That really isn’t 100% true. If you drive north on I-15 from Cedar City Utah, several service roads coming out of private ranches intersect at grade. there are even warning signs to alert motorists to the potential hazard.
And speaking of Nevada, they have 70 mph highways with grade crossings, and we have all been told that poses absolutely no safety issue whatsoever.
Used to be a bunch of crossings on I41 between Fond Du Lac and Green Bay
Oh for the love of god… don’t start this again.
Unless there are tank cars sitting on the crossing where the safety appliances have been shunted…at night…where the grade is just slightly above eye level of oncoming motorists driving too fast for prevailing conditions. [:-,]
That’s why people driving cars need to wear the “super-duper-aweomsely-miracle-mystical-ptc-allknowing-allseeing-brainwave-reading cap”* !!
*coming to stores soon.
When I drive from St. Louis to Milwaukee, I usually take I-39 north from Bloomington to Beloit, then I-43 into Milwaukee. This is to avoid the Chicago traffic.
Somewhere along I-43 is a grade crossing, which always puzzled me. I don’t know the railroad, but I discovered that 43 was not built as an Interstate. We have a similar situation here in St. Louis, where US40 was designated as I-64, but there are no crossings.
This may be more common than we realize.
I43 between Milwaukee and Beloit was built as State hwy 15
Ditto North Dakota. I-94 and I-29 are intersection free, but US 2, 83, and 85 are divided highway 70 mph with intersections.
ROAR
Here in Texas, Interstate 35 at one time had one of the few at-grade railroad crossings in the Interstate Highway System. The crossing was removed during the 1970s.
Perhaps you mean US 41, not a designated Interstate. I-43 roughly follows the Shoreland route between Milwaukee and Green Bay.
Interstate 94, south of Ann Arbor Michigan, had a grade level rail crossing well into the 70’s.
Also, I remember when the speed limit was 65 mph on ALL Michigan roads.
I 94 was not originally built to Interstate standards. It is an upgrade of US12 and US112. It was designated I94 one piece at a time over a period of several years beginning in 1962. It takes longer to upgrade an existing road to Interstate standards than it does to build from scratch. Intersections need to be removed, often bridges must be raised, and lanes of opposite directions must be divided.
I’m sure that any place that you can find that doesn’t seem to meet Interstate standards is an upgraded road and either has been, or is scheduled to be upgraded. Not all limited access highways are Interstates and US routes are not Interstates.
I am doing this from memory. I-172 near Quincy had a patch of road many years ago (tip 1995 or 1996) that had had a grade crossing. The tracks were paved over and were disconnected past the shoulder. The warning signs said “Abandoned”. Draw bridges on the interstate. Three I remember. 1. The Pearl River crossing between Mississippi and Louisiana on I 10. 2. The Woodrow Wilson bridge in Washington DC on I 95(this has been built into the new bridge). 3. I forget the river on I 280 in Newark NJ. By the way I 86 gets used by lots of truckers avoiding the NY State Thruway and NY 17 long before that. I 95 has a break in it around Trenton were it “connects” across the Delaware River. South of Trenton the NJ Turnpike is not an Interstate highway just a toll road. Rgds IGN
While I would not stake my life on everything I find in Wikipedia, this paragraph from “Interstate 10 in Texas” backs up my earlier post:
“Due to I-10 crossing some of the most rural and sparsely inhabited parts of the United States, notably the Trans-Pecos Region it has several unique features that differentiate it from other Interstate Highways. I-10 is one of the very few Interstates that has at-grade intersections (roads that intersect it at a 90 degree angle, as opposed to an overpass or underpass with on and off ramps). These are private access roads (mostly from large ranches) which occur over a limited stretch in western Texas.”
John Timm
The I-280 bridge crosses the Passaic River in Harrison, NJ.
While there are minimum standards for Interstate Highways, there is some flexibility. There are procedures to approve exceptions to the standards. For instance California I 80 in the mountains there are longitudinal utilities both in and out of the right of way where the only access is from the highway. This violates freeway standards, but to provide other access would be tremendously expensive, and probably not even possible in many areas. There are also some gated access points to private property for the same reason.
Highways that do not meet the standards may included in the system. They are supposed to be upgraded to the standards, but upgrades can take many years.
Off topic but may be of interest:
Explanation of Highway route numbering from Caltrans Highway Design. Probably other States are similar:
21.2 Sign Route Numbers
Each route in the State Highway System is given a unique number for identification and signed with distinctive numbered Interstate, U.S. or California State route shields to guide public travel. Route numbers used on one system are not duplicated on another system. Odd numbered routes are generally south to north and and even numbered routes are generally west to east.
"(1) Interstate and Defense Highways (Interstate System). The Interstate System is a network of freeways of national importance, created by Congress and constructed with Federal-aid Interstate System funds. Routes in the system are signed with the Interstate route shields (See Index 42.2 and Figure 21.1) and the general numbering convention is as follows: routes with one or two-digit numbers are north-south or east-west through routes, routes with three-digit numbers, the first of which is odd, are interstate spur routes. F
Except when they are not. Like the two I-95’s, one in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania. Although it would be a good idea to give each interstate highway a unique number. Perhaps some day we’ll adopt the idea.
They are not rwo separate Highways.
From Wikipedia:
"Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States,[2] running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean seaboard serving areas between Florida and New England inclusive."
Interstate Highway map:
Thank you for the map. Unfortunately, it does not match the terrain.
In New Jersey the New Jersey Turnpike is I-95. If you are driving south you will come to I-195 in Hamilton. Leaving I-95 you turn west on I-195 which leads you to I-295 and, continuing west, you come to Ewing, New Jersey and the signs say I-95 again. The highway goes across the Scudders Falls Bridge and down the west side of the Delaware River. A second I-95.
Perhaps some day whoever has authority over our Interstate and Defense Highway System will adopt a unique numbering system. But so far that has not been done.