Gribblenation

It looks like the next section of I-485 in North Mecklenburg County won't be open until this coming October. The section which will run from NC 16 to I-77 and NC 115 was to have opened this past March, but will at best open over 18 months behind schedule. A number of issues have hurt the completion of this segment, mainly utility and right of way issues. The contractor has just recently begun to poor concrete. This will be the last segment of I-485 to be completed in Charlotte until after 2015. Story: Charlotte Observer

It appears another three miles of the Greensboro Outer Loop will open this coming Tuesday, December 18 at 10 am. The section will be for the western loop from I-40 near Chimney Rock Road to Bryan Blvd. This section is part of the I-840 half of the loop. WFMY-TV in Greensboro has a video drive of the soon to be opened highway on its website. The video shows that the new loop will be signed as Future I-73/I-840 which pretty much cements the routing of I-73 from NC 68 to US 220 as Bryan Blvd and the Greensboro Loop. It also appears that the Southwest Corner of the loop that will complete the I-40 Bypass will open sometime in the Spring of 2008. Story: Western Portion of the Urban Loop to Open Tuesday ---WFMY-TV Video of the Western Loop ---WFMY-TV HT: Billy Coore

I was down in Charlotte over the weekend for the Bobcats/Cavs game. But I was able to squeeze a little bit of roadgeeking in Saturday and on the way home to Raleigh today. NC 16 Trip: Local Roads to NC 16 in Lucia. NC 16, NC 10, US 321 Business, Local Roads to Mount Holly. Checked out the new NC 16 highway. A few things. NC 273 still ends at what was NC 16. The former NC 16 is now NC 16 Business. Currently, the new highway runs to an interchange with NC 73. It is posted at 55 mph and although there were no at grade intersection on the new highway, There are a few turnarounds. NC 16 is briefly routed East on NC 73 before picking up the old alignment. This is where NC 16 Business currently ends. And it has been signed as such. Between NC 73 and Denver, there's a former Phillips 66 gas station. It has to have sat empty for a number of years. But it will be a great add to Carolina Lost. My friend Steven, who grew up in the area and with his wife drives past here numerous t...

A colleague of mine in Washington sent me some photos from the massive flooding in Washington State specifically Interstate 5 in Centrailia, WA. (HT: Geoff Bailey) For other photos at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, click here . And related stories :

In a recent article of the Albany Times-Union, there was a story that plans for a visual makeover of Erie Blvd. in Schenectady were announced. The changes would take place on Erie Blvd. from I-890 and the entrance to General Electric to Union St. Currently six lanes wide until State St., Erie Blvd. would be reduced to four lanes from 890 to State St. Erie Blvd. is quite possibly the most historic thoroughfare in Schenectady. Once, the Erie Canal flowed along its alignment. Later, after the canal was filled in, Erie Blvd. was the gateway to the city's largest employer, General Electric. The changes - besides reducing the lanes - would include a roundabout at South Ferry St., pedestrian crosswalks, a landscaped median, and street lighting. The goal is to make one of the city's busiest highway's more visually appealing. Construction would start in 2009 and last through 2011. An idea of what Erie Blvd could look like. (Clough Harbour and Associates/Albany Times-Union Her...

This past Thursday, South Carolina and federal officials signed off on the Environmental Impact Statement for the southern segment of I-73 within the state. This gives the green light for SCDOT to acquire land for right-of-way purchases along the route from I-95 to Myrtle Beach. With the DOT and DNR mitigation agreement over land at the Little Pee Dee River Heritage Preserve all but completed (It should officially be agreed to later this month), South Carolina was able to get the go ahead from the federal government. Currently, there is no set timetable for land acquisition let alone construction; however, the highway could be completed within ten years. The Northern Segment from I-95 to I-74 in Hamlet, North Carolina could see the same federal approval sometime in the next year. Story: I-73 gets key approval from SC, federal officials ---The State

US. Representative Sue Myrick's (R-Charlotte) letter to North Carolina's Governor Mike Easley and NC Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett was published in the Friday, November 30th edition of the Charlotte Observer . Why are we delaying the completion of 1-485 in Charlotte again? I read in The Charlotte Observer how rising prices of materials are leading to the delay. Why didn't these same rising costs delay the loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington? Why are we building loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington before we complete the one in Charlotte? We were working on the one in Charlotte back when I was mayor. That was 20 years ago! ... Last I looked Charlotte was the largest city in the state. There seems to be no recognition of that fact in Raleigh. No recognition that we are at a standstill with traffic. No recognition that we have a traffic problem. Nor is there any recognition of the fact that the state DOT utterly botched up the southern leg of our yet to be completed ...

