Interstate lane width

[ajhaig]

Does anyone know what the minimum lane width is in interstate construction zones?

Many Thanks.

AJ

[garyde]

One foot less than the width of your Coach!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

AJ, I don't know the answer, but passing through Ohio on I-90 last fall there was a section where we were between concrete barriers for several miles and I doubt if there was 11 feet between them based on how much room it appeared that I had.

I went through a local construction zone many years ago and there was a stretch of cones that must have been 8 feet apart. I knocked every cone down. The construction guy at the end of the cones was not happy. I could have just picked one side or other to knock down, but I admit I had two much fun seeing if I could get both sides at once.

[Kenneth Brewer]

Minimum lane width: Minimum lane width of 12 feet (3.66 m)

[Kenneth Brewer]

Additionally:

Interstate Highway Standards
The Interstate Highway (also known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways) is an expressway in the U.S., which is named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This expressway is 75,440 kilometers long. It was developed under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. In order to ensure that motorists will not have problems while traveling along the highway, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials developed the Interstate Highway standards.

The Standards for Interstate Highway

As implemented in July 2007, the standards are categorized into 14 categories, which include the controlled access, minimum design speed, maximum grade, minimum number of lanes, minimum lane width, shoulder width, pavement sloping, recovery areas and curb slope. The other categories are the vertical clearance, horizontal clearance, bridge strength and tunnel clearance.

The standards for controlled access include the minimum interchange spacing in urban places of 1.6 kilometers and in rural places of 4.8 kilometers. The control of access from nearby properties should extend not less than 30 meters in urban places and 90 meters in rural places.

In terms of the design speed, the minimum in rural areas is 120 kilometers per hour while in urban areas, the minimum is 100 kilometers per hour. In some highways like the Interstate 70, Interstate 291 and Interstate 490, the minimum design speed is 60 kilometers per hour.

The maximum lane number in each direction is not less than two and there should be emergency escape ramps and climbing lanes in some parts of the highway if needed. The minimum width of each lane should be 3.62 meters. The outside shoulder width is 3 meters while the inner shoulder width is 1.2 meters. In rural places, the median width should be 11 meters and in urban areas, it should be 3 meters.

The minimum vertical clearance in urban places should be 4.3 meters and in rural place, it is 4.9 meters. Bridges along the highway should have not less than HS-20 structural capacity. It is also important that bridges have lanes that measure 12 feet. Tunnels along the Interstate should have a width of not less than 13.1 meters. These should have two lanes. Each lane should have a width of 3.6 meters. The outside shoulder of the lanes should measure 3 meters while the inner shoulder should be 1.5 meters. Additionally, it is important that tunnels have safety walkways. These should be found on each side of the tunnel. The walkway should measure .7 meters.

[Pete]

Now for those of us who don't have a meter meter, how many feet and inches is that?

[Kenneth Brewer]

1 meter = 3.2808399 feet

[Kenneth Brewer]

Roughly 11' 7/8" or 12'.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

AJ, did you get another coach? I hope so......

JIM

[Kenneth Brewer]

Since the question was 'in construction zones', I guess the answer is not complete. I would guess that it is eyeball in a lot of cases. I have driven in construction zones where there were concrete barriers placed on one or both sides and if it weren't for the fact that the barriers were concave there would be no room at all for 102 inch vehicles. I know I have been as close to the barrier as 4 to 6 inches on the right, and the tires were on the white line (at maybe 15 to 20 mph), an nobody could pass, and where two 102s side by side would not fit, period, though supposedly there were two lanes. I would think we have all encountered those situations.