Seen at the Times-Picayune:

The contraflow plan to open all lanes of traffic away from coastal areas to speed evacuation from Hurricane Gustav could begin Saturday night and no later than Sunday morning, state officials said this afternoon.

The state [...]]]>

If you were thinking about driving through southern Louisiana ahead of Gustav….maybe that’s not such a good idea.

Seen at the Times-Picayune:

The contraflow plan to open all lanes of traffic away from coastal areas to speed evacuation from Hurricane Gustav could begin Saturday night and no later than Sunday morning, state officials said this afternoon.

The state will for the first time use "dual contraflow," activating plans at the same time for Southwest and Southeast Louisiana.

Gov. Bobby Jindal encouraged residents in vulnerable areas to begin evacuating before the contraflow plan is put into effect.

(View in Google Maps)

When I first spotted this in Google Maps, I was struck by the similarity (at first glance anyway) to Chicago’s Circle interchange.

The north-south road portrayed above is the 9 de Julio Avenue, a broad multi-carriageway [...]]]>

We’ll stay in South America for another week, and move a bit to the south, to Buenos Aires:

(View in Google Maps)

When I first spotted this in Google Maps, I was struck by the similarity (at first glance anyway) to Chicago’s Circle interchange.

The north-south road portrayed above is the 9 de Julio Avenue, a broad multi-carriageway surface parkway in the urban center of Buenos Aires.   The east-west freeway is the Autopista 25 de Mayo, which performs a similar function in an east-west orientation, but as a controlled-access facility and with less landscaping.

ALDOT is currently soliciting residents’ opinions of three possible routes for the freeway, and no route will be chosen until the department [...]]]>

As a former resident of the Wiregrass region of southeastern Alabama, it’s nice to see some (admittedly slow) progress being made on connecting Dothan to the interstate system. From the Dothan Eagle:

ALDOT is currently soliciting residents’ opinions of three possible routes for the freeway, and no route will be chosen until the department is able to review the feedback.

“I don’t have any exact time frame,” Biddick said. “We have to look at any potential issues brought up in the feedback, then address those to determine which route would be the best.”[...]

ALDOT expects the project to greatly reduce through traffic in the city.

“I think it’ll help reduce a lot of the congestion on Ross Clark Circle and allow for a lot more development around here,” Biddick said.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure (misfortune?) of experiencing the Ross Clark Circle, especially when hordes of folks are headed to/from Panama City Beach and the Redneck Riviera…the Circle can be bad.

Dothan has a surprising amount of commercial development for a town its size. Admittedly, a lot of that is the result of Dothan being the only town its size within some distance, and therefore is able to support quite a bit of commercial development due to its role as a regional economic hub.

Talk of connecting Dothan to the Interstate system, either with its own spur, or as part of a larger project extending up to I-185 outside Columbus, GA; or to the new bypass being built around Montgomery, AL, has been around for quite a while.

However, I wonder if regional planners might be asking for trouble by promoting a new freeway as an excuse for more development. After all, even though Dothan is commercially more significant than its census figures would suggest…there is a limit to the amount of development it can sustain.

If local leaders encourage development along a new freeway bypass, I can’t help but expect that the Circle will start to be as blighted as downtown Dothan became when businesses shifted to the Circle.

Seen in Sunday’s Courant:

Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Saturday that she has submitted legislation directing that no new contracts for billboards on state-owned property be allowed and that existing billboard contracts not be renewed when they expire.

To lessen distraction on state roadways, the bill would also allow the state to stop [...]]]>

…and who can blame her?

Seen in Sunday’s Courant:

Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Saturday that she has submitted legislation directing that no new contracts for billboards on state-owned property be allowed and that existing billboard contracts not be renewed when they expire.

To lessen distraction on state roadways, the bill would also allow the state to stop issuing permits after June 1 for the erection of any outdoor advertising structure whose message periodically changes by electronic means.

