June 25th, 2010
For the first time that I can remember since I was a child, I have actually seen a long stretch of highway being rebuilt / built. When I was a child, I remember seeing the older generations building interstates from the road bed up. Since that time, I have never seen any real highway construction in the United States that included actually building a road. However, leave it to the State of New Jersey to surprise me. Because, approximately twenty miles of the northern portion of Interstate 295 is totally torn-up and it appears a new road bed is being laid.
The only times that I can remember seeing any road beds being set in modern times would merely include very short replacement segments on the I-10 freeway near Palm Springs and maybe some very short segments of the I-405 freeway on the west side of Los Angeles, some (one) bridge surfaces on Belt Parkway (though, of late, maybe more now), some stretches of roadway in Mississippi, a major overpass near Riverside, and possibly some sections of the Staten Island expressway.
Its funny, because WPIX and Fox Channel 5 in New York just last week were airing reports that stated how most residents in New Jersey were becoming more and more disgusted with the roadway conditions in the state. Yet, only in New Jersey can one definitely see any significant amount of roadway actually being rebuilt from the roadbed up. I have not seen any long stretches of roadway being built anywhere else in the United States.
Due to the rebuilding of roads being such a rare occurrence, I had recently come to the assumption that the building road industries had also been shipped overseas to places like China and India. So I was quite pleased to see this section of I-295 being rebuilt – as it desperately needs it.
So, kudos to the State of New Jersey and whatever Federal entities might have been involved in this seemingly nouveau idea of actually rebuilding a road. Lets hope this sets a trend.
Adam Trotter / AVT
