A few more photos of I-73 on the Greensboro Outer Loop

Now that everyone has calmed down at the sight of seeing I-73 signed on the recently opened segments of the Greensboro Outer Loop, it's time to get you all excited again!

Yep, you guessed it. More I-73 Photos! A few weeks ago Bob Malme sent me three shots showing other ways I-73 is signed on the freeways and surface streets that interchange with I-40/73.

Here Bob is on Wendover Ave. and I-73 is marked on the overhead signs. It will be interesting to see what will be listed under Winston-Salem as the Greensboro Loop and I-73 is built. Martinsville, maybe?

Again on Wendover, here's a look at stand alone I-40 and I-73 shields. If you aren't a fan of I-73....get used to it. It's here to stay.

Now some have stated that I-40/73/85 form one of the few triplex Interstate segments in the country. And hell, the state even signs it that way.

Well upon closer inspection, that may not be the case. You see, I-85 South physically leaves the Greensboro Loop before I-73 North joins it. (Now for about a 1/2 mile or so I-73 North runs parallel to the loop via the ramp that begins at right in the photo above.) I-73 South leaves I-40 East before I-85 North Joins the loop. (Again same scenario with parallel ramps).

Now the two photos above are from last October when the new section was still under construction. To the right is the two lane ramp that carries I-73 North from US 220 (along with access to Grandover Parkway) In the middle I-40 West will bear to the right while I-85 South heads left and off the loop to head south to Charlotte, Atlanta, and whatnot. SO I-73 North is not on the main traffic lanes of the loop when I-85 South exits off. (Now you see why I call it 'The Maze'?)

Then there is the above sign on US 220 (Future I-73 North) as it approaches the loop. There is no access to I-85 South from I-73 North. Those wanting to get on I-85 South and head to Charlotte need to go a mile further north to where US 220 meets what is now Business I-85.

Confused yet? I am sure you are. Fortunately, this 'Maze' of connections are all within a mile of each other, and someway somehow you can get there from here. But it appears that the I-40/73/85 multiplex doesn't 'technically' exist.

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

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