Observations, I-10 Jacksonville to Houston
- From: "HoustonFreeways" <eslotboom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 20:01:53 -0500
Made the drive Sunday and Monday, August 14-15, 2005
Jacksonville
* The freeway system is mostly low capacity with 4- and 6-lane freeways
* It looks like work is just getting started on a major upgrade of I-95 from
downtown northward, with work in progress at a bridge on a branch of the St.
John's river north of downtown and work just getting started on a major
interchange at I-10. I'm assuming more projects will be awarded as time goes
on.
* The I-295 bridge south of town over the St. John's River is quite nice -
very long (about 4 miles) and 8 lanes all the way with full shoulders.
* The 9A bridge northeast of town is quite nice. It was formerly the longest
cable-stayed span in the U.S.
* Frontage roads basically don't exist (I can't remember seeing any)
I-10 Florida
* The pavement was in excellent condition. When I last took this route
around 1993, there was a tremendous amount of rehabilition construction in
progress. No construction at all at this time.
* Traffic was light to moderate on the Sunday. The drive was quite boring
with little variety from the pine forest.
* The Interstate is nicely designed with alternating sections of wooded
median and grassy median. Sections of the interstate were among the last to
be completed (on the entire interstate system) in the mid to late 1970s.
* Driving through Tallahassee, you hardly realize you are near a
medium-sized city since you can't see much development from the freeway.
Pensacola
* Major construction is in progress on I-110. Looks like a rebuild and
widening to 6 lanes with new ramps at I-10.
* There is a long elevated structure on I-110 at the southern terminus
* Pensacola Beach is still severely trashed from Hurricane Ivan. Lots of
cleanup work was clearly in progress, including major beach rebuilding with
large earthmoving equipment. Heavily damaged houses are still visible all
over the place. Piles of rubble from demolitions were scattered about.
Construction is in progress on many condo complexes and houses. It looked
like many of the beachfront homes were rebuilt to be bigger and better than
before.
Alabama
* Pavement was in good to excellent condition.
* The Mobile Bay causeway is quite long. I remember seeing it under
construction around 1977 during a family vacation to Pensacola
* I-10 going west out of Mobile was 8 lanes for a sustained distance. I
don't remember that from the 1993 drive - looks like a recent upgrade.
* Does anyone know if there are plans to replace the Mobile tunnel?
Mississippi
* Pavement was in good to excellent condition.
* The southern terminus of I-110 in Biloxi features a nice loop ramp over
the Gulf of Mexico.
* From 1993 I seem to remember that I-10 had much more of its length with a
naturally wooded median. I could be wrong, but does anyone know if the
median has been clear cut since then? (Maybe pine beetles?)
* Heading west from Biloxi, the freeway has 6 lanes for a sustained distance
(I'd say about half of the distance to the Louisiana border)
New Orleans
* I saw reports on MTR recently of the completion of the expansion of I-10
going west out of town. Ever since my childhood visits to New Orleans in the
1970s I would wonder "Why the hell don't they build some extra lanes in the
median" (Freeway was 6 lanes). I am disappointed with what I found. The
major expansion to 10 lanes is only for a short distance west of the
Ponchartrain Causeway. East of the causway there are still sections with 3
lanes each way and unused median space. We saw some heavy backed up traffic
going eastbound but I couldn't see it there was an incident.
* We drove all freeways around town and did not encounter any freeway
construction anywhere in New Orleans.
* No activity on the future I-49 (current US 90) on the West Bank. The West
Bank Expressway is in a frontage road configuration west of the freeway end.
Further west it is a four-lane undivided and a lot of right-of-way
acquisition will be needed. There are few buildings along the route,
however.
* Drove the combination of I-310, I-10, and I-55, an elevated/bridge
structure which registered 38.9 miles on our odometer.
* Checked out Bourbon Street Sunday night. Seems basically the same as it
was in the 1990s. One nice thing about Bourbon Street is that there is
always activity, even on a Sunday night.
I-10 Louisiana
* In the 1980s and 1990s the pavement was notoriously bad from Lafayette to
the Texas border. From Lafayette to Lake Charles there is now an asphalt
overlay which is nice and smooth.
* West of Lake Charles, from Lake Charles to Sulphur, a major project is in
progress which I'm assuming will rebuild the main lanes. Vehicles currently
drive on the original pavement which is now really, really bad.
* There seems to have been some repaving and widening on I-10 to 6 lanes
through Lake Charles since I last drove through there in 1997.
I-10 Texas, Louisiana border to Houston
* Several projects are in progress to rebuild the freeway and widen it to
six lanes. I would estimate 15 to 20 miles in progress. So there is more
construction in progress in Texas than in the other 4 states combined.
* No work to replace the antiquated Trinity River bridge, yet. That project
should move forward within the next couple years.
.
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