INNOVATIVE FREEWAY CONCEPTS FOR URBAN INTERSTATE OVERLAP SECTIONS

This paper discusses innovative freeway design concepts and considerations for urban interstate overlap sections with a length less than five miles. Specifically, traditional combined freeway concepts as well as dual divided freeway concepts will be discussed. An evaluation process to compare and contrast combined freeway and dual divided concepts is documented. The process includes consideration of route continuity, design uniformity, driver expectancy, and constructability in coordination with traffic operations, roadway geometrics, incident management, maintenance, and local access requirements to determine an optimal configuration for urban interstate overlap sections. The Councils Bluffs, Iowa Interstate Study is used as a case study to apply these concepts. The study is being performed for the Iowa Department of Transportation and includes concept development and environmental studies for the entire Council Bluffs interstate system. This includes a three-mile overlap section of interstates I-80 and I-29, with access to two service interchanges with high density commercial as well as regional attractions. The case study illustrates a balanced approach to meet the regional interstate traffic needs in coordination with community and local access needs. Issues related to urban interstate overlap sections specifically addressed in the paper include the following: example innovative context sensitive freeway concepts; traffic projection development and capacity analysis of dual divided concepts; guide signing challenges; and a process to compare and contrast freeway concepts. The case study presented in the paper was an enlightening project detailing numerous innovative concepts that are applicable for urban interstate overlap sections.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0935403876
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Sharp, W
  • Smith, D
• Conference:
  • ITE 2004 Annual Meeting and Exhibit
  • Location: Lake Buena Vista, Florida
  • Date: 2004-8-1 to 2004-8-4
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 11p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Design; Freeway operations; Freeways; Highway design; Highway safety; Interstate highways; Traffic control; Traffic flow; Urban highways
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00980218
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0935403876
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 28 2004 12:00AM