How Many Roads?

OK, this pisses off my highly honed sense of order:

The Parkway West from the Fort Pitt Tunnel to Interstate 79 has been redesignated as Interstate 376, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced today.

Its former designation as Interstate 279 now applies only to the Parkway North.

I-376 now stretches from the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Monroeville to the I-79 interchange in Robinson. Eventually, PennDOT will extend I-376 along Routes 22, 30 and 60 on the Airport Expressway and Beaver Valley Expressway to Mercer County,

And here's why. From der Wikipedia:

Auxiliary Interstate Highways are circumferential, radial, or spur highways that principally serve urban areas. These types of Interstate Highways are given three-digit route numbers, which consist of a single digit prefixed to the two-digit number of a nearby primary Interstate Highway. Spur routes deviate from their parent and do not return, with a few exceptions; these are given an odd first digit. Circumferential and radial loop routes return to Interstate Highways, and are given an even first digit. Due to the large number of these routes, auxiliary route numbers may be repeated in different states along the mainline.

So, if you caught all that, PennDOT has assigned a circumferential route number to what will now be a spur route and a spur route number to what will eventually (I presume) be a circumferential route. Really the numbers should be changed to I-379 and I-276! They could have at least kept it I-279/I-376 to the I-79 interchange, rather than making a complete switch.

I mean, what the point of a system if you're just going to throw out numbers willy-nilly! Might as well just call the damned things "Interstate Sunday in the Park with George Wentz" and "Interstate Be like the seventh level donkey in space: PING!".

PennDOT Holds Parkways Hostage; Issues Ransom Note

The following was found on the HOV lane of the Parkway North today:



I believe we're dealing with desperate men.

Gephyrophobia

OK, so PennDOT thought it was a good idea to release detailed safety ratings on Pennsylvania's steel deck truss bridges, the same design as the Interstate 35W Bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River. It's not like we didn't have to worry about terrorism, bird flu, SARS, AIDS, school shootings, poisoned Halloween candy, flesh eating bacteria, sharks, botulism, anthrax, gang wars, roller coasters, cell phones, the Bush Administration, Iran, hoof and mouth disease, mad cow disease, peanuts, cats, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, pestilence, water turning to blood, combined storm & sanitary sewer runoff, asbestos, lead paint, small parts that could be choking hazards to young children, the International Space Station plunging out of orbit, illegal aliens, mine shafts, minimal allowances for rat feces, and the small, but real, possibility that Pauley Shore and Carrot Top may team up in a Joel Schumacher movie.

If all those things aren't enough to scare you, there seems to be a very real possibility that the Rankin Bridge may disappear out from under you as you make your way to Kennywood (or try to beat the traffic to the Waterfront). While I am normally a rational, reasonable person, the thought of plunging to my death in Rankin makes me completely mental.

What really makes me nervous, however, is that PennDOT is only reporting on the steel deck truss bridges. They haven't even begun on the through arch, concrete truss, box girder, compression arch suspended-deck, suspension, tied arch, or even lenticular truss bridges.

[Fortunately for Western Pennsylvania, our bascule bridges are fine.]

As if I don't have enough to worry about. And, of course, this being Pittsburgh, it's not like I could just live without crossing a bridge for my entire life, as I am not an old Italian woman from Bloomfield or my parents.

So big thanks PennDOT; you're getting my therapy bills.