Talk:Interstate 26

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Old SR numbers are SR-81 (North Carolina to Erwin), SR-36 (US-19W south of Erwin to Johnson City) and SR-137 (Johnson City to Virginia). [1] shows SR-137 just north of Johnson City. All primary of course. SR-137 may have once continued south from Johnson City? --SPUI (T - C) 11:44, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I lived in that area during the time when it was SR-137. All of the current I-26 between Johnson City and the Wilcox Drive (TN-36) exit in Kingsport were designated TN-137 prior to 1984. In that year, TN-137 was extended four miles, to the West Stone Drive exit in Kingsport, including the addition, was redesignated as US-23. It never extended south of Johnson City as TN-137. It became I-181 several years later, still following the same route, only with the northern terminus extended to the Virginia state line. Jsc1973 (talk) 18:45, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

More TN & SC shields needed

Does anybody want to make more Tennessee and South Carolina shields so they can be added to the exit lists here? DanTD 09:44, 18 October 2006 (EST)

Overhaul

I have overhauled the exit lists for all three states and conformed them to style. I still have some minor work to do on the NC exit list, mainly regarding correcting some of the roads/destinations. --Bdj95 06:04, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Control Cities

Does anyone have access to the latest list of control cities as published by the AASHTO? The only "free" list I could find is here, but it hasn't been updated since 2004. Specifically, we're looking to see if Kingsport and/or Johnson City in Tennessee are listed. Kingsport is a "terminating" city, and should be on the list, but we need confirmation. Also, Johnson City is listed on distance signs on I-26 north (west) of Asheville, but some of these signs predate I-26 to when it was solely designated as US 19-23. Furthermore, parts of the interstate between Asheville and Mars Hill are still not up to interstate standards and are still marked as "Future I-26," so the Johnson City control city distance signs may not be authoritative. ++Arx Fortis (talk) 18:55, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Free being the issue: the last time I looked, the list was published in a book that had to be ordered from AASHTO. Maybe we need to forward this onto the project; hopefully somebody is a student at an engineering school, and the civil engineering may have a copy of that book in the library. —C.Fred (talk) 22:06, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

That page was updated in 2004, yes, but the official list itself is from 2001. I have a copy of the Guide Sign Guidelines document from AASHTO. As far as the correctness of that list for the official cities, it is right. I put a screenshot online. The control cities for I-26 are indeed only Asheville (which they spell wrong), Spartanburg, Columbia, and Charleston. I however cannot find the PDF file itself on my computer right now... --MPD ^{T / C} 00:01, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Found it. It says a new list should be published every five years, but it's been seven, the last update taking eight. So take what you will from the goverment. --MPD ^{T / C} 00:08, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Elevations

Can anyone provide more information about the elevation where I-26 crosses the Eastern Continental Divide? Google Earth indicates that the elevation is 3,821 feet (plus or minus a bit) at the Flag Pond Road exit on the NC-TN border, which I think follows the divide. If this is the correct elevation, then this is (best I can tell) the highest point on an Interstate east of the Mississippi. The article on I-80 identifies it as having the highest such point, and there is a sign on the highway, but, unless I'm wrong by more than 1,500 feet, the I-80 sign and article are wrong.Rks13 (talk) 04:07, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Between 2008 and 2009 I made a dozen or so trips up & down that part of I26, and still have GPS logs of a few. The waypoint with the highest elevation recorded by the GPS is near Sams Gap, less than 1000 ft south of the NC-TN state line and on the southbound carriageway. At 3840 ft, it seems within tolerable range of the Google Earth elevation. The waypoints either side of it come in at 3722 ft (south) and 3782 ft (north).

I cannot place the waypoint in relation to a "Continental Divide" sign, but I'm fairly confident that, right next to the NC state line sign, there's a sign which says that the elevation is 376x ft (not sure about the last digit).

The GPS is WAAS enabled and the elevation is calculated rather than obtained barometrically. I believe the data to be reliable for that time (May 09) but I cannot verify what the vertical accuracy actually was. --Twistlethrop (talk) 16:22, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I looked more carefully at the sign that I think is the source of the claim about I-80, and I'm pretty sure that it is intended to mark the point at which I-80 hits its highest point east of the Mississippi, not to make a claim that this is the highest point on any interstate highway east of the Mississippi. If it was worth noting (incorrectly) the highest point east of the Mississippi on the I-80 articles, does it make sense to add them here? I don't feel strongly either way, and I can't find a definitive source that correctly identifies I-26, although I'm pretty sure that's the answer. Rks13 (talk) 21:20, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

The Eastern Continental Divide on I-26 is at Exit 54, it's at 2,130 feet. However, I-40 is the higher at 2,880 ft at Black Mountain (near mile marker 67); only I-26 and I-40 cross the divide in North Carolina and they are signed. Keep in mind that the Eastern Continental Divide is a separation of water and not a ridge of high mountains. -WashuOtaku (talk) 21:28, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, that's right. As you wrote, I-26 crosses the Divide to the south of Hendersonville NC, by the Crest Rd bridge and between tributaries of the French Broad and Green rivers. In Tennessee, the course of I26 reaches higher elevations but remains entirely west of the Divide. Thanks for pointing that out, Washuotaku. An oversight on my part. Twistlethrop (talk) 19:37, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Breaking I-26 into three state articles

I see that there is a Interstate 26 in South Carolina article, but Tennessee and North Carolina are still together on the main article. Should we go ahead and separate the other two states or should South Carolina join back in the fold and simply have one article for all three states? --WashuOtaku (talk) 00:45, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Given that the exit tables are kind of line-heavy, it makes some sense to split off NC and TN. —C.Fred (talk) 01:29, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

I don't think we need to at this time. Generally, we wait until there's enough material to make a decently-sized article before we go ahead and split it out. --Rschen7754 04:00, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I do have to say your assumption is wrong. Even though this dates back to 2011 when there might not been a lot of info, now there's enough to create the article. But I do want permission and that will be given by Imazadi1976 preferably but any user will do fine.--Ncchild (talk) 01:49, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I actually started work on it a year or so ago, but then got off focus and worked on other pages instead. You can see what I did so far in my sandbox. You don't really need permission to start on it, but because it's an interstate page you may want to use the sandbox (like I did then abandoned) to do a few drafts before posting. --WashuOtaku (talk) 02:32, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Oh yea, if you break-out North Carolina, someone gotta complete the job and do Tennessee too. I'm not saying you should do both, but you can't leave one hangin'. --WashuOtaku (talk) 02:40, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Currently doing NC after receiving permission. Making like NC 133 (currently) but hopefully better. Will do Tennessee afterwards.--Ncchild (talk) 14:08, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Done with the NC segment. Link Here->Interstate 26 in North Carolina--Ncchild (talk) 13:48, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

I've wanted to redo the TN section and put it into the correct order N-S for some time; I had the chance, so went ahead and did it; I didn't intend to step on anybody's toes by doing so.Twistlethrop (talk) 07:39, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Protection Removal

Note that this article has been requested to have its protection removed due to low amounts of vandalism.