Bob Malme, Dave Filpus and I took a roadtrip checking out the most recent news in Eastern and Central NC Interstates today. In other words, we went to see if I-795 was signed, the recently opened I-74 in Maxton, and some of the construction of the Ellerbe Bypass. Route: I-540, US 64, NC 39, US 264, I-795, US 117, US 13, I-95, NC 711, I-74/US 74, US 74, US 1, US 220, NC 211, NC 705, NC 24/27, US 15/501, US 1, I-440. So is I-795 signed? Well yes, it is. The signs were put up on Wednesday, November 28th. Interestingly, all the US 117 sign have been removed from the 795 freeway. At some interchanges, there are still US 117 shields. Obviously the overheads aren't updated to reflect the change. There is one hiccup. Where I-795 splits from US 264 to head south to Goldsboro, it is not marked at all. So if you stay East on US 264 expecting to be on I-795, you'll be like "Hey, where did 795 go?" I am sure this will be fixed once the guides and overheads are updated. Th...

Some Corridor H News from a recent The State Journal article . WVDOH has opened to bidding a three mile section of Corridor H near Forman. The three mile grading and drainage project will include the same for an interchange at Forman. The project will tie in the 14 mile Moorefield (US 220) to Forman section and another 14 mile section from Forman westwards to Bismarck. The entire Moorefield to Forman section should be completed by late 2009. In other Corridor H news, some contracts have been let on the Bismark- Forman section. Nearly six miles of grading and drainage contracts are under construction at this time. The DOH plans to have another 2.4 miles of grade/drain and bridge work underway in that section. Plans to start construction of a 16 mile stretch of Corridor H from Davis - Bismark is scheduled to begin next Summer. A 15.5 mile stretch from Davis to Kearns has a hopeful start of construction update of 2012. The last segment from Parsons to Kearns (10 miles) most likely won...

Penn State's WPSU-TV has a great little story on The Church on the Turnpike. It's from the "Where's Charlie?" segment of Pennsylvania Inside Out. http://streams.wpsx.psu.edu/Turnpike_Church09182.html

Nothing like a day off to catch up with the blog... Earlier this month, the final approval of the $750,000 deal between SCDOT and the SC Department of Natural Resources was pushed back to December 11. The reason? The paperwork from the deal was not received by the State Budget and Control Board on time. It appears the delay in paperwork is from a final appraisal of the land. The appraisal is required by state law. The land in question is 30 acres of the Little Pee Dee River Heritage Preserve at SC 917. Interstate 73 is planned cross the river at this point. The DNR agreed that this crossing would have the least a mount of damage to the environment. The DNR plans to use $750,000, which will come out of I-73 funding, to purchase land with a similar habitat to replace the 30 acres lost by the Interstate. Story: DNR deal for I-73 delayed --Myrtle Beach Sun News

South Carolina has recently received approval from the federal government to add tolls to Interstate 95 and appears to be considering the same for Interstate 26. However, the state has no current plans to go forward with the tolling on either highway. The approval which comes after an August request by SCDOT to gain permission to toll the Interstate. The request was part of the "Corridors to the Future" program. South Carolina was not the only state to request tolling Interstate 95. It appears that Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida made similar requests as well. Rumors of when, how, and where Interstate 95 will be tolled seem to be widespread throughout the state. A November 15th story in the Greenville News said that the tolling of I-95 could begin in the Spring of 2008. Quoting SC Secretary of Transportation Buck Limehouse the article stated that the tolls would be placed on newly constructed 'hot lanes', which are added tolled express lanes. ...

This time it is U.S. Representative Sue Myrick. Myrick, a former mayor of Charlotte, wrote a letter to NC Governor Mike Easley and the NC Department of Transportation voicing her displeasure with the additional delays in completing Interstate 485. "Why didn't these same rising costs delay the loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington? Why are we building loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington before we complete the one in Charlotte?" Myrick also commented on what she perceives as Charlotte's needs being ignored by legislators in Raleigh. "Last I looked, Charlotte was the largest city in the state. There seems to be no recognition of that fact in Raleigh, no recognition that we are at a standstill with traffic.” She pointed to how Raleigh already has one loop built (The Raleigh Beltline) and is now constructing a second loop (Interstate/NC 540) while Charlotte does not have one. Note to Myrick: What is I-277 then? It's a loop albeit around Uptown but serves a simi...

Joe's got two new video's. The Southern End of US 117 in Wilmington. and US 74/76 East entering Wilmington including the Cape Fear River Draw Bridge.

Took a small trip this afternoon around the area. Part of which was to get photos of Old NC 21 for Mike Roberson. Route: NC 50, Old Creedmoor Road, NC 50, NC 56, NC 39, NC 42, US 264, US 117, US 264, I-540. Accomplishments: New mileage on NC 42. The leaves came out later than normal this year...and the past few days have been brilliant color. However, on Thursday we had a rain and windstorm come through and knocked down a good amount of the leaves. Still, there are plenty of great fall scenes out there. Like this one off of Old Creedmoor Road. Just north of here and back on NC 50 is an old alignment of NC 21. This old alignment, still gravel, is decades old from when NC 50 was NC 21. The gravel road winds about a half mile or so before returning to pavement when it reaches Beaver Dam Road. In Franklinton, NC 56 meets US 1-A. What's interesting is the design of the hyphen. The ends are slanted...and you can see it clearly in the photo below. I am gonna go forward with the Ca...