The Midwestern section of I-88 between the Quad Cities and Chicago could be extended in both directions to make I-88 a continuous interstate between Kansas City, MO and the Albany, NY area.

The extension of the Midwestern section of I-88 from the Chicago area to Binghamton would follow approximately this routing:

• I-290 between I-294 and I-90/94
• I-90/94 between I-290 and the I-90/94 split on the south side of Chicago
• I-90 between the I-90/94 split on the south side of Chicago and I-65 in Northwest Indiana
• I-65 between I-90 (Indiana Toll Road) and Merrillville, IN
• Merrillville, IN and Canton, OH along US 30 (including the existing freeway segments of US 30 in Ohio)
• US 62 between Canton, OH and I-80 in the Youngstown, OH area
• I-80 between Youngstown, OH and Mercer, PA
• US 62 between Mercer, PA and Warren, PA
• A new section of highway between Warren, PA and Steamburg, NY
• I-86 between Steamburg, NY and Binghamton, NY

The extension of the Midwestern section of I-88 between the Quad Cities and Downtown Kansas City, MO would follow the routing of the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway.

The section of I-88 in Upstate New York could also be extended further east from the I-88/I-90 interchange in Rotterdam, NY to I-95 in Portsmouth, NH.

What would be the purpose of this? Ohio would oppose it since it would draw off a lot of traffic from the Ohio Turnpike. While US30 has some limited access sections, much of it is still 2-4 lane road. It doesn't really serve any large population centers. People can just go 50-75 miles north to I80 or 50-75 miles south and jump on I70. We need to rebuild the Interstate System that we have now, not add to it with routes that duplicate existing ones.

johns624 wrote:

What would be the purpose of this? Ohio would oppose it since it would draw off a lot of traffic from the Ohio Turnpike. While US30 has some limited access sections, much of it is still 2-4 lane road. It doesn't really serve any large population centers. People can just go 50-75 miles north to I80 or 50-75 miles south and jump on I70. We need to rebuild the Interstate System that we have now, not add to it with routes that duplicate existing ones.

The purpose of the I-88 Chicago to Binghamton extension would be to link the existing I-88 segments in Illinois and Upstate New York and make I-88 a continuous interstate, even though the two existing sections of I-88 are already connected via I-290, I-90, and I-86.

Easy. Just change the road signs. There are plenty of Interstates that have two numbers. It'll save me a lot of money.

Kansas City has been actively exploring highway removal. The odds of gaining support to add another are 0.

johns624 wrote:

Easy. Just change the road signs. There are plenty of Interstates that have two numbers. It'll save me a lot of money.

Exactly. And the KC to Chicago link is utterly pointless, as one can just drive on the CKC expressway to get between these 2 cities.

We don’t need more roads that promote car usage. We need high speed trains and more clean bus service. It is time we move away from so much environmentally unfriendly car usage in the U.S.

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

Let me ask this question -

Do you actually have to commute during rush hour through a major city?

The roads can't handle more Suburbans and F350's - and the congestion is certainly coming back after the virus.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

Agreed, but do we really need to waste money on this?

Pi7472000 wrote:

We don’t need more roads that promote car usage. We need high speed trains and more clean bus service. It is time we move away from so much environmentally unfriendly car usage in the U.S.

No we don't. The GART is an institution. The infrastructure for even a rudimentary HST network would run into the many trillions of dollars.

Tiredofhumanity wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

Let me ask this question -

Do you actually have to commute during rush hour through a major city?

The roads can't handle more Suburbans and F350's - and the congestion is certainly coming back after the virus.

Not commute, but I dread driving thru NYC which I do several times a year. There are 5 lanes each way, 2 on the Merritt and Hutch parkways and 3 on the CT and NE Thruway—been that exact same way for 50+ years. Of course the roads can’t handle the traffic because, despite politicians campaigning on infrastructure, zippo has been done in the NY highway structure for 50+ years. Oh, yes, electronic tolling helped on the Garden State and a new Tappen Zee is great.

Tiredofhumanity wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

Let me ask this question -

Do you actually have to commute during rush hour through a major city?

The roads can't handle more Suburbans and F350's - and the congestion is certainly coming back after the virus.

And who commutes from Kansas City to Binghamton... Hint, cross country highways aren't built simply for people to commute on, they move freight.

The section from Chicagoland to Fort Wayne IN is not that far fetch as there are pushes to upgrade US-30 in Indiana. It will be awhile before any shovel are dig into ground, though.

DiamondFlyer wrote:

Tiredofhumanity wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Buses aren’t replacing cars on these routes, neither will trains.

Let me ask this question -

Do you actually have to commute during rush hour through a major city?

The roads can't handle more Suburbans and F350's - and the congestion is certainly coming back after the virus.

And who commutes from Kansas City to Binghamton... Hint, cross country highways aren't built simply for people to commute on, they move freight.

This...and the fact that existing divided highway that have stoplights are actually a lot more polluting. Throw in all those freight trucks driving on roads that are not exactly designed for freight trucks are just dangerous.

No, building HSRs would not solve the problem either - HSRs are mostly designed to carry pax, not freight. Majority of trains in US carry freights to begin with.

This seems completely superfluous.

strangeplanes wrote:

Kansas City has been actively exploring highway removal. The odds of gaining support to add another are 0.

I've lived in the KC metro area for 30 years and this is news to me. I guarantee there are no such plans on the Kansas side of the border - in fact we just keep building new ones and expanding existing ones. It's like almost non-stop construction on some highway in Johnson County.

With regards to a straight shot from KC to Chicago, I am not sure how many folks travel this route but anything is better than driving I-70 across Mizzery. I-35 to US 36 is certainly an alternate that works for most people.

What this has to do with commercial aviation is beyond me.