# Roads In Your Area Constantly Under Construction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 4, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043 "2011-12-04T18:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/21 "2011-12-06T04:04:27Z")
Yes - Job security. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/22 "2011-12-06T06:55:30Z")
The I-40/I-85 interchange in Greensboro NC was started when my dad was in high school in the 1960s. It was finished when I, his youngest child, was in college in the early 2000s. Currently the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange in Asheville (or Dysfunction Junction) has been put off for another 20 years. The I-485 project around Charlotte finally seems to be ending. That was started when I was in middle school in the early 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/23 "2011-12-06T13:22:54Z")
**I-287** near the Tappan Zee Bridge. Living in New England and driving to New Jersey constantly, I am amazed at this corridor on the eastern side of the Tappan Zee bridge. I’ve been driving on it for over twenty years, and it has _always_ been under construction and rebuilding that entire time. I cannot think of any period when they weren’t rebuilding part of that road. I’m not talking about a big stretch here – certainly they’re always going to be doing fixup on a heavily-used interstate. But the ten miles or so of this road from the Tappan Zee to the Hutchinson Parkway has had construction going on for as long as I’ve been driving on it. And still does. By comparison, the Massachusetts Route 20 construction near Sturbridge finally did peter out after a decade or so. Just long enough to drive some of the businesses lining it out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/24 "2011-12-06T14:12:58Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > DC Metro area (Northern Virginia). **Mama Zappa** beat me to it. I can’t remember the last time I took the Beltway without seeing some form of construction going on. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/25 "2011-12-06T14:25:03Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > **Mama Zappa** beat me to it. I can’t remember the last time I took the Beltway without seeing some form of construction going on. Yeah. Two years and counting for the interchange near my house. They’ve spent over $250,000,000 for that one beltway interchange in what seems to be a grand plan to try to force me into moving far away. The commute is killing me now. For the record though, we need to travel down I-64 to Newport News, VA. When I left for college in 1974 they were just starting a project to expand I-64 by a couple of lanes. Maybe 10-15 miles of road involved. Looks like they finally finished about 5 years ago. There were some charges of corruption if I remember correctly. Basically, someone managed to make a whole lifetime career out of that small stretch of road. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/26 "2011-12-06T16:32:34Z")
The [Champlain Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Bridge,_Montreal#Structural_health), under maintenance and repair work since the day it opened, is destined to collapse in the nearish future if it isn’t replaced. The [Mercier Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Mercier_Bridge#Maintenance)is overloaded and there are serious fears of collapse. The [Turcot Interchange](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turcot_Interchange)is crumbling. Since most of it is elevated, this would be a Very Bad Thing. The [Decarie](http://neath.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/quebec-will-reconfigure-decarie-circle/)circle… ditto. The [St. Pierre](http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10284938)interchange isn’t much better. The [Metropolitan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Autoroute_40)(I know, it’s not the official name, who cares?) is also crumbling. In fact, pretty much any and every elevated roadway in Montreal and the surrounding area - and there are a lot of them! - is falling apart. A few years back, the [de la Concorde](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_la_Concorde_overpass_collapse) overpass in Laval collapsed, killing 5 people. Even underground, you aren’t safe: part of the entrance to the [Ville Marie tunnel](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/07/31/ville-marie-closed.html)collapsed this summer. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043/27 "2011-12-09T04:14:17Z")
There are parts of Rochester and Kingston NH that have been under construction, steadily, since May of 2008. I have no idea what their ultimate vision for either road is, but they keep paving and tearing things up and changing the flow of traffic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roads-in-your-area-constantly-under-construction/605043.md?page=1)