This is a "photo album" of places and objects, often highway related, that were
ususual or interesting enough (to me) to bother photographing. Most people
will be bored to tears with this page, but "road geeks" in particular may
find some interesting items here.
When 18 Wheels Aren't Enough
This rig is loaded with a 227,000+ lb (101,000 kg) turbine destined
for Italy. It sits in a parking lot in Fitchburg, Mass. awaiting the first
leg of its trip, most likely very early Sunday morning (when traffic is
minimal). This rig has a total of 70 wheels (not counting the spares!) and I
paced it off at about 200' long. The large number of wheels and the length and
design of this "contraption" is apparently intended to spread the weight out
as much as possible to avoid overloading roads and bridges, and to allow this
monstrosity around corners. Each of the 5 12 wheel segments has its own
trailer license plate. I've seen this rig 3 times here since
the generators are manufactured in Fitchburg. One time this rig got stuck
on Route 62 in Hubbardston, Mass. on its way to New York City. It closed the
road for a couple of days while workers had to dismantle the turbine and reload
it onto another truck (there's another one of these trucks?). You'd have to
wonder why they went *that* way (it's a *terrible* road!) but it has to take
convoluted routes to avoid low overpasses and less-than-robust bridges.
During that trip it had an even bigger turbine (413,000 lbs, or over 200 tons!)
New York highway route numbers in the 900s are "reference route numbers" and
aren't supposed to appear on any highway signs, other than the small green
tenth mile markers that NYS DOT puts along all state roads. For some reason,
reference route "990V" in Schoharie County, isn't just signed, but is as
well signed as any other minor state touring route. These numbers
(nearly always a 3 digit number followed by a letter, but there are some
exceptions) are for the named parkways, very short roads or other places where
posting a route number would only cause confusion.
I don't know why this road
has a reference number in the first place. It is not a named parkway, nor
is it one of the short stubs or spurs that typically get reference route
numbers (it's about 5-6 miles long). Old maps show it with a "real" route number
(NY 342), but for some reason it got "demoted".
You may be wondering about Interstate 990 north of Buffalo. This is not
a reference route, nor is it even near this "990V". It is numbered according
to a different numbering system, the US Interstate Highway system.
There has been quite a bit of discussion in the newsgroup misc.transport.road about the short (600')
New York reference route that connects Mass.
102 to NY 22. For some reason several of the online web mapping programs know
this road as "Route 958". It's actually reference route number 980D, as you
can see by the NY tenth mile marker on the right. The Mass. state line and
Mass. route 102 are in back.
Also of interest to road geeks is the
fenced-off area just over the state line. It appears to be some abandoned ramps
from the Mass. Turnpike (which is right of this picture) to Mass. 102 right at
the state line. Possibly left over from before the NY Berkshire Thruway
opened (~1959)?
Sign for Saratoga County Route 1345, also discussed on misc.transport.road, a glaring exception to
the otherwise logically numbered routes of Saratoga County, NY. Two other
exceptions (CR 338 and CR 339) are former state routes with those numbers,
but nobody seems to know how CR 1345 wound up with _that_ number.
This is an old-style town line sign between New Salem and Prescott,
Massachusetts. Only problem is, the town of Prescott hasn't existed for 60
years! (it was taken for the Quabbin Reservoir) The sign is in excellent
shape, I suspect it was recently restored.
A granite monument not far away also marks the former town line.
Traffic light in Bennington, Vermont. The two-high left turn signal just looks
odd to me. The bottom section is a fiber optic unit that lights as a green
arrow, changing to a yellow arrow before the top red arrow comes on.
The roadway over this bridge appears to be in great shape, but has been
abandoned for over 9 years. In 1988, a NY Thruway bridge over the Schoharie
Creek collapsed during a spring flood, killing 10 people and cutting a major
transportation artery. This abandoned railroad bridge nearby was quickly
pressed into service, given a new deck and became the Thruway westbound bridge
over the Schoharie Creek. The NY 5S bridge (the green bridge to the side) was
also appropiated, becoming the eastbound Thruway. The "locals" had to take
the long way for about a year, at least until half the rebuilt Thruway bridge
was opened to eastbound traffic. Then westbound Thruway was switched to the 5S
bridge, route 5S was reconnected temporarily using this bridge. When the rest
of the permanent bridge opened, the old RR bridge was abandoned once again,
except as part of a rail trail.
New York reference route that connects Mass.
102 to NY 22. For some reason several of the online web mapping programs know
this road as "Route 958". It's actually reference route number 980D, as you
can see by the NY tenth mile marker on the right. The Mass. state line and
Mass. route 102 are in back.
A granite monument not far away also marks the former town line.
