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After 60 Years, 1,900-Mile-Long Interstate 95 Is Almost Finished (bloomberg.com)
"It has taken 60 years, but a small, strange gap in Interstate-95 is being filled," writes Slashdot reader McGruber. Bloomberg reports: Near the Pennsylvania border, drivers have long been forced off the interstate and onto other roadways, only to join back 8 miles away. Transportation officials and civil engineers spent more than two decades and $425 million to eliminate this detour off I-95, the most traveled highway in America, spanning 1,900 miles from Miami to Maine.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which oversees the I-95 Interchange Project, said the new infrastructure -- which includes the creation of flyover ramps, toll plaza facilities, environmental mitigation sites, intersections, six overhead bridges, widened highways and new connections to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania turnpikes -- will be open to the public by Sept. 24. "The benefit of completing this 'missing link' is mobility," said Carl DeFebo, the director of public relations at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. The new infrastructure will reduce traffic time for north- and south-bound travelers and ease congestion on local roads that used to connect I-95 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which oversees the I-95 Interchange Project, said the new infrastructure -- which includes the creation of flyover ramps, toll plaza facilities, environmental mitigation sites, intersections, six overhead bridges, widened highways and new connections to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania turnpikes -- will be open to the public by Sept. 24. "The benefit of completing this 'missing link' is mobility," said Carl DeFebo, the director of public relations at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. The new infrastructure will reduce traffic time for north- and south-bound travelers and ease congestion on local roads that used to connect I-95 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Surely he is solely and personally responsible for the massive savings and speed completion that occurred since he took office!
Let's have a military parade to celebrate!
That gap was a major pain in the neck. For the traveler and the locals who lived there. Made it a pain for me to get to the airport or the sports stadiums. Rush hour and events just jammed up that entire area.
..always in a constant state of construction. Been here almost 20 years, and it's still all fucked up in places from Miami to at least West Palm Beach. I avoid it as much as I can.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
I avoid Florida as much as I can because, well, aligators, old people and wackos.
1956 - 1957 pour concrete, build elevated road sections and ramps.
1957 - 2017 : local line painters union #131 to paint road line.
2018: Clovis the line painter finishes the last tape in his Bob Ross how to paint road lines Betamax collection and confirms the highway is nearly done.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Turnpike owns, and so does Brightline
https://wtfflorida.com/media/9...
Seriously, I-95 in Miami is something else. It feels like you're driving on a cobblestone road; it's made of rough concrete with billions of expansion joints. Not to mention everyone drives like they're going to war.
Personally I'd modify that first panel to say "I-95 north of Palm Beach". Once you enter Palm Beach county, every point south of that is progressively worsening chaos.
Being forced to take the Capital Beltway (I-495) all the way around doesn't really count as staying on I-95 to me (or even worse, some other combination of I-395 / 295 / 695 with other highways on the south end). I-95 should go straight thru DC like it does in Baltimore and NYC (but of course now that will never happen). When driving from MD to FL, I need to plan the entire trip around what time I'll be going thru DC -- it's that bad.
A Bloomberg article somehow managed to blame Christie and Trump. That old guard blue blood country club Republican asshole still has a hard on for Mitt Romney apparently.
Local politics are often a major problem here. In the case of I-95, people didn't want a highway through an otherwise rural area, fearing increased development. It's somewhat the opposite reason that I-49 isn't going to be fully connected to I-29 in Kansas City. There are a number of at-grade crossings along US-71 in south Kansas City that would be removed to meet interstate standards. As I understand it, businesses in the area objected to the removal of the at-grade crossings. I-49 was supposed to run from Louisiana to the Canadian border, with the current I-29 being redesignated as I-49. That won't happen because it won't be one complete road that meets interstate standards. Another issue is that Missouri reallocated funds for the Bella Vista bypass near the Arkansas border. As a result, Arkansas doesn't want to build their portion of the highway until Missouri builds their portion as well.
These construction projects are massive expenses and the article raises concerns that these large projects are being completed while necessary maintenance isn't being funded. That's unfortunately very common when budgets are tight and a limited desire to raise taxes or implement tolls. In Missouri, MODOT spent a massive amount of money on the Page Avenue extension when the budget was being cut, resulting in a lack of funds for other necessary projects. The reason for the Page Avenue extension was to relieve congestion on roads across the Missouri River because of people moving from St. Louis County to St. Charles County. Were it not for the massive urban sprawl and people moving out of St. Louis City and County, the project wouldn't even be necessary.
And good luck getting the funding to widen I-70 in mid-Missouri, portions of which haven't been upgraded since the road was created in the 1950s. It's below modern interstate standards in many ways and carries far more traffic than it was designed for, but the cost of upgrading is huge and nobody wants to pay for it. As a result, the road is congested, and that's also a safety issue.
now we need to build 53 and FAP 420!
I don't know why this is on Slashdot
Not just Computer Engineers
**Life is too short to be serious**
It took me 60 years to get some strange too!
