Rough Road

[rickeieio]

Today we had the pleasure of enduring a truly dreadful road, I-10 east bound out of San Antonio, TX.  Until today, I would have nominated I-65 south of Louisville, KY for the worst road, but this is far worse.  Mind you, we drove our rig to Alaska.  That's a piece of cake compared to this stretch.  Thankfully, it only lasted about 30 miles, but holy cow, it was bad.

[spindrift]

Even pot holes are bigger in Texas.

 

 

 

[durangodon]

Not surprising.  No two States combined have as many lane miles of highway as Texas, except California which has less than 60% of that in Texas.  https://blog.cubitplanning.com/2010/02/road-miles-by-state/  If you only found 30 miles of bad stuff, that's pretty good.

In my travels west of the Mississippi, I found several stretches of bad road.  The three worst were IH30 in Arkansas, IH80 west out of Truckee in California, and in my home State of Colorado IH25 from Trinidad to Pueblo.  It's my understanding that all three have since been improved.

IH10 in Louisiana used to get a lot of complaints on this forum, don't know if it's been improved or not.  Overall, I found the highways in the US to be in pretty good shape, considering how many miles are put on them.

[rickeieio]

Miles per state has little bearing on the funding.  The feds hand out the money based on miles, thus low population states like Montana get proportional funding.

We drove I-30 in several times in the past three years, most recently in January,  east to west, and it's no worse than most other roads.  But this stretch of I-10 was exceptionally rough.  It's under construction, and where the temporary surface has been laid, it seems it was done haphazardly.

We'll drive I-10 through Louisiana over the next few days, west-east.  In the past, we've driven it the other way and found some short rough stretches, but that was 6-7 years ago.

[spindrift]

I award the Worst Section of Interstate to I-20 through Shreveport, LA. After that stretch, you need to stop and check lug nuts, engine mounts, shoe laces and belt buckles.

Edited March 9, 2023 by spindrift

[Deezl Smoke]

 Oh how easy it would be, and how bad I want to, but I shall refrain from taking this to the political dark side.😂

 It seems that with so many exiting certain states and moving to certain states, the infrastructure is difficult to keep up when labor and approvals are in short supply.

 Here, in the Portland Oregon area, we have studded tire grooves deep enough to loose a smart car.

[spindrift]

9 minutes ago, Deezl Smoke said:

 Oh how easy it would be, and how bad I want to, but I shall refrain from taking this to the political dark side.😂

 It seems that with so many exiting certain states and moving to certain states, the infrastructure is difficult to keep up when labor and approvals are in short supply.

 Here, in the Portland Oregon area, we have studded tire grooves deep enough to loose a smart car.

Move to Eastern Oregon where soon enough you may become an Idahoan.  You won't have to worry about grooved highways.  😄

[Vegas Teacher]

16 hours ago, rickeieio said:

Today we had the pleasure of enduring a truly dreadful road, I-10 east bound out of San Antonio, TX.  Until today, I would have nominated I-65 south of Louisville, KY for the worst road, but this is far worse.  Mind you, we drove our rig to Alaska.  That's a piece of cake compared to this stretch.  Thankfully, it only lasted about 30 miles, but holy cow, it was bad.

I agree I drove that road when I picked up the semi, many moons ago with Vegas Flyer, it is bumpy and miserable, especially bobtail. The only piece of road worse is I 40 in Arizona, eastbound into Flagstaff.

Later,

Vegas Teacher - Cory Ossana

[Deezl Smoke]

5 hours ago, spindrift said:

Move to Eastern Oregon where soon enough you may become an Idahoan.  You won't have to worry about grooved highways.  😄

 I own a small 20 acre piece in Christmas Valley. 31 is not doing well, but all the small highways over there are in good condition.

[Sculptor]

14 hours ago, rickeieio said:

We'll drive I-10 through Louisiana over the next few days, west-east.  In the past, we've driven it the other way and found some short rough stretches, but that was 6-7 years ago.

We just missed you Rick.  We were in Livingston Monday thru this morning. Hope your ride gets better.

[Danfreda1]

We just drove east from benson Arizona on 10 and it was rough and rutted most of the way to El Paso Texas. A lot of road work in ElPaso. After El Paso it was all concrete highway, flat and smooth, no ruts. Stopped in Van Horn tonight. about 120 miles on 10 tomorrow then the good relaxing 2 lane highway. 

[jenandjon]

When we were exploring around western Nebraska I took this road because it has a few large farms on in and I wanted to be nosey. We stayed the night at Big Springs then went west a little bit on I80 then north on 27 to highway 30. That little stretch of 27 was the worst road I've ever been on. Its an official state highway but I couldn't drive over 45. When we got to the end I crawled under the trailer to make sure I didn't break any springs. 

[rickeieio]

So, I-10 through Louisiana itself is okay, but the traffic through Baton Rouge was ugly. Poor traffic patterns compounded by rush hour and line jumpers. We should have gotten through about 1:00 but got held up by a wreck. 

[Danfreda1]

State hwy 190 in Texas from 10 to Menard Texas is not bad, very hilly and beautiful views. 2 lane all the way a couple rough patches but an easy drive. Going to drive 29,79 and 190 tomorrow 

[trimster]

Holy crap. I-20 around Shreveport west bound is shit. It beat us up bad. Full seat extension for 30 min. 

Guess my newbie welding on the bed is good 'nuff. Nothing is falling off. Battle tested.

[rickeieio]

25 minutes ago, trimster said:

Guess my newbie welding on the bed is good 'nuff.

Are you saying you have some "farmer welds"  A bit rough, but strong enough?  You don't give yourself enough credit.