I-240/35 Interchange - Closer to Killing Someone

[venture]

Obviously since the traffic pattern was changed with I-240 EB to I-35 SB traffic having to yield to merging traffic, the portion of I-240 EB just passed Shields has been known for the daily wreck. Today? Seven car pile up this afternoon with a couple people seriously injured.

Nice job ODOT. I can't wait to see their spokesman on TV talking about it once someone finally gets killed. Shouldn't be far off now.

[ssandedoc]

Ya we really need I-240 & I-35 revamped plus I-35 & I-44 horrible, horrible interchanges.

[MrZ]

I see wrecks there pretty much daily. That whole area is scary and it always seems like the worst drivers in town are passing through when I am going by there.

[BG918]

I see wrecks there pretty much daily. That whole area is scary and it always seems like the worst drivers in town are passing through when I am going by there.

That is why I avoid that interchange, opting to go 44 to 235 instead. I've seen far too many wrecks to risk my life there again. The design of the interchange is partly at fault but it's also the drivers who don't slow down.

[zrfdude]

I think ODOT switched the yield because there is far more traffic coming from 240 EB than WB, and the WB traffic would never find a break to get onto 35. They've got that sign up warning people of the congestion, but clearly people are too distracted to see it. I wish they would have done when they widened 35 what they did to the 235/44 interchange, where there are seperate entrances to 44 WB from 235 and the BWX. Seems like a real simple solution to this problem until they reconstruct the whole thing.

[Tom Elmore]

More inexplicable stuff from ODOT.

For many months now, the daily "rear-enders" go on and on at the I-35 exit from eastbound I-240.

It'd be very interesting to know just how many such accidents have occurred there over the last year.

They need to move the yield signs back to their original positions -- where they were from the time the interchange was first constructed.

Current positioning of the signs is simply untenable -- forcing drivers on the southbound I-35 ramp from eastbound I-240 to slow down, crane their necks around to see what's coming on the I-35 parallel ramp from under the I-240 overpass -- risking getting hit by traffic behind them.

As originally designed, with the yield sign against traffic from the westbound side, traffic coming under the underpass had to yield -- but had a clear, unobstructed view of conflicting traffic coming down the ramp from eastbound I-240.

I've tried to talk to ODOT's Dave Streb about it. All he will say is "don't worry about it, because we're gonna rebuild the entire interchange."

Wrong answer.

This is just one more example of the inexplicably detached attitude of ODOT. "What's a few dozen wrecks every week?"

TOM ELMORE

[UnFrSaKn]

I take that interchange every single day. No wreck yet so far. But I do see them once in a while right there. I get off at 1 or 2 pm though so I miss most of the traffic.

[dismayed]

Isn't the real problem probably the fact that there is no merge lane, it's just an instant merge point.

[venture]

Well the big issues are...

1) You have traffic from Shields onto 240 EB that is coming into the lane that is exit only for 35 SB. So now you have people trying to dart out in front of traffic to get into the middle lane to stay on 240 EB.

2) Traffic going to 35 SB from 240 EB has to yield to traffic from 240 WB to 35 SB. More often than not traffic is stopped.

They did a good job adding another lane to allow traffic to merge onto 35, but the problem isn't really the traffic on 35 - its the traffic on that exit ramp.

How to fix it now?

Shields to EB 240 traffic needs to be diverted.

240 WB traffic to 35 needs to be merged in on I-35 faster, and a separate lane for 240 EB traffic.

Yeah, easier said than done...but it may require them to tear that boundary wall down to allow traffic to merge faster.

[lasomeday]

I had a wreck there going East on 240 getting onto I35 south. There was no traffic. It was barely raining and I was going about 35 and I hydroplaned and hit one of those lightpoles. Its not there anymore.

All of the cars stopping there has an oily deposit on the ground there making it a mess on rainy days and unsafe!

[slick]

I hate sitting in traffic and dealing with accident prone areas like I-240/I-35 interchange, so I take alternate routes to get around it. Like Shields or Sante Fe or Eastern depending on where I am on 240. Re-routing a couple miles is way better than adding risk of an accident.

And don't get me started on ODOT and there "great" decisions regarding our interstates.

[ShiroiHikari]

I've started avoiding the interchange altogether when I go that way. I exit Shields and take the service road until the next I-35 ramp (I think it's around SE 89th). Takes a couple extra minutes but it's worth avoiding that death trap they call an "interchange".