Current construction on my route from Seattle to Minneapolis?

[dcliege]

I plan to leave Olympia Friday and take I-90/I-94 to Minneapolis. I've made the trip several times and there's always been summer highway construction, but when I picked up a AAA "trip tic" today it didn't show any current projects. I've been scouring the web for a second source to make sure I can plan my driving time accurately, but no luck yet. Any leads or recommendations?

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

When it comes to road trips, there are two seasons: Winter, and Construction. I have found that Trip Tiks *rarely* show construction projects. There are a few ways to find out about them ahead of time: the most consistent way is for those states that utilize 511 Information. The recorded info you get when you pull into a state along a given freeway or highway, is more up-to-date than anything we can provide. Sometimes the state's transportation website will show construction zones, but more often than not, I've found them to be out of date. Usually hopelessly out of date! But really, all you can plan to do is to find them when you come upon them, allow extra time to get through them, and mutter any disgruntled words that you care to.

What we do is to take our driving MILEAGE for the day (for instance, 330 miles) then divide by 60. That gets to 5 hours and 30 minutes. Averaging 60 mph when the speed limit on the freeway is 75, allows for construction zones, traffic slow-downs, and those stops when you just couldn't seem to get going as fast as you'd thought you would. Add a little extra time for restaurants.


Donna

[Lifemagician]

I've been scouring the web for a second source to make sure I can plan my driving time accurately, ...

When it comes to timing your drive, *accurately* does not even come into the equation. I recall well when my trip was going great, uninterrupted, up I-75. Then, not all that far up ahead there was a fatal accident. Almost 60 mins later we were able to exit the interstate, and the resultant extra traffic on local roads, meant I was two hours behind schedule. That night I stopped two hours short of my intended destination. These are the sort of issues worth building into your plans. Stay flexible enough to be able to adjust the timing to fit in with the circumstances.

Lifey

[Southwest Dave]

You can various resources on this RTA info page including the Federal Highways page.