Posted on 02/09/2018 8:09:01 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
PENNINGTON, N.J.—The past few years have been thick with promises of shiny new infrastructure and the revival of American greatness.
Funny, then, that so little has been made of a quiet victory for U.S. infrastructure due later this year. By September 2018, one of the country’s most famous civil-engineering projects will finally complete construction, six decades after work on it began.
Interstate 95, the country’s most used highway, will finally run as one continuous road between Miami and Maine by the late summer. The interstate’s infamous “gap” on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border will be closed, turning I-95 into an unbroken river of concrete more than 1,900 miles long. In so doing, it will also mark a larger milestone, say transportation officials—the completion of the original United States interstate system.
Construction to fix the I-95 gap began more than eight years ago in Pennsylvania, but it has now reached its final stage. This week, the New Jersey Department of Transportation began switching out road signs in preparation for the change.
But I-95’s completion isn’t a standalone feat. Local transportation planners claim it will herald a larger accomplishment.
“The original Interstate Highway Act had a network of highways across the nation that were associated it. Through some federal bills since then, that list was amended a little bit and made a little bit larger—but our understanding is that this is the final piece of that original interstate system,” says Jay Roth, a consultant at Jacobs Engineering Group who has worked to close the gap in I-95 for more than two decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
SIX decades! Let’s give it up for govt efficiency! /do I need it?
I95 was originally supposed to be a totally separate road from the NJTP. It would have ran through Newark and paralleled Rt22 for a ways in the original plans. Over the years, plans were changed many times.
Remember the good old days of two lane roads when travelling was an adventure?
Wait... what? They’re not completing the gap; They’re only renaming I-276!
One thing the article needed was more and better maps. Visual representation of highway routes communicates what EXACTLY is being discussed a lot more than does merely discussing the details in text alone.
Rest areas through NY and MD were superb. I like the new vending machines where you get to pay with your cellphone. Just wave the cellphone at it and your stuff comes out. No more digging for change! Who knew you could get sandwiches from a rest area vending machine? I just found out that you could. It was $3. I think.
Driving through the Carolinas, kept seeing all those signs for "South of the Border." What a tourist trap that was. All that ballyhoo over pretty much nothing but a cheesy rip-off joint. Went to use the bathroom and some heavy set guy followed me in to give me paper towels to wash my hands with. Then I have him a couple of one dollar bills. Hope it was enough.
Spent a night in Savannah, Georgia. Checked out the Moon River brewery and I forgot who I was for a few hours. I must have had 10 of their beers but I somehow woke up in my hotel room so all ended well. I guess.
Now I'm in Florida and finally had to leave I-95 for I-4 as I head over to Marco's Island. It's in the 80s! No snow. No cold. Thank you for getting me there I-95.
i-95 already goes north of Trenton, almost to Princeton, as shown in your map as the purple part of 295. “Closing the gap” would be extending 133, for instance, to meet 295.
That's what the map and article seem to suggest.
Didn't they reroute that one north of the city along I-240?
Blame the conservatives who sat on their hands in 2013 because Corbett raised the gas tax.
Yes.
We will always have Breezewood.
The AARoads Breezewood thread:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=21214.500
I’d LOVE to be able to kick back and relax in my multiple-times-per-year trip from VA to NY. Leave at midnight; get in early in the morning.
About time. This is what giving it to unions and progressive politicians does.
***Didn’t they reroute that one north of the city along I-240? ***
yes, for political reasons they did not go straight through.
Oh, we experienced the worst gas taxes - Locally, we voted to raise them for road repair and simultaneously the state voted the raise too.
We pay southern NY prices at the pump here. It’s crazy - CT is selling gas at 30-40 cents LESS than we are.
What a strange forum...
I95 Has been very , very good to you—-have fun.
Roadgeeks, including me, are indeed a strange lot.
Someplace I never want to see.
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