in sheer scale it really looked like the Great Wall of Texas Highways.

In response, local firm Black and Vernooy, with architect and urban designer Sinclair Black as Austin's strongest new urbanist advocate, radically offered a plan to remove all the decks and completely sink the downtown stretch of I-35 into its trench while eliminating the extremely dangerous access ramps.  I can't remember where I stashed away all the section drawings and perspectives, so this sketch model will have to do.  If I remember correctly, the actual highway portion of this model was removable from a slot, and the previous TxDOT scheme with its doubled decks also fitted inside.  The over-arching flyovers of the TxDOT plan where then attached separately, and they would have extended perpedicularly away from the highway well passed the left and right edges of the image.

The trench would only be used for thru-traffic, ie, NAFTA tractor trailers and commuters only passing downtown to reach their suburbs in North Austin or South Austin, and allowable speeds could be increased with the removal of traffic slowing access points from the downramps.  The argument is pretty straightforward...why should we tear apart our downtown communities and neighborhood vitality by building ugly Berlin Walls on our land seized through eminent domain schemes just for the few-minutes-saving convenience of those merely passing through?  Afterall, such a thing would never be allowed in the suburbs, yet we are even being asked to publically subsidize our sacrifice for their convenience with our own money, and that draining subsidy is no longer sustainable.

At ground level, what is currently access roads, retaining slopes, grassy berms, and parking lots flanking the highway would be reorganized into tree-lined higher-capacity avenues flanking the trench for local downtown traffic.  This scheme takes some cues from Parisian boulevards, whose different capacity lanes of parking and slow traffic on the outside, limited-access swift traffic in the center, and subdivisions demarcated by tree lines move an astounding amount of traffic for such a super dense city without massacring is pedestrian street life.  It is intended that higher-density, mixed-use blocks ultimately be developed along the sides of the flanking avenues, replacing the current strip malls and defining an urban place wall of buildng facades.

With the wall of the elevated highway removed, the east-west grid streets would be revived with over-trench bridges, restoring connections to the forgotten East Austin ghetto so that it may once again be a functioning part of the downtown city.  The entire setup would also allow the city grid to once again function as a traffic-distributing grid rather than as a traffic-concentrating funnel.  In a bit of aesthetic fun, statuary and other sculpture would mark the bridge ends and line the trench, and some of the bridges where dressed in elaborate pedestrian side coverings.

This plan remains popular, and had been presented by downtown planning groups to TxDOT, who gave public relations lipservice and then promptly shelved it.  Triple decks I fear are still the quiet long-range plan, though likely today combined with spiderwebs of tollways and the Mother of All Tollway Corridors in the eastern Texas countryside.

(I really must search down the TxDOT plan model image again...it really was breathtaking in its frightful scope!)

[hamsterTK 93]

Haha, that's awesome, I never knew there was a proposal like that either. Too bad it never happened.

This plan remains popular, and had been presented by downtown planning groups to TxDOT, who gave public relations lipservice and then promply shelved it. Triple decks I fear are still the quiet long-range plan, though likely today combined with spiderwebs of tollways and the Mother of All Tollway Corridors in the eastern Texas countryside.

quote>

Maybe its just me, but does it always seem like it is harder to find information on road plans compared to other infrastructure projects, like transit?

Seems like whenever road widening is planned, the orange barrels come out and you just get to be surprised with whatever they end up building.

[ev 3]

In Milwaukee, they have a humongous interchange that takes up a huge amount of space and is extreemly complicated to manuever, it was also very expensive to build. (I visited Milwaukee for half a month

[hamsterTK 93]

Scary, I know what you are talking about.

The house my grandmother grew up in was actually demolished for the construction of that freeway into downtown Milwaukee. Back in her day the path that the freeway takes was a busy main street with a interurban rail line going out to Waukesha.

[ev 3]

Sad story, it would be very hard to leave your home for a freeway.

[Mother of Invention 23]

Originally posted by: ev In Milwaukee, they have a humongous interchange that takes up a huge amount of space and is extreemly complicated to manuever, it was also very expensive to build. (I visited Milwaukee for half a monthquote>

 

I was there last week 

And I agree 100% with you.

(Wasn't that the interchnge used for the famous Blues Bros scene?)