Heads up, travelers!

Road work will impact I-12/I-59 interchange at Slidell Thursday (source: Times-Picayune)

This is what I live for...

Here's the gist of it - Thursday, September 8, 2011:

• I-12 EAST: Right lane closed at mile marker 85.5 - Left lane open but expect delays
• I-59 SOUTH: The ramp to I-10 eastbound will be CLOSED.

If you want to get to eastbound I-10 from I-59, the best way is to take the exit to I-10 WEST and turn around at one of the Slidell interchanges. I suggest Exit 265, Business US 190 - it's not quite as congested as Gause (US 190).

Closures start at 9 am and are expected to last til 2 pm.

Interstate UPD*TE

...Wow, it rhymes.

Clinches
Highways: I-910, US 90-Z, LA 3046 (Clinched new flyover ramp), Spur LA 41

New:

I-910: 27 snaps of the westbound unsigned Interstate in New Orleans and on the Westbank.
Spur LA 41: Ten snaps, mostly covering westbound. Includes a lazy oddity for the AARoads Shield Gallery, should they want it.

Updated:

I-10: Added two pictures of eastbound at the I-12/I-59 split in Slidell.
I-12: Added ten pictures of eastbound from Airport Road to the I-10/I-59 split in Slidell. Finally got the other pictures in order. Geotagged those and fixed descriptions of some older pics.
I-59: Added twelve pictures of northbound from the southern terminus at I-10/I-12 in Slidell to Exit 5A in Pearl River.
US 11: Added a snap of the old bridge in Slidell and four snaps of the northbound concurrency with I-59 in Pearl River.
LA 59: Added two pictures at the reconfigured southern terminus.

To-do:

US 90: Need to add coverage of eastbound between Business US 90 near Westwego and I-10/I-910/Business US 90 in New Orleans, including snaps of the Huey P. Long Bridge. Also need to add those snaps between LA 1 and I-310.
US 90-Z: Need to add snaps of non-freeway portion westbound between I-910 end and US 90.
US 190: Need to add some assorted snaps.
Lake Ponchartrain Causeway: Need to completely replace northbound coverage.
LA 3046: Need to add a northbound snap or two.
North Causeway Approach: Need to add northbound coverage.

It's almost that time of year again.

NOLA.com - Contraflow changes will keep hurricane evacuees on I-59, I-55 longer

Yeah, this will improve things. Right. Sure. Keep people on the Interstate even longer when they're running for their lives.

OK, so people evacuating from storms will have a bit farther to go before being able to disperse off the Interstate. I-59 traffic won't be able to exit until Purvis, while I-55 traffic will be on there until at least Brookhaven. Either way, Contraflow will END! at that point.

Now, while this means Contraflow will go longer than it used to (just shy of McComb on I-55 and just shy of Poplarville on I-59), it will only delay the inevitable backup that will occur when they try to squeeze four lanes into two. Some of that could be averted by forcing one or two of the lanes to exit at that point, sure, but we all know that won't happen. It's also still not fixing the overall I-59 problem - the contraction of the mainline into a single lane near Meridian. Honestly. Do you think all those evacuees are looking to get off in Purvis?! Hell no. They're heading for Birmingham, Chattanooga, Atlanta and points beyond if they're on I-59. You know us, Mississippi - we're not simly looking to get out of the immediate area of the storm, we may as well head for the next large city. You got none on I-59.

The I-55 plan isn't so bad - you can get off at Brookhaven and head west to Natchez on a nearly empty four-lane highway (or even to someplace like Vicksburg or Alexandria after Natchez). Also, as far as I'm aware, I-55 doesn't shed a lane in Jackson. (Someone who's been on I-55 North, feel free to correct me if needed.)

What we really need is more defined and better-capacity evacuation routes other than the Interstate (LA 25 would be a logical one, connecting straight on to the Causeway via US 190), possibly even implementing Contraflow on these local arteries. We also need to educate our locals better on these routes.

I'll at least try to educate you in a later post. Better pack it full of fuel in the meantime.

Roadtrip Report: January 10

No pictures this time, this was strictly a test run for the Buick.

Purpose:

Taking my sister and brother-in-law to the DMV near Picayune, Mississippi, as well as a shakedown for my new Buick.