The article also mentions that Rell wants to see ConnDOT (or its successor) update highway signs along Connecticut roads, to give the state a better image among visitors.

Considering that Connecticut highways see a mishmash of signage standards, many of which aren’t up-to-snuff with current U.S. standards, this is not necessarily a bad thing. of course, with a budget crunch expected…perhaps now is not the right time to spend that money?

India’s still developing its highway system.  In fact, when trying to find aerial footage of a highway in/around Delhi, I ran into problems in finding anything more significant than an arterial route.

The exception to that would be NH-8, which is being upgraded to the Delhi-Gurgaon [...]]]>

For this week’s highway feature, I thought we’d head to India.

India’s still developing its highway system.  In fact, when trying to find aerial footage of a highway in/around Delhi, I ran into problems in finding anything more significant than an arterial route.

The exception to that would be NH-8, which is being upgraded to the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.  The upgrades are so new that, as of this writing, Google Maps imagery hasn’t quite caught up to the construction:

(View in Google Maps)

This is the northern end of the Gyongbu Expressway, where it intersects the Olympic Expressway just before crossing the Han River, sharing the Hannam Bridge with the Jungang Line of the Korean National Railways. and the Yongsan-Deokso line of the Seoul Metropolitan [...]]]>

For this week’s highway feature, let us trek to Korea:

This is the northern end of the Gyongbu Expressway, where it intersects the Olympic Expressway just before crossing the Han River, sharing the Hannam Bridge with the Jungang Line of the Korean National Railways. and the Yongsan-Deokso line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway.

(View in Google Maps)

This is a rather infamous interchange, between I-87 (the Major Deegan Expressway) and I-95 (Alexander Hamilton Bridge / Cross Bronx Expressway), where travelers heading south from upstate (or north, after having escaped Queens) have the opportunity to wind up narrow [...]]]>

For this week, a trip to the Big Apple is in order:

This is a rather infamous interchange, between I-87 (the Major Deegan Expressway) and I-95 (Alexander Hamilton Bridge / Cross Bronx Expressway), where travelers heading south from upstate (or north, after having escaped Queens) have the opportunity to wind up narrow ramps from the valley floor to gain access to I-95 and either the Cross-Bronx Expressway (northbound/eastbound) or the George Washington Bridge (southbound/westbound).

From I-87, it’s a rather impressive view.  From I-95, less so.

For more information, see information on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge at Steve Anderson’s ncyroads.com.

State officials plan to open 26 miles of Corridor X next month, giving motorists a straight shot from Forestdale to Memphis.

A new 20-mile section of highway will open Nov. 14 from Industrial Parkway in Jasper to U.S. 78 in Graysville. At the same time, transportation officials will officially open a six-mile [...]]]>

Seen in the Birmingham Times:

State officials plan to open 26 miles of Corridor X next month, giving motorists a straight shot from Forestdale to Memphis.

A new 20-mile section of highway will open Nov. 14 from Industrial Parkway in Jasper to U.S. 78 in Graysville. At the same time, transportation officials will officially open a six-mile stretch from Graysville to Cherry Avenue in Forestdale that has been open to local traffic only.[...]

The opening will leave about five miles of the corridor leading to Interstate 65 in Birmingham to be finished, plus construction of the interchange at I-65, before the corridor is completed.

With my first post-college job having been in Lower Alabama and my family living in Memphis, I was rather familiar with the hodge-podge of 2-lane and freeway alignments of US 78 between Birmingham and Memphis. (For example, pictures of my most recent trek up US 78 can be found in my gallery, starting here.)

While I’m a fan of back roads, there is quite a bit of truck traffic on that corridor, so seeing the route converted to freeway doesn’t upset me. It’s just amazing, however, when you think about how long the upgrade has taken (over 20 years).

Interstate-standard sections of Corridor X are supposed to be resigned as I-22 once a connection is made to the interstate system, presumably first at the I-65 interchange to be built north of downtown Birmingham.