August 10, 2007: Wrong-way multiplex for US 151, WI 32, and WI 57 in Chilton, Wisconsin. This isn’t the only time 151 is contrary; in Cedar Rapids, US 151 and US 218 have a wrong-way triplex with US 30. The arrows on WI 32 are for the 32nd Infantry Brigade of the Wisconsin National Guard.
The east-west part of Chicago’s Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway, aka “the Ike” or I-290, which turns into Congress Parkway in downtown, is about one mile north of the Monona/Harrison-to-Linn/Johnson county line. (About 41°51’N.) In fact, if you add five to longitude numbers in downtown Chicago, you will find yourself in southern Tama County along County Road E69.
Much of the Chicago metro area is in the latitudes between US 20 and I-80 in Iowa; US 20 dips southeast starting at Rockford to go into the city.
This isn’t particularly ground-breaking, but I was playing around with some numbers after I took the Jeopardy online test.
Meanwhile, this weekend Google is offering “8-bit mode” for “quests” like on on Nintendo games. These two characters are hiding north of the Chicago Loop.
April 18, 2006: Guidance on I-280 approaching I-74. At a cloverleaf interchange on the south side of the Quad Cities, US 6 leaves I-74, then turns east at the airport, and then intersects US 150. US 150 used to go into Rock Island and end at least within sight of the state of Iowa, but the exact circumstances of its end are unclear. IA 150 was created in the hopes that it would become an extension of US 150, but it runs north-south instead of northwest-southeast line US 150. Now, of course, 150 has been removed completely from far eastern Iowa and ends in Vinton.
October 13, 2006: South English. Keokuk County has seven state numbers — 1, 21, 22, 23, 78, 92, and 149 — but no US routes. (It also had IA 77 until 2003.)
August 21, 2006: Sign at the Missouri state line, 13 miles north of its south end near Maryville. Even-numbered highways in Missouri conventionally run east-west, but this is an exception because it was created to continue from an Iowa number. It was MO 27 until 1968.
This was in one of the links of the map post, but I thought I’d break it out: The House approved a bill that would add the segment of US 63 between Ottumwa and Waterloo to the Commercial and Industrial Network. So far, the roads with this designation are identical to the ones enrolled in the National Highway System. All that a layperson would notice with this is that the rest of 63 would be red on the state map instead of black.
Meanwhile, although the Kirksville bypass is done, the 60-odd miles between there and Ottumwa will remain a bottleneck. KTVO has a report on some progress there — very, very preliminary progress. (I think they went a little overboard on the tagging under the video.) And Kirksville is already thinking about expected development on new 63 — so in 30 years we’ll have to do it all over again.
September 1, 2009: Rochester makes an appearance on this sign heading north out of Luxemburg. I am not sure it is the first. For the rest of its route in Iowa, US 52 will run through, out of, and around the high hills of the Driftless Area.
The 2012 map went live online today.
Assorted sources report that the number of maps printed was cut nearly in half this year. This is not necessarily a bad thing as long as there are still enough. GPSs and smart phones won’t give you the size or large-scale detail you can get with paper. Each device has its place.
I haven’t scanned for corrections in a while, so it seems about time to re-check mileages around new four-lane segments.
(Ironically, in the first link above, Radio Iowa reports the DOT says that drastically cutting the number of maps printed will increase per-map costs.)
In addition, a Tama County YPK was printed in blue, meaning that YQA was the likely beginning of the black printing.
UPDATE 4/22: I was wrong. All it meant was that it was somewhere between YPK and YQA. Now I’ve seen a YPY (Webster) in black, so the exact point of switchover remains elusive.
May 13, 2002: North end of IA 146 in Le Grand, pre-bypass. The straight-through alignment of US 30 through Le Grand existed throughout the second half of the 20th century. Between the intersection here and Montour, though, there is some discrepancy as to the true route of the Lincoln Highway:
Since the picture at top was taken, 146 has been extended northward a fraction of a mile past the East Marshall athletic complex to new 30.
