Gribblenation

When it comes to the entirety of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 99, when fully completed, is nothing more than 161 miles of a roughly 48,000-mile system (0.3% of total length).  Yet, to more than just a handful of people, the number '99' rubs them the wrong way. Interstate 99 follows the path of two US Highway Routes - US 220 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford north to Interstate 80 and then to US 15/Interstate 180 in Williamsport.  It then follows US 15 from Williamsport north to Interstate 86 in Corning, New York. Interstate 99 runs with US 220 through much of Central Pennsylvania. (Doug Kerr) US 220 from Cumberland, Maryland to Interstate 80 and US 15 north of Williamsport were designated part of the Appalachian Highway System in 1965.  Construction to upgrade both corridors progressed steadily but slowly.  In 1991, the two corridors were included as a National High Priority Corridor.  The route from Cumberland to Corning consisted of High P...

For Throwback Thursday this week, we go back to April 2005 to US 15 in Painted Post, New York (this section of road is now part of I-99 as well). At the time, there was a sign for the Gang Mills exit where a NY 417 shield with a white background was affixed to the sign. I believe that it had to do with a maintenance swap that took place a few years prior. The sign is now long gone, replaced with something not quite unique.

In this week's edition of Throwback Thursday, we travel back to December 2003 to the southern end of Interstate 99 in Bedford, Pennsylvania, where we can see button copy guide signage for US 30 and US 220 (US 220 runs concurrent with I-99 through this part of the Keystone State). Since I-99 was relatively new at the time, it feels like it was an afterthought.

Earlier this month, I head up north with Joe Babyak and met up with Doug Kerr to explore New England.  It was a great trip and the weather somewhat cooperated (more on that in the days to come).  The first part of the trip was going from Raleigh, NC to Schenectady, NY. Our Route: US 64, I-95, I-495, I-270, US 15, PA 581, I-81, US 22/322, US 11/15, US 15, I-86, NY 13, NY 79, NY 206, I-288, NY 7, NY 337 into Schenectady. We took this route so I could pick up a few more counties...and I did pick up one in PA (Tioga) and two in New York (Schyler and Tompkins).  It was also the first time I took US 11/15 through the central part of the state north of Harrisburg.  And I really enjoyed the drive.  The US 15 freeway (Future Interstate 99) north of Williamsport is very impressive and may be the most scenic freeway in Pennsylvania.  Photos from this leg of the trip can be found here . Our first real stop wasn't until just south of Ithaca, NY.  Just off o...

Tonight I was curious in knowing what other projects have other state's applied for the $1.5 billion in TIGER Discretionary Funds that will be awarded next month.  My original thinking was that it was only one project per state, and it would be a neat idea to maybe research and blog about them  Bzzzztttt, was I wrong! The USDOT received 1380, yes 1380, applications from all 50 states, plus Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.  The total amount of requests total $56.5 billion.  That is nearly 38 times the amount that will be awarded!!!!  No wonder why the final decisions have been delayed. Texas led with 125 applications - followed closely by California (117), and Florida (115).  The least amount of applications came from Hawaii with only 1. New Hampshire, South Dakota, and North Dakota only had two applications. It appears that any organization could apply for the TIGER Grants - and that would explain why SCDOT encoura...