Interstate 95 was always intended to be built along the right-of-way of US 1 in New Jersey between Princeton and New Brunswick. Driving in the area you can see where property along US 1 was condemned and cleared in anticipation of I-95, but the highway construction never happened due to local opposition.
This "re-routing" is a bit more than re-signing a 20-mile-longer route over existing interstates that we were already using over the past 30 years to bypass that missing segment. We would take I-295 from the Delaware Memorial Bridge, take I-195 eastbound, and then join the New Jersey Turnpike northbound where it formally takes on the I-95 designation. It was not labelled I-95 south of I-195.
Along with the re-labeling of these roads there are a lot of new roadway, bridges, and interchanges as well to optimize the dangerous merges. I-295 will revert to become a kinda-Philadelphia-bypass (a.k.a., "half-assed Beltway and southern bypass") as originally intended. The "new" I-95 will ultimately become this haphazard zig-zag highway that nobody wanted with an extra twenty miles more than the originally-proposed route through Princeton. But, at least they can say "I-95 is finally completed."
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Turnpike express lanes, a.k.a., "dual-dual" configuration, have been extended far south of the Exit 7A I-195 interchange.
Kriston
Oh nice! Construction done on an interstate? Better start construction on the beginning again.
There's a good chance the money you pay just leaves the country.
I notice that Governor Jerry Brown, the leading proponent of this boondoggle, accidentally told the truth in his recent State of State speech. Again voicing his support for the never-ending building project, he said it would last over a hundred years.
I spent 50 years driving DC to Rhode Island.
About this interchange: The Penn Turnpike was built before the interstates and was a toll road. So the 1950s connector between the new NJ section of I-95 (at exit 7A I think) and the Penn Turnpike was a "turnpike only" connection. Pennsylvania refused to allow it to connect to free roads so when a free interstate was run through Philadelphia there was no connection . The same thing happened in western MD where I-70 came near the Turnpike. PA refused to connect them so all travelers were shuttled through two miles of Pennsylvania Burger Chefs and gas stations in order extract some money before the traveler could get to the Penn Turnpike. It was the county's biggest business.
Two miles west of the NJ Turnpike at exit 7 is the golden north-south road; I-295, which goes through the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia all the way to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and is free. All the trucks going south get off the Jersey Pike at exit 7, gas up, take a snooze and head south on the free road, now- finally- well marked. Until about 2000 the road was never mentioned when you were going south in New Jersey and coming north into NJ across the Delaware Memorial Bridge (which incidentally has a phenomenal view- get in the right-hand lane, go slow and take in the view) there was simply an exit called "route 130". If there is heavy traffic going south on the Jersey Pike (every Sunday in the summer) get off on 295 and get straight to the bridge- no five mile backup to pay the tolls. The whole goal of NJ was to keep you off the free road and keep you paying the NJ highway toll- it was just like the Penn Turnpike.
If it is late fall and your are driving NYC to DC go down the main eastern shore roads and look at the flocks of geese wheeling and landing in the freshly harvested corn fields. They are huge, dignified birds and loud. Stop for 20 minutes and really look. This is the real thing- a National Geographic show in front of your eyes. Children are amazed. Then head to DC via the Bay Bridge at Annapolis- free heading south.
In my early youth dodging tolls was an art form. There were seven 25 cent tolls on the Connecticut Turnpike between RI and NYC; just flip the coin and drive on. Late at night the rich people would often miss, grumble and throw a second coin. So we poverty-stricken college students at 2 am would pretend to miss, get out of the car and usually harvest half-a-dozen quarters before the toll collecters could stop us (they had a nice side job keeping the coins for themselves). By the time we hit NYC we were usually $ 10 richer, enough to pay for the gas (30-50 cents/ gallon and in a price war as low as 19 cents). At the time the federal minimum wage was 85 cents/hour.
I still know the back roads through the Bronx to avoid the horrible NYC jams on the GW Bridge and at least once in your life heading north at 2 am (the best time to go through NYC) you should go through town via the 1920s, two lane Holland Tunnel turn left and surf north on 7th/8th Avenue with the cabs, an endless stream of red lights timed at 25-30 mph going almost 10 miles north to the GW bridge and back onto 95 north. Today heading north I usually go DC to Baltimore, north to Harrisburg and across the mountains with the trucks to the new Tappen Zee and I 84. A bit longer but much nicer.
The driving into New England is so bad that most truckers refuse to do it and if they do drive it must charge very high rates, which is why New England has such lousy fruits and vegetables and at such high prices. If this were Europe they would widen I-81, cross the Hudson north of the Tappen Zee and get straight to the Mass Pike. I've just spent the summer in the Balkans, often traveling by bus. Bosnia and Macedonia now have better interstates that the U.S. and far more interesting truck stops. And you should see how they build the new divided roads- much higher quality than in the U.S.- they are built to last. But then the locals compare the new EU roads to the Roman roads- they expect the bridges to last for 1,000 years.
