October 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com
64
Hartman
&
Company
ALTERNATIVE INTER
New designs, such as diverging diamonds, improve
traffi c fl ow, are quicker to construct and can cost
less than traditional interchanges.
U.S.
interchanges are undergoing a design
shift; from the stale, split-phase, head-
to-head confi guration to high-volume,
semi-continuous designs such as diverging diamond
interchanges (DDI) and roundabouts.
Part of the impetus for this is the need to accommo-
date expanding numbers of motorists, as traffi c vol-
umes steadily increase. For the fi rst six months of 2016,
the vehicle miles traveled in the United States reached
a record high of 1.58 trillion miles. That's a staggering
fi gure, and coupled with the fact that existing inter-
changes are more or less landlocked in their position,
highway contractor
|
by Chris Hill
|
ChrisHill@randallreilly.com
