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Being in the area recently, I see no practical reason to extend I-70 to Reno or Sacramento. US 6 and 50 has virtually no traffic whatsoever, and I don’t see a need for a more direct link for Denver traffic to reach Sacramento and San Francisco. Even I-70 west of Grand Junction seems empty, but at least it’s a link to Los Angeles.
A DFW to Denver freeway would be interesting. It would likely meet I-25 near Colorado Springs, even though that city badly needs a loop around the east.
Maybe upgrade the route from Bend, OR to The Dalles, OR (US-97 and US-197) to an Interstate, "I-7". Bend is a rapidly growing metro area and could use a connection to Portland that's safe to drive in the winter. Also the current main connection to civilization, US-20 to Salem, gets too much traffic volume for a winding two-lane road.
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Originally Posted by someguy23475
Being in the area recently, I see no practical reason to extend I-70 to Reno or Sacramento. US 6 and 50 has virtually no traffic whatsoever, and I don’t see a need for a more direct link for Denver traffic to reach Sacramento and San Francisco. Even I-70 west of Grand Junction seems empty, but at least it’s a link to Los Angeles.
Did someone propose that on this thread? Yeah that seems really useless, Reno doesn't need a third Interstate, and most of the population of Nevada that doesn't live in the Reno or Vegas areas lives along the existing I-80.
And I like the charm of the small towns along US-50, it's a very different feel from most of the country and that would be destroyed if an Interstate went through.
A connection from DC/Baltimore to Buffalo/Niagara region. If you want to use the interstate now, you kind of have to go out of the way taking I-70/76 to I-79 to I-90 or either take I-99 and then exit off and go through all these rural mountain towns. Buffalo may not seem that big, but when you add Toronto metro area that's a good amount of people, since most people from there enter through the Buffalo/Niagara area.
I wholeheartedly agree. Last year, my family drove from the Baltimore area up to Niagara Falls and on to Toronto. We went up via I-99 and then the back roads through the mountains, and it was painfully slow. Coming back, we used the I-79 routing, which was way longer in distance but nearly the same amount of time because you're traveling at interstate speeds. But still, it seems ridiculous that there isn't a direct expressway between one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas (Baltimore-Washington) and Canada's largest city, as well as one of both nation's busiest tourist areas.
A relatively straight route exists now, but large portions of it are two-lane country road. I would use this alignment, but make it a four-lane expressway the entire way between Niagara Falls and Winchester, VA.
It wouldn't link directly to Washington and Baltimore, but instead serve as a useful bypass around it. Access to those cities would be provided via I-70 or I-270.
It doesn't have to be numbered as an interstate (since the numbers that would fit in that region are already taken), but it should at least be an important U.S. highway. I would decommission the U.S. 219 number along this route (north of Dubois, PA) and call the whole thing U.S. 17, which would work perfectly since the existing U.S. 17's northern terminus is already there in Winchester anyway. Plus, it would fit between U.S. 15 and U.S. 19, which is exactly where a U.S. highway with the number 17 should be. (I'm not a fan of Interstate 99, but if they want to keep that number, then the section where the two highways overlap could be an I-99/U.S. 17 concurrency.)
There are some who say that US 1 (Overseas Highway) through the Florida Keys should be widened beyond two lanes though that would hurt part of the charm and would require probably building many additional bridges. But it does get jammed up during hurricane evacuations as its the only road out of the Keys, plus accidents easily shut down the entire oad.
Personally I preferred US-6 over 50 because it was so empty. US-50 does have a few more actual towns.
If US-24 between Toledo and Fort Wayne ever became fully upgraded, would it be worthy of an Interstate? A 2 digit ending at two 3 digits does seem odd though. The other option would be to extend it to I-69 giving Fort Wayne a freeway connection closer to downtown, but I don’t see that ever happening, as useful as that would be.
Interstate 180 in Cheyenne should either be upgraded to standards or removed. A railroad overpass does not make it an Interstate.
What about I-129 to South Sioux City? How useful is that? I’ve only been on I-29 in that area (which seems extremely close to downtown if memory serves). I don’t see a I-580 or I-780 being planned to Grand Island, NE anytime soon.
Last edited by someguy23475; 09-01-2020 at 09:31 PM..
Being in the area recently, I see no practical reason to extend I-70 to Reno or Sacramento. US 6 and 50 has virtually no traffic whatsoever, and I don’t see a need for a more direct link for Denver traffic to reach Sacramento and San Francisco. Even I-70 west of Grand Junction seems empty, but at least it’s a link to Los Angeles.
A DFW to Denver freeway would be interesting. It would likely meet I-25 near Colorado Springs, even though that city badly needs a loop around the east.
Why there is no direct interstate link from Denver to Sacramento/Bay Area is simple. West of Denver the next decent sized Metro is Reno/Carson City if i-70 is to follow the alignment of U.S.50. That is a long stretch. I've driven U.S. 50 from Sacramento all the way to Garden City, KS, besides the Reno and Pueblo area there is nothing. (Grand Junction, Montrose are nothing to write home about).
The other point is I-80 isn't that far north from Denver. A 90 minute ride up I-25 will put you on I-80 in Cheyenne.
I'll take a I-40 extension that follows State Route 58 from Barstow though Bakersfield and terminate at I-5. Highway 99 should be a interstate. Fresno is the largest city in the U.S. not served by a interstate highway.
I’ve never seen an interstate I thought was useless. However, I’ve never seen a place in more dire need of more interstates than PA. As a trucker, it sucks almost as much as New England, but it at least has the land to not suck, it just got built up before the modern era.
The I-5 does nothing but parallel the SR99 through the San Joaquin Valley. It goes through a very empty, virtually uninhabited strip of land for hundreds of miles. They could have just widened the SR-99, added some express lanes.
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