Gribblenation

...Lord, I can't go back there. A while back we had a photo of a Welcome to Pennsylvania sign from a movie to see if it was real or not and where it may have been. This time we have another - this is a real photo of crossing into Indiana sometime around 1978-1981, Sue Wilson sent this into me hoping to locate where this may be. Does anyone have any ideas?

Though the road is a good five to eight years away, NCDOT has a pretty informative webpage up on what is now the missing link of Interstate 485 in Northern Mecklenburg County. What's of note is the design of the current intersection of I-485 and I-85 near University. The interchange is currently a trumpet; but it will be transformed into a high speed four level stack interchange - similar in design to I-485's interchange with I-77 near the South Carolina line. Also checkout the design of the Prosperity Church Road interchange with four roundabouts! Take a look for yourself, NCDOT's Charlotte Outerbelt Page .

As I am sure as many of you have noticed, until Bob Malme's three posts this past month (and mine from last night) the blog has been rather silent since January. And a few have wondered aloud or e-mail "What happened?" or "Where did Adam go?" Though I can't speak for the others, I can speak for myself. It's been a busy few months from work to vacations and of course the Carolina Hurricanes made a run through the Stanley Cup playoffs. And of course - with the weather turning from winter to Spring - tailgate parties on weekend afternoons. So a lot of my time has been tied up in many other activities that I am involved in. Of course, that's no different for anyone else, as hobbies and pursuits and commitments change year to year. Now that I finally have a small break to catch my breath (it seems like yesterday was Christmas) I have had a chance to catch up on some blogging, and hopefully web updates. Right now I am just working through e-mails wit

Last year, I blogged about how 3.6 miles of the former Central Highway (US 70/NC 10) in McDowell County, NC were to become part of a greenway called the Point Lookout Trail. This past January, Jamie Sharp, sent me a few photos of the new greenway from last fall. The old concrete roadway now has a fresh layer of asphalt and the kudzu, overgrowth, and downed trees have all been cleared. The last photo is from Point Lookout. A new flag pole was placed at the site of the former roadside stop that stood here for years. Photo Credits: Jamie Sharp Old Fort on Dwellable

This time on I-74 from Laurinburg to Pembroke, NC. This newest stretch of highway opened in two phases. The first section of the new road from US 74 Business (now US 74 Business/US 74 Alternate) to NC 710 opened in the Fall of 2007. At the same time I-74 shields, mileposts and exit numbers went up along the existing Laurinburg and Maxton Bypasses. The exit numbers ran from 207 to 226. The final segment opened a year later from NC 710 across I-95 to beyond NC 41 south of Lumberton. This stretch had mileposts running from 200 to 214. Both could not be right. I had contacted NCDOT in 2007 regarding the exit numbers they had put up thinking they were about 25 miles or so too high. It seems by 2008, they had come to a similar conclusion. They, at first, blanked out exit numbers, like what was Exit 207 seen below, where the old numbers duplicated those to the east: When they finally got around to changing the numbers in late April and May of this year, the new exit number was 181 (new exit n

My apologies to The Who. This month's NCDOT Employee Newsletter features a column by Ted Vaden, Deputy Secretary for Internal and External Affairs, the agency's director of communication. The article (available here: http://www.ncdot. gov/_templates/ download/ external. html?pdf= http%3A// www.ncdot. org/download/ newsroom/ Newsletter. pdf starting on page 2) states that NCDOT is one of the best transportation departments in the country but that past management has not been able to get that news out very well by largely just reacting to reports of NCDOT making mistakes after the fact. The new agency management says it's committed to better, more accurate communications, and being more proactive in pushing NCDOT's positive news. The article indicates that the NCDOT Secretary, as part of this new proactive process, has been traveling around the state to public forums in an attempt to change the public perception about NCDOT that it is better at wasting taxpayer's dol

Took a Short (shorter than I'd planned, more later) trip through Greensboro on the new/old alignment of I-40 through Greensboro. Photos and comments below: There was a notice by NCDOT that they were closing three left lanes going west around the old/new I-40/I-85 split east of Greensboro last Thursday night (5/21). I surmised that they were adding more to the I-85 signs that had become largely empty spaces since they removed the I-40 signage last September: Turned out the assumption was correct, here's what the new signage looks like: As you can see in this photo, and the closer view below, they've added a To US 421, since that route will be put on the Urban Loop, and a 'To North ( ). What is that for? The only route that goes north from I-85 in its trip around the loop, now that the 421 route is changed, is I-73. But it will also go south from I-85 also in the future. Maybe that realization prompted the sign not to be put up? Maybe NCDOT is waiting until more signage i