Justin

It appears that only I, the roadgeek, would think of this question. I've noticed that on US 59 north of downtown Houston, Cleveland is given as a control city on the big green signs. Here's an example. I thought this was unusual since other road signs on other area freeways list control cities which are further away and/or larger than Cleveland such as Beaumont, Dallas, Austin, Victoria and San Antonio. It seems like either Lufkin or Texarkana would have been a control city on the signs for US 59 North in Houston given their populations and distance from Houston. Plus, US 59 South signs in Texarkana and Lufkin show Houston and not Cleveland as their control city. (See US 59 sign in Texarkana HERE to see what I mean.) So my question is, how are control cities determined? Is there some sort of set criteria?

The Feds set the control cities for interstates, US and state highways are set by TxDOT. No idea how they pick 'em tho...

page not found.

Edit: Interesting that it worked only from the transtar website.

It didn't work because the board thought the period at the end of the sentence was part of the link. This'll work: http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/mobile/

There's a 4 lane section of I-10 from Winnie to Beaumont. I don't know if there are any plans to widen it as it seems like I-10 loses a little bit of traffic at Winnie to folks taking 73 into Port Arthur.

It won't happen anytime soon. TxDOT's Beaumont district made a big announcement about that a year or two ago. I'm not even sure if they've done any studies into it yet, their priority, right now, is getting Orange County's stretch widened to six lanes all the way to the Louisiana border.

Can't they just wait until they finish the north/east loop job? Now it's all going to suck.

Because it's a Stimulus project, tied into all the rules concerning when they have to start and be finished by and all that stuff.

Construction on that last leg of the Sam Houston Tollway began about a year ago.

Oh, ok. I just hadn't noticed it before Wednesday, I suppose. I don't go that way much, after all...

Somewhat random, though semi-related question: Yesterday afternoon I was in the area of the Beltway and the Crosby Freeway and I noticed columns going up, I'm assuming to carry the Beltway over the interchange. When did construction on that start? It surprised the heck out of me to see them there!

Impressive!

I wonder how long it will take for the for system to pay for itself.

When they did this in Beaumont in 2005-06, they said it would take about five years if I remember right.

I know that some people prefer to take US 90 to Beaumont instead of I-10. With construction going on near Wallisville on I-10 and this new section of US 90 freeway opening up, will this make US 90 a practical alternative to I-10? Practical meaning that there isn't much of a time traveled difference in using either highway. As it stands now, taking the current beginning of the US 90 freeway to Beaumont from the center of Houston via I-10 to the Beltway to US 90 takes about 89 miles and a few feeder roads and traffic lights. The traveling distance on I-10 is just two miles shorter at 87 miles. Once this new freeway is completed, a few traffic lights will be eliminated, but I don't know if their elimination will be enough to make the trip quicker.

I live in Beaumont and I take 90 to/from Houston about half the time I make the drive. The travel time is about the same... maybe a five or ten minute difference. The only real slowdowns I've encountered on 90 are if I hit Liberty or Dayton around quitting time, and even then it's not that bad.

AUSTIN, TX-The Dallas Morning News reports that the Texas Department of Transportation is soliciting $30 million worth of bids for four high-tech rest stops between Beaumont and Houston and two more near Corsicana. More of the "Safety Rest Stops," as they're called, are on tap for 2010, near Laredo.

That's from the article. I think, ultimately, they'll put the stops (2) where they were previously.

Well the article's wrong, what else can I say. A separate article that they linked to for more info says they're building two, which makes more sense and is in line with what I found on the TxDOT website.

I think four rest stops between Beaumont and Houston is overkill.

There aren't going to be four, just two. One on either side near the weigh stations.

After seeing them in person, I kind of like the new look. But I found a few things that I don't like. The numbers and letters are not embossed, and the numbers are separated by a little Texas in the middle.

My question is why are the new plates not embossed? Its now harder to read the plates. By removing the little Texas in the middle and embossing the numbers and letters, they can make the new plates more readable.

They're not embossed because the state's no longer using that technique for making them. Basically, as I understand it, these new plates are essentially printed instead of painted, which is what allows them to use all the colors and such. They've been doing that with the specialty plates for a while, now.

I think the new way is cheaper...

Their service is good. WHen I bought my most recent car, I couldn't add it to my tag account right away because there were violations on my license plate. Showed 'em the bill of sale and it was all straightened out. Didn't take long at all... 10 minutes tops.

Land mines WOULD send a better message than some wimpy concrete barriers.

"Well, he'll never do THAT again!"

I'd assume he's referring to Grand Parkway Segment E (I-10 to 290), which is getting $181 million.

ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/...roject_list.pdf

I think they already do. I think one way is through higher fuel taxes, which is why narrow states that can be crossed without refueling have a kind of special trucker toll tag that bills the drivers when they enter the state.

Yep, they do. My mom's boyfriend is an owner/operator and he gripes about having to calculate up the extra fuel taxes.

TxDot gave HCTRA a sweet deal on all of those managed lanes in the middle of I-10, didn't they? If so, TxDot is the reason we paid $3b for one (sometimes two) extra free lanes. What a joke...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't HCTRA throw something like 500 million into the pot to get the freeway rebuilt?

The recovery efforts play a part too, I'm sure. All the extra contractors, etc. In Beaumont rush hour got pretty bad at points for 6 months to a year after Rita.

What you said about the Grand Parkway in Baytown is probably pretty dead-on. I've driven it a few times and I don't think I saw another car the whole section that they're tolling.

I drove out to Katy and back on it for the first time since they started opening all that up this afternoon. I like it.

There has to be a better way to do it than the one they're plotting. This just seems like a crazy hoop to have to jump through, especially since the toll plazas (or whatever you call them) are designed with a lane for the carpools to go through. Why not just have them go through that lane and check the ones that don't look like they've got two people down the road?

I've attached a shot of the message FF3RC1 gives me.

And this is the info Google has on why it's blocked: http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/saf...6&adid=intl

Just curious, are there any classes similiar to that for scooters, or are they mostly the same save for riding position and maybe the transmission?

I took the course before I got my license. Knowing what I know, you'd be able to take what you learn in the course and apply it to the scooters. I've never done a "scooter" but I'd imagine that what you learn would carry over.

I'm just scanning the thread, but seriously. Get a full-fledged motorcycle. I had a 600cc Honda that got just short of 50MPG and handled freeway speeds fine. Even drove it on Houston freeways a few times.

And remember, you have to get an M class license for a scooter too.

What are they doing to I-10 from the railroad bridge by Washington to about Shepard The inside lanes are closed on both sides of I-10 are they expanding HOV further or just installing a new middle divider.

http://www.katyfreeway.net/Contract_G.html

From the drawings I have seen, which lacked a scale, if you want to go from the HOV/Toll lanes to the Beltway, you must exit the Toll lane, and then in the span of 1/4 mile dive across 4 lanes of I-10 to get onto the Beltway. Going from the Beltway to I-10 HOV/Toll would require similar manuvering.

This situation would seem to create a permanent rush-hour traffic jam around the Beltway. Anyone have any comments?

It's a little over a mile and a half.