Gribblenation

All along Interstate 95 in the South, there are interchanges where the services (food, gas, and lodging) haven't kept up with the times.  Some of these old comfort stops dated to before the Interstate or opened when the new highway came through.   The former Emporia Travel Center Long before Buc-ee's, small independent travel centers that mixed a gas station/truck stop, restaurant, and sometimes a motel lined the Interstate.  Just north of Emporia, a long-gone complex consisting of a truck stop, restaurant, and motel greeted travelers as they exited off I-95. In the late 1950s, Virginia built a US 301 bypass west of Emporia that would become Interstate 95.  When the road opened in 1959, a small restaurant sat where the newly opened bypass tied back into Highway 301 - today's Exit 12.  By 1968, a truck stop and motel had been built next to it. By early 2011, the Dixie Motel had long been overrun - its days were numbered.  The old motel was torn down a f...

For most of its length between Petersburg and Emporia, Virginia, a two-lane US 301 runs immediately parallel to the southbound lanes of Interstate 95.  While four lanes of traffic zip by at 70+ miles per hour, US 301 runs just off the shoulder at a slower speed.   Though much of this stretch of highway is through rural farmlands, there are leftover - often abandoned - relics from when a four-lane US 301 carried motorists south to the Atlantic Coast or back to their northeastern homes. The Jarratt Motel circa 1940s.  It was a classic-style motel. ( Digital Commonwealth - Massachusetts Collection Online ) A popular location for lodging was the tiny town of Jarratt, where at a minimum; three old-style motor courts were found along US 301 - the Jarratt, Colonial, and Resté.  Each of these motels had lodging, a pool, and a restaurant.  In the late 1950s, US 301 was widened to four lanes through the sleepy Southside Virginia town.  In the decades to come, al...

  Motorists in northern Delaware and the suburbs of Wilmington are celebrating the early completion of a major construction project around the massive Newport Interchange on DE Route 141 geared toward increasing roadway capacity and improving all-around safety. Begun in 2016, this $160 million project was undertaken by the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) in order to address urgent safety and traffic capacity needs while replacing inadequate & ageing infrastructure and has reached “substantial completion” status months ahead of its original Spring 2022 completion date. Route 141 is one of the heaviest-trafficked non-interstate corridors in The First State and the construction of this project was seen as a high priority effort at the state and local level for several years both prior to and during execution. A satellite view (courtesy of Google Maps) of the sprawling Newport Interchange complex near Wilmington, DE. The state's three interstate highways (95, 295, 49...

Not far from the location where George Washington and his Continental Army famously crossed the Delaware River at the height of the American Revolution, thousands of motorists are now crossing the Delaware on a new & modern expressway bridge capable of handling the traffic demands of today and tomorrow. Begun in 2017, the Scudder Falls Bridge replacement project is a $534 million program undertaken by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) and its prime contractor Trumbull Corporation aimed at replacing the aging/original interstate bridge over the Delaware River near Trenton, NJ with a wider/modern bridge built to the current interstate highway standards of the day. The original bridge opened in 1961 and included a narrow four-lane roadway without shoulders and substandard entry/exit ramps serving the interchanges at either end of the structure. For nearly 60 years, this bridge was part of the Interstate 95 corridor but in the aftermath of the realignment of the ...