El Paso's spaghetti bowl vs Albuquerque's big I

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by Qwerty314

too bad wiki doesn't have an entry for El Paso's Spaghetti Bowl, i guess it's not special enough

Not true.. just El Pasoans are too lazy to make an entry.. thats all.

Spaghetti Bowl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[HIGH!Lonesome]

The thing about wikipedia that alot of it holds true information however it is not 100% accurate since some of it's source of information is posted by private individuals whom might not have all their facts correct or can blow things out of propotion, exagerate something to make things bigger than real life.

[Muhnay]

If anyone can show me some info on when the spaghetti bowl was built and by who and the reason behind it, I will make a entry and sight the sources so that it can be represented on wiki.

[LEVOW]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

Not true.. just El Pasoans are too lazy to make an entry.. thats all.

Spaghetti Bowl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DAMMIT WE CANT DO ANYTHING RIGHT, WERE SUCH IDIOTS HA MUHNAY, when i grow up i want to be as smart as you!

[ocean2026]

Hey check out that bowl again. I chaired community development committee in the early 80s and we had won a "Creative use of Urban Space " award for that little park underneath. Not sure who uses it but the thought was nice.

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

Hey check out that bowl again. I chaired community development committee in the early 80s and we had won a "Creative use of Urban Space " award for that little park underneath. Not sure who uses it but the thought was nice.

The park underneith is really nice, great use of space that would otherwise just be drainage. I also like the murals on the supports. Its a real nice area.

Levow, stop making this about me... and stay on topic.. thanks.

[Miner72]

With a solider population now pegged at 38,000 by 2014, that will have a huge impact plus the families will create a whole new venue. Ft. Bliss is scheduled to become one of the biggest Army bases in the nation supported by the $6 billion in vestement by the feds including the FCS....A Post of Excellence. Every soouthwest city used its military base to grow its economy. El paso will be no different.

Kirkland AFB was an integral part of the economic landscape in ABQ until Intel came to town but without KAFB ABQ would suffer. why do you think Dominici tried so hard to save it when it went on the chopping block in 94. At that time he was very influential and grew in power which helped KAFB grow as well through these past 15 years.

Commerce is still El Paso's biggest economic engine but it will be challenged by the Medical Centers of the Americas someday . All of them together will move El paso forward to a more vibrant future.

[Muhnay]

MINER I like your attitude, and I pray your right. I see El Paso getting worse before it gets better though.. it will be a few years of growing pains before we stablize and have that bright future.

Originally Posted by Miner72

With a solider population now pegged at 38,000 by 2014, that will have a huge impact plus the families will create a whole new venue. Ft. Bliss is scheduled to become one of the biggest Army bases in the nation supported by the $6 billion in vestement by the feds including the FCS....A Post of Excellence. Every soouthwest city used its military base to grow its economy. El paso will be no different.

Kirkland AFB was an integral part of the economic landscape in ABQ until Intel came to town but without KAFB ABQ would suffer. why do you think Dominici tried so hard to save it when it went on the chopping block in 94. At that time he was very influential and grew in power which helped KAFB grow as well through these past 15 years.

Commerce is still El Paso's biggest economic engine but it will be challenged by the Medical Centers of the Americas someday . All of them together will move El paso forward to a more vibrant future.

[HIGH!Lonesome]

The only place that has any information about the spaghetti bowl is on Texas Freeways .com, I tried to post the link but it said that it had expired, but check it out anyway, it has the stack and an architect rendering from 1970, dont say how much it cost to built but when it was newly built it was one of Texas biggest now it is probably the smallest.

It is still a very nice freeway system that runs through El Paso from west coast to east coast and goes through 3 of the top five biggest American cities Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Houston, not to mention San Antonio, Jacksonville and New Orleans, I'm sure that Phoenix has surpassed Philly for the #5 spot by now.

[MattHanson9398]

Having been to both Albuquerque and El Paso, I can comment on comparisons of both interchanges. The main thing they have in common is that the Spaghetti Bowl and the Big-I are the busiest freeway interchanges in El Paso and Albuquerque, respectively. But they have plenty of differences to point out.

The Big-I was originally built in 1966 with all directional ramps, including left-hand exits and entrances, and was designed to handle 60,000 vehicles a day. Going through the interchange, both I-25 and I-40 reduced to four lanes (two in each direction). But by the late 1990s, the interchange couldn't handle Albuquerque's increasing traffic flows and became one of the worst bottlenecks in the U.S. Hence, a new five-level stack interchange was built in place of the original one; construction on the current interchange commenced in June 2000 and wrapped up in May 2002. The current Big-I now consists of high-speed flyovers instead of left-hand directional ramps, both interstates are six-lanes (three per direction) going through the interchange, and frontage roads were built over the interstates' original alignments. Plus, I-25 was realigned over Candelaria Road, the exit for Lomas Blvd. from I-25 south is before traffic from I-40 merges, and I-25 through downtown Albuquerque was widened to 8-12 lanes.

I can't say much about the Spaghetti Bowl. But my guess is that it was built in the early 1970s sometime. And unlike the original Big-I, it was built with high-speed flyovers, no left-hand directional ramps. Much of the interchange is still original as of 2021, but new ramps and flyovers are being built for traffic wanting to go straight into Ciudad Juarez from US 54 or I-10. However, it's not being completely rebuilt like the Big-I was in the early 2000s. But one design deficiency that needs to be corrected is US 54 north to I-10 east; it's currently a loop ramp, and I think it should be replaced with a high speed flyover.