Big I
Big I is the name of the
freeway interchange where
I-25 and
I-40 intersect in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico. It is the busiest interchange in the state, handling an average of 300,000 vehicles per day. The Big I was originally built in 1966 as a simple
cloverleaf interchange designed to handle 60,000 vehicles per day. By the late
1990s, however, the it could no longer handle Albuquerque's increasing traffic flows and needed to be replaced. Construction work on a new interchange began in June 2000 and lasted until May 2002. The reconstruction, which was the largest public works project ever undertaken in New Mexico, cost $291 million and took just over three years to complete .
Encyclopedia
Big I is the name of the
freeway interchange where
I-25 and
I-40 intersect in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico. It is the busiest interchange in the state, handling an average of 300,000 vehicles per day. The Big I was originally built in 1966 as a simple
cloverleaf interchange designed to handle 60,000 vehicles per day. By the late
1990s, however, the it could no longer handle Albuquerque's increasing traffic flows and needed to be replaced. Construction work on a new interchange began in June 2000 and lasted until May 2002. The reconstruction, which was the largest public works project ever undertaken in New Mexico, cost $291 million and took just over three years to complete .
The new Big I is a five-level
stack interchange capable of handling 400,000 vehicles per day. It has eight main flyover bridges, which were constructed from 663
concrete segments precast at the site, as well as 47 smaller bridges. The largest flyover bridge, which connects southbound I-25 to eastbound I-40, is 2504 feet long, 85 feet high, and made up of 206 individual concrete segments.
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