Mr Yamamoto's concrete imaginings

Okay, Here's my Page of Freeway Fantasies, some stuff I would do if I were running the show.
In real life, this would totally trash any lefty cred I have w/all my trendy chums,
but since this is all made up and quite prolly stands a snowball's chance in hell of coming to pass,
I figured I'd go to town.

First up: My solution to the IH 97 or IH 95 problem(notice how you get a choice :) )
Build up US 301 to I-Standard nearly to Wilmington, DE.
Run it over the Delaware on a huge and prolly ecologically unsound crossing,
and bung it into the NJTP just past junction 1. This would be hugely expensive to build,
and has the drawbacks of having to put in a new Potomac crossing at Dalhgren, VA-
which sends the Greenies sideways, and a concurrency w/the John Hanson Highway from Bowie to east of Annapolis, which may be a traffic choke point, as the John Hanson is a heavy commuter route.

While we're throwing around a great deal of money, Let's whip IH 68 out to Cincinnati and TimBrownLand.
This may be a reasonably practical expansion, since most of this route is dual-carriageway anyway,
and covers the US 50-OH 32 routing pretty faithfully, except the straight bit in the middle.
For truckers this would hugely add to the utility of IH 68,
giving them a nearly straight shot from the IH 81-IH 95 corridors.
Prolly wouldn't hurt the area economy, either.

And here's an eastwards expansion of IH 68,
Including the new IH 95 from above plus a renumbering of a few other roads.
IH 68 is concurrent with IH 70 for a bit, but rather than go with the favored MTR routing down current
IH 270, I have IH 68 leave IH 70 around Sykesville, and follow MD 32 and IH 97 to Annapolis,
over the Chesapeake with "new" IH 95/US 301(MD SHA would plotz at *gasp* four markers on a road),
and along current US 50 and MD 90 to Ocean City.
This is pure gas, as I really can't think of a good reason to build such a road.

Alternately, this could be an extension of IH 70, coming to a "dignified" end at the ocean,
rather than a car park in suburban Baltimore; IH 170 could be assigned to the "old" road.
Also note that IH 83 runs round Washington rather than IH 95,
and would follow current IH 95 to Richmond.
The remainder of the beltway could be an extension of IH 270.
Plus, MD gets the highest Interstate number with IH 995.
Baltimore, Philly and Wilmington prolly wouldn't go for that....

Look! a NEW YORK business loop. Yeah, Right, In my dreams.

The current IH 84-NY 17 junction is a cloverleaf.
The nasty thing is that there is a cruddy little dogleg junction just south of IH 84 on NY 17.
That can make life interesting-It's a good bit of fun manouvreing through the area.
So here's how I would fix it. I killed off two of the cloverleaf loops, and replaced them with lefts off a CD road-
these are to me, the most logical lefts.
The dogleg junction(current JN 122) on NY 17 has been sent south in favor of a modified diamond;
and I added a junction for Orange County 67 on IH 84, just to make life easier.
Why? Well, this happy hummer gives direct access to a huge shopping area
and a fair shot to Horton Hospital without having to fool around with NY 17.
And believe it or not, this junction doesn't occupy that much more real estate than the current setup-
and is a great deal safer. And no, I don't know the mileposts for NY 17, which is why there's no junction number. Thought I'd include a fantasy gantry, too :)

Occasionally, on the Local news, you'll hear rumblings about a second Mid-Hudson bridge.
The current one is 3 lanes-the center is reversible, but only open during rush hours.
Traffic can clog pretty fast if something doesn't go right.
The nearest alternate routes are 14 miles to the south through the hell that is US 9,
or 15 miles north at the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge. So here's my upgrade.
NY 299 and US 44 move north-NY 299 on a new tollway,
and US 44 gets dualized and run on the current NY 299 alignment to US 9W,
then over the Hudson north of the Culinary Institute,
and around the north side of Poughkeepsie back to current US 44 near Pleasant Valley with elevated junctions at critical points.
If you want to link to NY 55, use NY 555.
NY 444(I don't go for alphanumeric tomfoolery-heh, shoulda made them "Spur" routes a la TX)
links back to the Arterial through town.
Other improvements in the area include upgrading US 9 to a freeway nearly to Hyde Park,
and dualizing NY 55 to Pawling, as well as ugrading the Taconic to a freeway.

Here's my fave Western Fanatsy(Mr Mojave will GET me for this one)-
Namely, extending the IH 40 from it's pitiful half junction with IH 15
along CA 58, CA 99, and CA 46 out to US 101.
Providing a second Interstate for Bakersfield-which may be a pit, but it's a major agricultural center,
as well as a good connection for SF traffic to the southeast.
While we're at it, let's get rid of some of those bipping
"Miner's Spades" and replace them with proper US numbers-
especially CA 99, which should have something that indicates it's status as a major route
without having to use an Interstate number.
The lower map is the revised road scheme around Barstow, CA,
including new Business 40 or.... erm.... IH 740 on the leftover spur.

Another favorite interstate upgrade-an Austin to Houston freeway.
Actually, I've augmented it just a bit...Upgrading the entire
US 290 corridor to freeway standard;
swinging north of Houston on the FM 1960 with the mainline freeway-
having the Northwest Freeway as a spur; and continuing the IH 14 to Beaumont.

Now this may come to pass, at least it's being studied; A toll tunnel from Honolulu to Ewa beach on Oahu,
Bypassing the H-1 freeway and saving a few miles in the bargain.