Man, I can really hate concrete highways

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merlinmurph

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Posts
151
Location
Hopkinton, MA
Just today, we were traveling north on I-81 just south of Wilkes-Barre and hit a stretch of highway that was brutal on our TT. The oscillations were so bad, I was expecting the hitch to break. Concrete s*cks.

Last fall, we hit a similar stretch out west, maybe in SD. It was brutal.

I had to vent. Thanks.
 
take a trip through Oklahoma City on I-40, and I bet you will be loving that last trip down that area you just hated !. some years back when I pulled a trailer through there ?..OMG..i was thankful I did not have dentures ?..otherwise..they would have fell out !. had to be one of the worst high ways I've ever been through/on !.
 
alan6051964 said:
I would also agree, as we all know, 18-wheelers run most of their trips in the right lane, brutal !!..lol.

Most of the traffic is in the right lane. By law in most states, the right lane is for travel and the left lane is for passing only so the right lane is getting beat up.  It's the law in 44 states.
I know someone will question what I just said so here it is:

http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left-lane-passing-laws-a-state-by-state-map
 
Years (and I do mean years) ago, my father and his brother drove Dad's 47 Willys Jeep from Springfield, Mo. to Houston, Tx.  They took Route 66 to Big Cabin, Ok then Hwy 69 down to Atoka where they caught Hwy 75 on down to Houston.  The Jeep's cruising speed was only about 40 mph.  With the short wheelbase of the Jeep and traveling at 40 mph, the concrete section joints seem to set up a harmonic bounce, all the way to Houston.  They had gone down there looking for work.  The trip was so hard on them it took several days before they could manage to start looking for a job.
 
Rene T said:
Most of the traffic is in the right lane. By law in most states, the right lane is for travel and the left lane is for passing only so the right lane is getting beat up.  It's the law in 44 states.
I know someone will question what I just said so here it is:

http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left-lane-passing-laws-a-state-by-state-map
yes, you are correct :). right lane is for travel, left lane for passing, no argument there :).
 
Has anyone had the pleasure of travelling on I-59 from just North of Fort Payne, AL, down to Gadsen, AL?  They have fixed the road (mostly), but when I first started travelling it back in 2007, I have to say it was one of the worst Interstate highways that I'd ever been on.  The 60 mile or so stretch was under construction at that time, and for how long before I started using it.....is unknown to me.  Findally, about a year and a half ago, they have pretty much got it done.  It wasn't unusual to drive the 60 miles (all under the "Road Construction Zone" sign, and see a total of maybe 5 or 6 guys working in that entire distance.  Almost everyone used the left lane and it was just assumed that is where you drove.  If you needed to pass someone, you got over in the right lane, did your pass, put your teeth back in, then merged left again.  Wow!
 
There is nothing wrong with a properly built and maintained concrete road surface.  PROPERLY MAINTAINED.

IT is long lasting, and over all lower in cost than asphalt lasting easily 2-3 times as long.

BUT: First it has to be properly built. Here in the US they tend to go "Cheap" which means the road does not last as long as if they made it a bit ..Er.. Thicker.

And of course we do not properly maintain them, Patch, Patch, Patch, instead of re-do.. WHY. Well... That... Is politics.. a compound word.. made iup of POLY (meaning many) and TICS, which as you know are blood sucking parasites....
 
I know we're digressing a bit here, but Rene brought up the law about left lane passing and right lane travel lane. That is spot on.  Also,  that has been a pet peeve of mine for about as long as I can remember. Just goes up my kazoo when someone is riding the left lane doing 50 ! I noticed that it doesn't happen much down here in the Southeast(since we moved here 4 years ago) like it did in the Northeast. Up there, there appeared to be more people who thought they were entitled and owned the road to drive in whatever lane they wanted and however they wanted. Driving ethics in general (like the rest of society), I believe has gone the way of the albatross.  So too bad for us who try to do right by the guy next to us by staying in the right lane or using our directionals.

Sorry for the rant.
 
I knew our infrastructure was bad, but didn't realize how bad until I started full-timing in a coach.
If the people that appropriate money for building and maintaining their city or state roads had to ride those roads in a motorhome, they would understand how in need of repair they are. Driving those roads in a car with good suspension you will not hear or feel how bad they are like driving over them in a motorhome.
 
I have seen both good and bad concrete highways but even on the best roads the engineers seems to have flunked the course on how to transition onto and off of bridges - short bridges over little streams or just creeks.  I have had more severe shocks on many of those transitions than the roughest concrete road.  When you hit one that should alert you that more will be coming on that particular stretch of road.  JMHO

Bill
 
Merlin spoke of oscillations, which is largely a factor of the expansion gaps between slabs vs the length of the rig. If that's his complaint, maintenance has little to do with it. The size of the concrete slabs is largely dictated by the climate and terrain, i.e. how much the ground moves. In flat, stable regions they can use long slabs with small gaps, but where the temperature swings from freeze to thaw and/or the ground shifts for various reasons, the slabs are made shorter with bigger gaps to accommodate it. That's why those big "expansion plugs" are put between slabs. They set up a rhythmic set of bumps and if the length of your rig is just right (wrong?), a harmonic oscillation can begin that is really annoying. It will be exacerbated if the trailer tongue/pin weight is light because the trailer jerks the tow vehicle more.
 
In 1982, a couple of us volunteered to take a road trip to return our new Mack all wheel drive fire engine to the manufacturer in Elmira, NY for some hydraulic repairs​. Think cement mixer chassis and you'll get an idea of how this beast handles.

All the way up Route 17, the expansion joint spacing was just right to bounce us nearly out of the seats. That truck is still in service, and to this day, I hate driving it!
 
Bill N said:
I have seen both good and bad concrete highways but even on the best roads the engineers seems to have flunked the course on how to transition onto and off of bridges - short bridges over little streams or just creeks.  I have had more severe shocks on many of those transitions than the roughest concrete road.  When you hit one that should alert you that more will be coming on that particular stretch of road.  JMHO

Bill

I just completed a 17 state tour and found the same road/bridge transition problems most anywhere.  It's like the bridge and highway folks work with different blueprints.  Our highway problems are becoming critical and in my opinion are reaching the point of no return.
 
lynnmor said:
Our highway problems are becoming critical and in my opinion are reaching the point of no return.

We haven't spent nearly enough $ on highway infrastructure for the last 20 years. Bridges are becoming unsafe, and roads are rough and need repaving.

As one of the poster said above, I-40 near Oklahoma City is so bad, I though I had a tire failure on my truck and pulled over to the side. Tires were fine, it was just the road.
 
accordionman said:
I noticed that it doesn't happen much down here in the Southeast(since we moved here 4 years ago) like it did in the Northeast.

That's by biggest pet peeve when we go to FL for the winter. In the Lakeland area, they have the most disrespectful drivers that I've ever seen.  I would say that 2 out of 10 drivers drive in the left lane all the time and most are below the speed limit. At least they're not speeding.  :eek: :mad:
 
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