Entries Tagged as 'Highways'
1 August 2007 · Comments Off
This sounds like a few folks being confused by some weird mix of plans for I-69 and the Texas Transportation Corridor. From The Caucus:
Is there a secret plan being hatched by the federal government to construct a NAFTA super-highway from Mexico straight through to Canada, stopping off in Kansas City?
Alongside immigration and Iraq, it is a question that is being posed with surprising regularity to the leading Republican presidential candidates by people who fear it is the first step toward the establishment of a new mega-country that would merge Mexico and the United States.
Note to civil engineers—do not taunt the one-world-order conspiracy theorists by surveying project routes in black helicopters!
Tags:
Highways · Odd · Globalism
17 June 2007 · Comments Off
For this week’s Highway Feature, I thought I’d do something a little different
Route 128 (known as I-95 outside New England) is an overcrowded generally 6-lane urban/suburban freeway between Route 9 and Route 24 during rush hour. Rather than widen the road, the local powers-that-be decided to permit drivers to use the shoulder (the “breakdown lane” in New England-speak) as a travel lane during rush hours.
It can be a disconcerting experience if you’re just passing through the area, like I was when I took this picture. The entrance ramps lose their acceleration lanes, traffic wanders a little bit in/out of the shoulder because of the optical illusion created from striping varying between shoulder and acceleration/deceleration lane….
It’s a “fun” experience, in other words.
Tags:
Highways · Oddities
30 April 2007 · Comments Off
Inhabitat today posted links to a couple of intriguing alternative power generation ideas for readers’ consideration.
First, there’s the idea of mounting windmill-like turbine blades on gantries over freeways, to take advantage of the energy of turbulence generated by fast-moving traffic on the roadway beneath.
Then, there’s the concept of putting wind-turbines in jersey barriers, again using turbulence-generated airflow to make electricity.
I’m not entirely sure that either idea is terribly practical, but I do like the concept. They both go along with my belief that renewable power generation ought to begin to be incorporated into construction projects when feasible (e.g., solar cells on the roofs of new or renovated buildings).
Tags:
Energy · Highways
25 February 2007 · Comments Off
This week, we’ll go to the east side of New York:
You’re looking at the F.D.R. Drive on the east side of Manhattan, at 37th Street, near the portal to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and just a bit to the south of the U.N.
Construction on the FDR began in the 1930’s, but continued into the 1960’s, with completion delayed by WWII and the amount of time needed to convert the original boulevard to a controlled-access parkway.
For more information, see the FDR Drive page at nycroads.com.
Tags:
Highways
