I’m going to take a couple days off from blogging before I end up having to go into rehab for internet addiction. So, please, feel free to use this space to comment on whatever you’d like. I’ll put up a new open thread post each day I’m gone, but nothing else, unless something really dramatic happens to pull me back.
9 thoughts on “Mini-vacation from blogging; Open Thread”
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Though it’s usually easier and more fun to criticize something, or someone, I still marvel every time I drive on the new I-74. From its design to its functionality, to its condition, I think it’s a heckuva public works project. This kind of project should serve us well in getting around our fair environs for years to come as well as serve as an economic development asset.
Seems to be a big stink about Global Warming again! Any comments? How about gun control, abortion, evolution in the classroom, politics…….?
SA –
I agree that $500 million project was long over due, but nice that it finally got here. I still appreciate driving it from one end to the other like a kid with a new toy. Of course it also moves the outsiders right on through here “lickity splitâ€. That reminds me years ago I was returning to Peoria by plane and I’ll never forget the uproar when the captain got on the speaker and said. “Those of you de-boarding we thank you for flying XYZ Airlines. For those passengers continuing on – please stay seated and buckled – we what to get out of here as fast as we can!â€. ^oo^~
Is it too early to say “Well, there’s always next year,” about the Cubs?
I too enjoy driving I-74 through town. I drive a portion of it everyday going to work but the entire stretch from coming down the hill in East Peoria up to past the new Sterling interchange screams “21st Century” like nothing else in the area. The design, with its long on and off ramps, multi-level interchanges and more lanes gives our city a “big city” look and feel to it. When aproaching downtown Peoria in either direction, you can’t beat the combination of the modern freeway, and in the distance a rising skyline!
They really did a super job with the upgrades to I-74. The redesigned ramps are so much better. Pretty impressive . . .
I don’t like the stop lights for the on-off ramps. I much prefer the cloverleaf design that was in use before the upgrade.
The timings for the lights on Sterling are aweful.
Why oh why did they not put a sidewalk on both sides of the University overpass?
Other than that the rest is outstanding. I look forward to the pork barrelled maintenance construction that will ensue in a year or two (speculation that is).
Mahkno,
There wasn’t any room for a clover leaf interchange at Sterling so the long ramps with stoplights at the intersection were built instead. I don’t really care for the stoplights there either as they are spaced too closely. I thought traffic would lessen when the new Rt. 150 interchange ramps opened but Sterling seems just as busy (at times) as before.
No room for a sidewalk on the east side of the University overpass because of the way University greets Nebraska with the retaining wall at Nebraska. I too don’t like the stop lights on the University overpass and those on the Gale Ave overpass. The lights (University overpass) are not timed with Nebraska or Columbia Terr lights and stopping 4 times seems to be a traffic hinderence instead of traffic flow. The Nebraska light seems to favor Nebraska instead of more traveled University but I have found that if one floors it from McClure St heading south and you get it up to 85mph, you can make all the lights through to Main street. 🙂