In part one of this series, we saw examples of highway interchanges known as The Cloverstack, The Lofthouse, and The Butt (see above). In this installment, we’ll examine three way interchanges (think trumpets and T-bones) and see a strange and unique case of “braided” freeways.
The Trumpet - A classic design for an interchange where one highway is ending into another:
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The Double Trumpet - Tends to occur where toll highways are linked by a short segment of roadway. This one is in Belgium:
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T-Bone: Also known as a “semi-directional T,” this is an option where one highway ends into another.
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Directional T - Much like the T-bone, but minus the flyover ramps.
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The Full Y: At a merging point of two highways. There is also a “Partial Y” version, which has a less complete ramp structure than the example below.
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The Whirlpool - Quite similar to the turbine pictured in part 1. This example is in the UK:
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The Braided Cloverleaf - An unusual configuration:
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The Circle - While not an ideal design, sometimes the best option for tight urban spaces. This one is in Chicago:
(Photo)
“The Pure Triangle” - the intersection of highways A5 and A7 in Germany:
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The Volleyball - So named because it looks like the stitching pattern on a volleyball. It is very space efficient but not designed to handle large volumes of traffic. Similar to the lofthouse, but with more of a square shape at the center.
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“The Single Leaf”: A bizarre junction in the Netherlands — serves only one of eight possibilities:
SEE: A FIELD GUIDE TO HIGHWAY INTERCHANGES, PART 1
SEE ALSO: AMERICA’S STREETCAR RENAISSANCE (MAP)
and COMPARISON SHOPPING FOR TRANSIT SYSTEMS (CHART)
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We’ve credited photos when the information has been available. Many are in the public domain. Satellite images from Google maps, Terraserver and Microsoft. If we missed any credits, let us know.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I can’t take no more!
May 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
[...] The Daily Dig What’s A ‘Double Trumpet’? A Field Guide To Freeway Interchanges, Part 2 [...]
May 18th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
[...] + Part 1 + Part 2 [...]
May 19th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Hey,
are you sure that the Double Trumpet is in Belgium?
AFAIK Belgium doesn’t have toll stations except one at the Liefkenshoektunnel near Antwerp. May that Interchange possibly be in France or Spain?
Other than that, great collection of pictures!
Kind regards from Germany,
-dp
May 19th, 2009 at 3:26 am
I’m with Anonymous!
May 19th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Single Leaf … is not.
That particular example seems to serve *two* possibilities. Isn’t that a plain exit serving the “opposite flow” of the cloverleaf? It’s the “opposite corner” from the leaf. It appears to have’s own mini-collector lane (although I’m not clear on why a single exit only would need a collector).
Any chance of a Google Maps link so we can see the context?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Thanks for both part 1 and part 2
May 19th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
In starkville, MS, we used to have a single leaf junction EXActly like that one pictured.
They’ve updated it a smidge, but see for yourself:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=starkville,+mS&sll=35.976805,-78.906843&sspn=0.821272,1.41037&ie=UTF8&ll=33.472815,-88.761442&spn=0.006614,0.011019&t=k&z=17
May 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
There is only one thing that matters, to a driver, about an interchange: can I turn around?
If you’re a driver, you’ve been there: you missed your turn because you couldn’t get in the right lane, the signage was crappy, or you were distracted at just the wrong moment.
So, you are now driving along a strange section of highway, as yet uncharted by you. You drive to the next junction, and go off there, hoping that it’s not one of the total bastard ones that don’t let you turn back on yourself. By the time the junction itself is in sight, you’re already committed to the turn.
And if you’re unlucky, you find yourself forced onto a completely unknown road, driving to the next junction on THAT one, in the hope that you can turn around there.
