Friday, March 28, 2014

The Road to Nowhere

I spent a good part of my Tuesday morning hanging around the Avoca/Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport Interstate 81 interchange.

Two ramps were permanently closed.  It's part of the process of replacing traditional exit and exit ramps with roundabouts, or traffic circles.

A good part of this project is badly needed.  The bridges are old and narrow.  The acceleration and deceleration lanes are too short.  Navy Way, the last right before you enter the airport, will be extended to the Grimes Industrial Park in Pittston Township.  The Navy Road extension could be the best thing to happen to this area.

The point of today's entry deals with traffic circles.  Google the topic.  Drivers hate them.  An internal Penndot source tells me the only ones who like traffic circles are the engineers.  Your state government is taking a reasonably functional interstate highway interchange, and turning it in to what could be a nightmare.