Western Washington snow storm: first plowing in 6 years

[dragoneggs]

See, that's why I like living in Indiana. The very few times that they close a highway, there's always another road open just a mile over. Almost universally, one road every mile, north/south and east/west. 640 acre squares with a road on all 4 sides. Mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile

Thanks Moss, your post has The Who song now stuck in my head... "I can for miles and...

 

[dragoneggs]

That would be nice, it is not that way out here at all. There are only 4 highways in WA from the east to west across the mountains, one of them closes every year and another closes at times. Between Seattle and Portland OR there is only ONE highway. There are side roads but they almost always travel back to the main highway. I do not know why (other than geography) but around here they never grasped the concept in minor arterial. EVERYTHING in an area goes to one road it seems. So one accident fouls up traffic like you would not believe.

Definitely the topography in western Wa... mountains, lakes, rivers, etc. A lot more choices exist in eastern Wa even though there are far less people!

 

[goeduck]

Definitely the topography in western Wa... mountains, lakes, rivers, etc. A lot more choices exist in eastern Wa even though there are far less people!

Very true but take the Portland to Seattle section of I5 as an example, there could be a second freeway, there is plenty of room. Or through JBLM, there is mostly just I5. But we did not get these things done back in the day when things got done. Having sat behind a backup for 3 or 4 hours somewhere around Centerville it is nuts. Or the time we had the floods and you had to over the cascade mountains, go down through Goldendale and up the Columbia to get to Portland. All because I5 and Chehalis was flooded. I know there are some small backroads, but they were jammed as well. Nuts.

 

[Marks481]

Or through JBLM, there is mostly just I5.

And JBLM is why, whenever I travel to Oregon from the Kitsap Peninsula, I take Hwy 3 down through Shelton, and 101 to Olympia.

Seems like I-5 always has a traffic tie-up around Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM).

 

[bcp]

And in the eleven "far west" states, there are only two north-south border-to-border interstate routes.

Bruce

 

[ultrarunner]

And JBLM is why, whenever I travel to Oregon from the Kitsap Peninsula, I take Hwy 3 down through Shelton, and 101 to Olympia.

Seems like I-5 always has a traffic tie-up around Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM).

Very much so with total gridlock often near Dupont...

 

[MossRoad]

This makes it a little more sensible...

 

[ultrarunner]

No route 66, Highway 1, 101 or 99

 

[goeduck]

This makes it a little more sensible...

View attachment 591927

What about the 3 digit intrastate Interstates? :confused3:

 

[Marks481]

And in the eleven "far west" states, there are only two north-south border-to-border interstate routes.

In late December 2003, I was in the process of performing a military permanent change of station move. I was with the in-laws in Oregon, and over Christmas, a snow storm blew in that shut down I-90, I-84, Hwy 20, Hwy 26, I-5 between Oregon and California, I-70.... the list goes on. I kept waiting, hoping for the storm to clear... but it kept getting worse and worse.

I had to report to DC on January 5th... I finally left Portland on 31 December, and drove down to Grants Pass and then over to the coast, and drove down Hwy 101 until just North of San Francisco, and cut over to I-5. Drove down to LA, took I-40 east.

When I filed my voucher for my trip, the Navy (of course) refused to recompense me for the extra 900 miles I had to drive to make it to DC as ordered....