At least they finally finished the construction widening it to three lanes in each direction from Vero Beach north through Brevard County. The traffic dumping onto 95 North from Malabar Rd. and the backups on 95 South at the Palm Bay Rd. exit made it a real mess before they got that third lane added.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
So, basically, they're saying Miami will be completely submerged in 15 years or less???
Not a chance in hell...
Miami averages a couple meters above Sealevel. Oceans aren't going to rise three meters+ in 15 years. Not even with worst-case sealevel rise. Hell, we won't see that much sealevel rise this century, much less in the next 15 years (again, worst case).
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Meanwhile, the rest of Americaâ(TM)s roadways, rails and bridges are disintegrating.
“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” ...
Breezewood. It is *not* a traveler's oasis as the local businesses like to claim. It's an abomination of price gouging and poorly timed traffic lights.
I suspect that one of these choices is incorrect. Correct.
I-95 doesn't go through Trenton, New Jersey.
There's a Sesame Street theme park near where I-95 ends in Pennsylvania.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
So, basically, they're saying Miami will be completely submerged in 15 years or less???
Not a chance in hell...
Miami averages a couple meters above Sealevel. Oceans aren't going to rise three meters+ in 15 years. Not even with worst-case sealevel rise. Hell, we won't see that much sealevel rise this century, much less in the next 15 years (again, worst case).
Maybe. But the the estimates you're using were based on conservative figures. Since the scientists are foretelling gloom and doom, they don't, as a group, want to risk their credibility by making predictions that don't come true, so they tend to err on the side of caution, I think.
There are a number of factors not being taken into consideration because they can't. Wars, for example. In an already dry environment, like parts of Northern California burning to the ground, it doesn't take much, just a casually discarded cigarette, a spark from a tailpipe, a lightning strike, etc., to touch off a blaze that puts a few more million tons of gaseous carbon into the atmosphere that already has entirely too much of that element, that wasn't counted on in the models. When wars are fought, incendiary devices are, I've heard, occasionally used.
As polar ice disappears, even more millions of tons of formerly-safely-sequestered carbon is exposed and allowed to finish rotting away, dumping even more dangerous methane into the air, spiraling into ever greater amounts of the heat-trapping gas. Then some idiot decides to undo all the rules that were slowing down the destruction, and wants to speed it back up, actively, because he apparently, like so many other people, can't do basic math... out, it seems, of sheer SPITE.
Also there are other possible contributors to flooding, like changes in weather patterns that are already happening. Increasing turbulence of the ocean's surface COULD cause variations in sea-levels near land to cause some water to overtop levees that it previously could not; or maybe storms pushing massive waves over when before they were not high enough to get over existing walls.
The estimates for the rate of sea-level rise COULD be right, BUT they could also be wrong. Let's all hope they're right. Because if Miami DOES get submerged below rising ocean waves, or otherwise rendered uninhabitable, it means all the people there will FLOOD (pun intended, sorry,) into the rest of the country. More people means more crowding, more cars, more noise, etc.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
It's basically continuous city from West Palm Beach to Miami, for 70 miles.
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
California and other arid environments have always had nearly constant fires during dry seasons. Luckily the carbon emitted is the same as the carbon which was sequestered when the vegetation grew, and will be sequestered again upon the ashes once the rain falls. Wood burning is carbon neutral and fires are an essential part of the planet's ecology.
The only part where humans are screwing up is by drilling out hydrocarbons which took millions of years to produce and burning them within a few centuries.
From 295 to 95. Literally. Now 295 runs back towards Philly a bit but it is combined with 95. I always thought it was part of replacing the Scudders Falls bridge. 95 Disappeared above Trenton right at the river and reappeared down past 195. They literally '"Fixed" the problem' Office space style.
i am so very tired....
The 295/95 Scudders Falls bridge is one of the few places you can leave NJ without paying for the privilege to do so. I won't mention the other ones ;)
i am so very tired....
Miami averages a couple meters above Sealevel. Oceans aren't going to rise three meters+ in 15 years. Not even with worst-case sealevel rise. Hell, we won't see that much sealevel rise this century, much less in the next 15 years (again, worst case).
A good deal of Miami Beach is below storm surge levels last seen in 1984. Parts of it are below ordinary daily high tide. What the NOAA calls technically "mean higher high water". This being Slashdot, we should use the technical term. It's the higher of the two high tides per day, colloquially understood as "high tide". There's a road in Miami Beach that's literally built below the daily high tide mark. It floods every day when the tide comes in.
Made me end up going down through maryland instead of taking 95 all the way down to 40 to come back during a road trip across the US. The signs disappeared at some point and I found myself on some highway that lead along the coast in maryland or delaware or something before finally finding a gas station that was open and directed me back onto a road that could get me to philadelphia.
Coming from california it was the messiest set of interchanges outside of the South Bay, or later outside of Georgia/Texas, after visiting them.
Glad to know they finally cleaned that mess up. Now if only they could do something about the split between 80 and the Indiana(?) turnpike so you won't get stuck for a hundred miles on the wrong road having to pay a few tanks of gas as a toll.