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I-40 is an interesting case. It hits the ocean in Wilmington NC, but doesn't make it to the coast in California, ending in Barstow. The completionist in me says
by chiph 10y ago
I-40 is an interesting case. It hits the ocean in Wilmington NC, but doesn't make it to the coast in California, ending in Barstow. The completionist in me says that it ought to continue through Palmdale to Ventura.
Until a few years ago, it wasn't contiguous. There was a gap in Memphis where the locals objected to its completion because the traffic noise would have disturbed the animals at the zoo. So the northern part of I-240 was signed to include I-40, finally linking the two halves together.
- Sanddancer 10y agoCaltrans has a long-term plan to get I-40 extended to Bakersfield. It's probably not going to ever quite hit the ocean because the Coast Range west of there is pretty rugged, and the traffic continuing through is pretty minimal.
- jedberg 10y agoI agree with you on that one. I debated whether to count it as going from one extreme to the other since it stops about 150 miles short of the ocean, but I figured since it gets you most of the way, might as well count it.
- amyjess 10y ago> There was a gap in Memphis where the locals objected to its completion because the traffic noise would have disturbed the animals at the zoo. A bigger reason is that the road would have run straight through Overton Park and required that the entire park be destroyed. People like Overton Park, and the protests over that got the project cancelled. In fact, they actually built the road east of Overton Park, but they stopped there when the protests started. What was intended to be I-40 is now called Sam Cooper Blvd. If you look at Google Maps, you'll see that the gap between the end of I-40 on the west side and the beginning of Sam Cooper basically just consists of Overton Park and a few blocks in each direction.