This week, I take you to the heartland. Kansas, that is. Home to Dorothy and Toto, and this interchange:
This is a very ordinary looking parclo interchange. So, why did it attract my attention?
Well, a discussion in misc.transport.road notes that in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Interstate system, several state DOT’s have been celebrating on their websites. Kansas’ DOT, for example, has a copy of a news story reporting the first new concrete road constructed under the act that authorized the Interstate system.
That road was an 8-mile, 2-lane section of US 40 (which became I-70) running west from Valencia Road to Maple Hill Road.
This interchange marks the east end of that stretch.
As luck would have it, Google’s imagery shows the westbound side of I-70 under reconstruction a bit to the west of this interchange. It’s unclear from the information I’ve gleaned which side of I-70 is the “original” (or is it that frontage road….?), but wouldn’t it be ironic….