Goldsby Rumors and News

[Plutonic Panda]

So they downgraded the interchange and removed a ramp that would have been paid for by a third party. A ramp that would have taken traffic off the other ramps for commuters trying to get home.

Who the hell made this decision?

[Scott5114]

So they downgraded the interchange and removed a ramp that would have been paid for by a third party. A ramp that would have taken traffic off the other ramps for commuters trying to get home.

Who the hell made this decision?

I think you're greatly overestimating the amount of benefit a direct ramp to the Riverwind parking lot would have done. The majority of people exiting here are commuters heading to Blanchard. While Riverwind traffic does add to the strain on the interchange, improving access to westbound SH-9 will ultimately help both Riverwind traffic and Blanchard traffic. Hopefully this plan will also result in closing the direct entrance and exit to Riverwind's north valet from SH-9 and routing it through either the new signalized intersection at Harvey/NW 12th and the existing one at Bankers Drive. That will help really reduce the number of conflict points where vehicles can cross paths in this area, which will increase safety.

Both the diverging diamond and SPUI options here make a lot of sense, because the majority of traffic flow is from the north to the west and vice-versa, and those interchange types serve that type of traffic pattern well. I have a feeling the diverging diamond option will be chosen, because the bridge is only about 10 years old and they would be able to re-use it for the new interchange. I'm not sure what the "reliever" ramp shown in a few of the options is for, though. It looks like they expect Riverwind traffic to take that and then loop around the south edge of the Riverwind property and come back north, but I don't think anyone is actually going to do that.

Interestingly, this will be the second time this interchange has been totally redone in my lifetime. The current setup only dates from about 2005 or so. Before then, here's what it looked like (1961 aerial):