Last time, in my ".25" update, I showed a teaser of the new freeway encircling central Argentum, which TDOT is now calling Highway 340--"340" because it is a tertiary highway in Emerson County (the TDOT County Code for Emerson Co. is "34") and it runs primarily east-west.

Well, this time, I'm going to delve a little deeper into Highway 340--at least the portion that runs through downtown Argentum.

This first pic here is a historical curiosity in the history of Argentum, from about 18 months ago, back when Highway 4 actually ran through the current Highway 340 corridor--as a Maxis Highway--in my defense, built before I had ever gotten involved in RHW development. This is looking east at the old Argentum Blvd/Stone Ave interchange.

And now for a few miscellaneous construction pics:

This image here is after the old Maxis Highway was completely torn out, just east of Isthmus Avenue (looking west). That road on the right hand side is Peninsula Avenue.

In order to make room for the new freeway, Isthmus Avenue was realigned. The old alignment is shown below, along with the start of the overpass for the new alignment (looking north).

Parts of the old alignment of Isthmus being torn out. The first is facing east, the second is facing north.

This is part of the old western segment of the Isthmus Avenue alignment from back before the Peninsula-Parallel Corridor Project from Update 34. (Facing north) As you can see, it partially lies in the right-of-way for Highway 340, so it'll be going bye-bye.

More reconstruction work on the north side of the Argentum Inlet. You can see a further part of the old Isthmus alignment in the upper left corner.

Here is the new Isthmus Avenue alignment and overpass completed, before the freeway has actually gone in.

This is on the opposite end of the freeway, facing west. Highway 340 does not actually have an interchange with Highway 61 . . . yet . . .

So right now, it just crosses over 61 and ends at an at-grade intersection with Tarentum Lane. To the east of Tarentum, 340 runs through Argentum's eastern suburbs as an expressway-type road, the Tropod Parkway, named after NAM Team founder and modding great Tropod.

Motorists trying to reach 61 from 340 generally need to use Tarentum to access it. TDOT is currently working on engineering a new interchange to allow for direct access between the two highways, but it is likely to be an expensive and lengthy project.

Going back to the other end of the freeway, now--here's an overview of the new Isthmus Avenue interchange, looking north.

And here's a mosaic of Highway 340 right as it goes through downtown, facing east. The three overpasses, going from top to bottom, are Grevano Drive, Argentum Boulevard and Stone Avenue.

Finally, here's a map of this whole section of Highway 340, showing all the ramps and the Collector-Distributor (C/D) lanes.

Much more construction to come soon. The storm is not about to let up.

-Alex (Tarkus)