Route:

US 190 east from Lacombe to US 11
US 11 north from US 190 to LA 41/LA 3081
LA 3081 north from US 11/LA 41 to Spur LA 41
Spur LA 41 east from LA 3081 to I-59
I-59/US 11 north from Louisiana Exit 5A (Spur LA 41) to Mississippi Exit 1 (US 11 North/MS 607 South)
US 11 north from I-59 to the Picayune-area DMV
US 11 south from the DMV to MS 43
MS 43 south from US 11 to I-59
I-59 south from Mississippi Exit 6 (MS 43 North) to Louisiana Exit 1A (I-12)
I-12 west from Exit 85 (I-10/I-59) to Exit 74 (LA 434)
LA 434 south from I-12 to US 190

Among the things I saw:

I-59: New signage in Pearl River (Town limits are now marked on the interstate, both entering and leaving, along both northbound and southbound). Also, there appears to be new signage at Exit 11 (Pearl River Turnaround) - then again, it might just be new to me. Going into Mississippi, the first sign for Exit 1 is in Louisiana - it used to be at the end of the bridge over the Pearl. Similarly, the first sign for Louisiana Exit 11 southbound is now in Mississippi. The new gore point signage for Mississippi's exits is interesting, to say the least. I'll get pictures next time. I-59 from Exit 1 at least to Exit 6 (likely further than that) has been resurfaced recently - the new asphalt is nice.

US 11: There's a sweet railroad bridge over US 11 just to the north of Picayune, near the DMV. I will definitely be returning there with a camera.

Old MS 43: Between US 11 and I-59, going towards I-59, it is still signed as MS 43. From I-59, it is not signed as a highway. The road's condition has gotten a lot worse since the last time I was in Picayune.

MS 43: Brand new surface between US 11 and I-59. The new road has a lot more curves than the old, but it's still a sweet drive. Beware going southbound - I-59 sneaks up on you.

New highway mileage:

US 11: From Old MS 43 to the Picayune-area DMV
MS 43: "New" section between US 11 and I-59

Theme of the overnight: Bitching about contraflow.

Yes, there's still power and Internet here, and I can't sleep, so I've been listening to WWL all night.

The most common theme I've heard is of traffic slowing to a literal crawl at various points along I-59 in Mississippi, and there's a few culprits.

1. There just aren't enough places for traffic to bleed off of the Interstate when Contraflow is active.
2. Mississippi evacuated their coast. Can't blame them for that.
3. This will take more than one sentence: the design of the I-20/I-59 merge in Meridian.

Specifically, it's a dangerous configuration, and woefully inadequate to handle Contraflow-induced traffic. I-59 northbound merging with I-20 eastbound seems innocent enough, as two lanes from I-59 make that junction. Before the end of the ramp, though, I-59's onramp contracts to ONE lane. This means that four lanes contract to two when Contraflow ends, then has to further contract to one before reaching merged I-20/59 east out of Meridian.

No wonder people get past Laurel and find a parking lot signed with Interstate shields!

People will be looking to point the finger big time about this. Heads will roll, and jobs will be lost.

My solution is actually extremely simple.

1. At the two or three mile mark to the merge, expand I-59 north to three lanes. Clearly sign the left lane as exit only to westbound I-20 assuming the current interchange design is kept. Sign the two right lanes as "through" to I-20/59 northeast.
2. At the lane split, keep two lanes for I-59 to I-20/59 traffic throughout the entire ramp. This will cause there to be four lanes on the merged section for a short stretch.
3. I-20/59 northeast sheds one lane, as it currently does, but contracts to three lanes instead of two. Make the rightmost lane auxiliary for the next exit, and provide LOTS of warning signage between the merge and US 11/MS 19, which appears to be the next exit after the I-20/59 merge.

If this isn't done, then to LaDoTD and the Mississippi DOT I say this: Don't bother listing I-59 north as an evacuation route, because people won't go!

Back from the road meet...

A lot of stuff was seen, including this on the way back:


Seems a highway once gone and thought decommissioned still exists!

Also, we're under a hurricane watch now. Expect that to escalate to a warning before long.

Gustav's exploded to Category 4 strength during the day. It's possible that it could go even further upwards to a Cat 5 once it passes Cuba, but landfall as a Category 4 in Terrebonne Parish somewhere. The Westbank is facing severe devastation, and the Eastbank may see it as bad as Katrina.

While out on the meet, we saw that I-10 East and US 90 East were packed full of traffic getting the hell out. I-59 was seeing heavier-than-usual traffic this afternoon, but expect that to explode. If anyone reading this is in Southern Louisiana and planning to evacuate, now is the time.

If you're getting out and coming through St. Tammany, going north, LA 21 is WIDE OPEN. It has a four-lane section from Bush to Bogalusa and can be used as a VERY effective evacuation route. This section can also be accessed from LA 41 for those going through the eastern part of the parish.

I will be shutting down my desktop machines tomorrow night once I have all the pics uploaded from today that are worth using. I'll still be blogging from one of my laptops unless something changes.

Great, now they've got me Flickring...

Ok, so I feel lame, and yet not. Maybe sleep would help.

In the meantime, I got a LOT of snaps today, as well as the ones from last week. I'm talking like 120 of them, taken, cropped and fix0rd in one day. They'll go up on my Photobucket and Accueil sometime during the week, but they're on my Flickr right this minute if you need instant gratification. They're mostly placed by sets for the time being.

I'll be adding the older snaps to the Flickr page as time permits as well.

(Sorry. Lotsa tags apply here.)