New phase in the IWAY I-195 relocation (Providence, RI)
Michael Moroney
in Providence, RI (called the IWAY) will take place early June 18, 2009.
At this time, the new westbound lanes on the new highway to I-95 South
(only) will open to traffic. Traffic to I-95 northbound will continue to
use the old highway for now. This means the "split" for traffic heading
to I-95 north and south will temporarily be relocated from its current
position on the old I-195 just east of I-95 to the west end of the
Washington Bridge, over a mile from I-95. This is expected to cause great
confusion for Thursday's commute.
Eventually a new ramp from the new I-195 to I-95 north will be opened,
and old I-195 will be closed and demolished, and moving the split to
the west end of the new IWAY bridge.
This is the third step in a 4 step relocation process.
1: I-95 NB to I-195 EB
2: I-95 SB to I-195 EB
3: I-195 WB to I-95 SB (June 18)
4: I-195 WB to I-95 NB (later this year)
http://www.dot.ri.gov/ has more info on this and the rest of the IWAY
project.
Elmer
wrote:
> project.
I really love this project! The quality of design and construction is
miles ahead of the mess in Boston. Here's a few pictures I took over a
year ago before the new bridge was open to any traffic:
flickr.com/elmercat/sets/72157605982003799/
Elmer
Elmer
Roscoe Yamamoto
> http://www.flickr.com/elmercat/sets/72157605982003799/
Nice. During the New England Weekend in May-Doug Kerr drove me over the
new eastbound IH 195: See
http://www.gribblenation.net/yamamoto-pages/new/2009051003/index.html
--
Otto Yamamoto
'Suffering in the real world is serious business
because it can actually kill you,
whereas the internet is basically
a vacuum of words, numbers and pictures.'
Paul D. DeRocco
>
> I really love this project! The quality of design and construction is
> miles ahead of the mess in Boston. Here's a few pictures I took over a
> year ago before the new bridge was open to any traffic:
It's a much easier project. In fact, when I look at the layout on Google
Earth, I wonder why they didn't build it this way in the first place. It
looks like they had gone out of their way to make I-195 longer and curvier
than necessary, to take up as much riverfront as they could, and to mess up
the Waybousset Hill neighborhood needlessly.
--
Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pder...@ix.netcom.com
Elmer
> > "Elmer" <Elmer...@gmail.com> wrote
Back when many Interstates were constructed, rivers were typically
open sewers and often thought of as eyesores. Building highways along
their shores was a way of utilizing what was then undesirable
property. Interstates also usually had many more local exits in urban
areas than would be acceptable today.
Now, of course, I-195 in Providence is a much smaller and simpler
project than Boston's Big Dig. Nonetheless, everything about it seems
to be better thought out, and the quality of materials and workmanship
is far superior.
Elmer
rsh...@gmail.com
You said the key words, smaller and simpler
what you seem to be saying is the oversight is better, and it truly is
but one of the things that happened with the big dig is this
hey, it is a great idea -> federales paying 80% -> lets add on this -
> lets add on that -> federales paying 80% -> lets build a rail
connection N Sta to S Sta ->
and so on and so forth, and the consultants love it as they can keep
boosting their fees
and the costs keep going up and up and up, and the consulting
engineers fees keep going up and up and up, and since Mass Hwy and the
Tpk are in bed with the consulting engineers
NO ONE CAN SAY NO!!!!
then all of a sudden some one notices that it is well past $1 billion,
$2 billion, and rising
now the feds notice and you know what hits the fan
so now we have to cut, and cut and cut
but at this point a lot of this was under construction
too late for a lot of cuts
so they cut what they can, and those cuts unfortunately were just what
you said
Elmer
I believe you are spot on with regards to the so called "consulting
engineers" being responsible for much of the waste and poor overall
design of the Big Dig as well as other highway and MBTA projects.
Because they're paid based on the complexity and cost of the design,
the consultants have a vested interest in specifying expensive custom
designs for everything, rather than proven "off-the-shelf" items. A
prime example are the primo stainless steel railings, utility doors,
and other fixtures inside the tunnels which are now already heavily
damaged or in many places missing altogether (stolen and sold for
scrap?). Combined with political lobbying (and bribes), these
criminals turned what could have been a revitalizing project for
Boston into something which will be a huge liability for generations
to come due to the enormous maintenance costs which are already being
incurred.
Elmer
rsh...@gmail.com
It is a revitalizing project, and will remain such
Not only that, no matter how you slice it, it is a massive
infrastructure improvement project, that was badly needed
the problem is Mass Hwy, Mass Pike and the federales paid way too much
one simple word OVERSIGHT
there was next to none lets say until 50% was under const
I know the cat is way, way gone, as well as the horsies
but perhaps it would have been better as a design-build project
with one huge limitation
$XXX this is what we are going to pay, and cost overruns are your
problem
it would have been a much different ball game
One note about consultants
I hate the bastards, I have no use for them
but you know what, it comes back to us
we, the citizenry, we the poor dumb taxpayer, want everything, and we
don't want to pay for anything
and because we want to fund a 21st century transportation system with
1970's level of taxation, we cannot properly staff Mass Hwy, Mass
Pike, MBTA, or any other transportation agency with professional
engineers whose first responsibility is to the PUBLIC agency that
employs them
instead, those same PUBLIC agencies are forced into contracting with
the FOR PROFIT consulting engineering firms, again I will say for
profit, and in addition they are politically connected, make political
contributions to local and state politicians to get those consulting
contracts with the public transportation agencies
enuf said, you get the idea
"we have met the enemy and he is us"...Pogo