And if you’re unlucky, you end up on a third road, by now hopelessly lost…
So, fair warning: any highway planner I meet, if I find they have ever in their life planned such a junction, I will punch them in the face.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
“Dumbbell” Interchange–like a diamond, but with one roundabout at each intersection instead of stop signs or traffic signals. There is one in Vail, Colorado (Google Maps takes you straight to it by typing in “Vail, CO”)
May 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
the circle in chicago is so painful to drive. always, ALWAYS backed up.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
don’t forget to dig up a diverging diamond. I believe there is one somewhere in France.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
This doesn’t seem to fit any of your categories. Might I suggest - chaos.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:23 am
@Dewi Morgan
I’d like to punch the person who put road signage so low that it can be blocked by trucks. I ended up on a strange road on the way from Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand in France because all of the signs for the road I should have taken were hidden by a long line of trucks in the right lane.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:34 am
*goes to install Transport Tycoon Deluxe
May 20th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I’ve always wondered about this sort of thing and envied the US and the clean and logical designs they go for, usually because they have the luxury of space and most things are new so they don’t have to consider many existing roads. Here in the UK, our interchanges can be crazy. I never got this one whenever I drove on it, it made no logical sense and the traffic backing up was a nightmare!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Donnington+Park+Circuit,+Castle+Donington,+Isley+cum+Langley,+Leicestershire+DE74+2,+United+Kingdom&sll=52.713835,-2.426605&sspn=0.300329,0.889893&ie=UTF8&cd=2&geocode=FbQVJgMd8_7q_w&split=0&ll=52.855048,-1.297417&spn=0.009666,0.027809&t=k&z=16
May 20th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
This interchange in Toronto is known as The Basketweave.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:13 am
@Dewi Morgan
I totally agree! And from that perspective, turbine and whirlpool look horrible (although they are said to be efficient).
May 21st, 2009 at 11:13 am
[...] The beautiful and terrifying geography we have wrought in the highway [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Of course the British “cloverleafs” are more complicated. They drive on the wrong side of the road.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Try the High 5 Interchange in Dallas, Tx. For the driver it is easy to navigate. At the time it was the largest single highway construction project in the history of the state.
http://maps.google.ca/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.718761,-79.499903&spn=0.013709,0.022552&t=k&z=16
May 27th, 2009 at 11:30 am
[...] the beginning of last week, A Field Guide to Interchanges (part one // part two) on [...]
May 28th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] here recently, becoming immersed in identifying satellite photos of double trumpets and whirlpool exchanges and so on. After seeing our features on the subject, tipster sent sent us these more whimsical [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
what kind of interchange would this be?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Springfield,+Massachusetts&sll=36.456636,-95.712891&sspn=47.698782,66.796875&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FVFvggIdUHCs-w&split=0&t=k&ll=42.136152,-72.626088&spn=0.00545,0.012231&z=17&iwloc=A
June 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
[...] Field Guide to Freeway Interchanges Part 1, Part 2 Posted by mariaoran Filed in Highway Bits ·Tags: I-10/610, infrastructurist, interchange [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:31 am
A good example of a Volleyball is visible at Lee Highway and Fairfax County Parkway in Fairfax, VA.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
enf_kh1: There is a similar example in Poughkeepsie, where US 44 crosses US 9. When I worked in the Poughkeepsie NYSDOT office, we called it the “bowtie” or “bugseye.”
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=poughkeepsie&sll=42.638159,-73.961164&sspn=0.011144,0.018625&ie=UTF8&ll=41.702316,-73.937119&spn=0.005655,0.013379&t=k&z=17&iwloc=A
Here’s another odd one: left-hand entrance and exit ramps converge to a single intersection, rather than a conventional diamond:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sprain+brook+pkwy&sll=42.708678,-73.783493&sspn=0.089054,0.149002&ie=UTF8&ll=41.123178,-73.81032&spn=0.002853,0.006689&t=k&z=18
July 13th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
My favorite whirlpool is in Albany, NY, down the hill from the state capital:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=12201&sll=42.638159,-73.961164&sspn=0.009771,0.011845&ie=UTF8&ll=42.644195,-73.750373&spn=0.004885,0.009989&t=k&z=17&iwloc=A
July 26th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Highway Engineer Pranks:
http://xkcd.com/253/
July 28th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
looks like that single leaf serves 2 of 8–there’s a ramp at the top of the pic.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:46 am
There’s always my favorite, the Mixmaster in Waterbury, CT:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=waterbury+ct&sll=41.55076,-73.050842&sspn=0.011931,0.019248&g=plainville+ct&ie=UTF8&ll=41.552815,-73.049898&spn=0.011931,0.02738&t=k&z=16
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
They’re building a diverging diamond in American Fork, UT: http://www.udot.utah.gov/pioneer/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core%3ADownloadItem&g2_itemId=240
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
A circle within a circle, near Asbury Park, NJ:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=asbury+park+NJ&sll=41.123784,-73.810176&sspn=0.005973,0.013937&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Asbury+Park,+Monmouth,+New+Jersey&ll=40.225786,-74.036999&spn=0.003027,0.006968&t=h&z=18
November 18th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Volleyballs aren’t named because of the stitching pattern. This explains it more:
http://www.kurumi.com/roads/interchanges/volleyball.html
Besides, it doesn’t even look like the stitching pattern.