The newest and shortest Interstate...

[Desert_Captain]

Passing through Las Vegas and then Henderson Nevada on our way home we discovered Interstate 11. Shortly after you climb up and out of Henderson and traverse Railroad Pass highway 93 magically becomes Interstate 11 {much to the consternation of our Garmin GPS}.

Now what I-11 lacks in length, it is just 10 miles long, it more than makes up for in state of the art highway engineering, yep it is gorgeous. Shortly before it drops you back on 93 just southwest of the Hoover Dam {currently closed to visitors due to the virus} there is a very nice viewpoint/rest stop that is worth your time. It overlooks Lake Mead and the views are awesome.



Speaking of short and gorgeous here is a shot of our rig parked at the viewpoint:



Sorry I could not resist.

Actually I-11 has been on the drawing boards for years and is slowly taking shape. It will eventually run from Nogales on the Mexican border south of Tucson mostly straight to Las Vegas cannibalizing many existing roadways {like highway 93}. Stretches of 93 between I-40 and Wickenburg are under massive construction as we speak and that stretch of 93 really needs to be improved {as it is one seriously dangerous stretch of mostly 2 lane}.

The folks living west of Tucson are screaming bloody murder over this proposal so don't look for it to be completed any time soon. Ahh progress... such as it is.

:B

[C_Schomer]

I'm glad I got out of Rainbow Valley - unincorporated Buckeye Az.. 11 is going to take out the house I owned and I probably would have lost my arse, complements of ADOT. Craig

[DrewE]

JimBollman wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Try I390 in IL. It may not be he shortest, but it's the most with tolls! About every 2 miles!!!

There is a I390 in Western NY also, do they reuse these spur numbers?

Yes, they sometimes reuse the three-digit interstate numbers. If they didn't, there could only be five spurs and four bypasses anywhere along a given interstate highway, and for a long highway like I-90 that goes from one coast clear to the other that's hardly sufficient. There are four different I-190s, for example.

However, in the specific case of I-390, there is only the one in New York. It seems dodge guy must have made a typo; I think maybe I-290 is actually the road in question.

[JimBollman]

dodge guy wrote:
Try I390 in IL. It may not be he shortest, but it's the most with tolls! About every 2 miles!!!

There is a I390 in Western NY also, do they reuse these spur numbers?

I'm also close to I-26, very strange Interstate, but one of the best views from an interstate in the East.

[valhalla360]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
I-275 bypasses Detroit for example

I live "next door" to I-275. It is odd in the fact that it spurs off of I-75 south of Detroit, but does NOT directly connect back to I-75. You have to take I-96W to US-23N to get back to to I-75.

Very heavy commuter traffic during rush hour. US-23N and I-75N (north of Flint) are very heavy during summer weekends.

Technically, it doubles up with I-696 to get back to I-75, though signing doesn't indicate it and it's not the most direct route if you are headed to northern Michigan.

[theoldwizard1]

valhalla360 wrote:
I-275 bypasses Detroit for example

I live "next door" to I-275. It is odd in the fact that it spurs off of I-75 south of Detroit, but does NOT directly connect back to I-75. You have to take I-96W to US-23N to get back to to I-75.

Very heavy commuter traffic during rush hour. US-23N and I-75N (north of Flint) are very heavy during summer weekends.

[LJAZ]

I-11 is in the early planning stages to run from Vegas south, run west of Phoenix and Tucson and eventually hook up with I-10 east of Tucson. But they are still arguing over the exact route so it may not happen in my lifetime. If ever.

[dodge_guy]

Try I390 in IL. It may not be he shortest, but it's the most with tolls! About every 2 miles!!!

[valhalla360]

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Most Interstates go "coast to coast" with odd number one running north-south and even number ones running east-west.

I-69 is a rare bird ! It has been around for quite some time now, but it runs from Port Huron (okay, sort of on a coast, with Canada) to Indianapolis, which is kind of just in the middle of IN !

You have to wonder what the initial motivation was ? (GM used to have factories in Indianapolis and Flint, through which I-69 passes, but they are all closed or sold off.)

In addition 3 digit routes:
- Even first digit routes are bypasses or loops that connect back to the main route at both ends. (I-275 bypasses Detroit for example)
- Odd first digit routes are spurs that only connect to the primary route at one end. (I-196 cuts across Grand Rapids to dead end at Holland)

Also they generally try to have lower numbers the further south and west you are (practicality sometimes causes this to be violated) I-5 runs up the west coast, I-95 up the east coas, I-10 follows the southern boarder, I-94 follows the northern.

Actually the full I-69 route runs all the way to Texas but it's not completed along it's entire length. There are additional stretches that are open. It's common for short sections to violate the direcitonality of the number.

The big reason for swinging east to Port Huron is to divert Canada bound traffic from the Detroit crossings and off I-94 which is overloaded with trucks but it's never been as popular as they hoped.

H-1 by definition is not "interstate" since it obviously only includes 1 state but politically giving Hawaii no interstate funds was politically unacceptable, so they received a special dispensation. (Alaska has a similar dispensation)

[mudhound]

we have a 26 near us. It does weird things too. LOL!!!

[theoldwizard1]

Most Interstates go "coast to coast" with odd number one running north-south and even number ones running east-west.

I-69 is a rare bird ! It has been around for quite some time now, but it runs from Port Huron (okay, sort of on a coast, with Canada) to Indianapolis, which is kind of just in the middle of IN !

You have to wonder what the initial motivation was ? (GM used to have factories in Indianapolis and Flint, through which I-69 passes, but they are all closed or sold off.)

[bobsallyh]

Sure is nice in Boulder City too. Got the thru truck and tour busses out of town. And I know the truckers and trucking companies happy also. Unfortunately they have had numerous wrong way crashes in that short stretch of road. Watching that on the inet being built was great.

[DrewE]

time2roll wrote:
I thought H2 in Hawaii was the shortest interstate?

It's the shortest primary interstate highway (i.e. the two digit ones). There are quite a few auxiliary interstate highways (three digit spurs and bypasses) that are shorter; the shortest signed one of these is I-110 in El Paso, a bit less than a mile in length. (There are a couple of shorter ones that are not signed as interstates.) A goodly number, more than I have any desire to count, are shorter than H-2.

[time2roll]

I thought H2 in Hawaii was the shortest interstate?

Great to see some of this infrastructure actually get built.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Thanks for sharing.

Love that wonder of engineering Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman bridge.

Saw it's progress while being constructed while praying that it will hopefully eventually align in the middle.:E