Interstate Highway System

Following the atomic holocaust in September 1983, the American Interstate Highway System was severely damaged and would not see any form of maintenance outside of key bridges for over two decades. Traffic jams by those fleeing the cities in the face of starvation, disease, warring gangs, and myriad other concerns clogged the few remaining highways such that by the end of 1983 the approaches to any city were filled with broken down cars while landslides and broken landscapes made many of the highways impassable, especially in the West. While warlord kingdoms and local governments preserved and in a few cases even maintained key segments like the I-70 bridge at Kansas City, the I-57 across the Mississippi, and especially the I-74 bridge at the Quad Cities Alliance, most of the rest was left to the elements and suffered until larger governments could get back on their feet.

In 1997, the emerging Quad Cities Alliance with much of its technology and engineering base miraculously intact, opened an oil refinery scavenged from equipment at the Joilet, Lemont, and Whiting refineries in the Chicago area. They also aided in restoring the Robinson, IL refinery after making contact with Kentucky and beginning the process of 're-civilizing' Illinois though no one government would emerge to claim the area between Little Egypt and Alliance territory. Taking de facto control of much of Southeastern Iowa, Northwestern Illinois, along with parts of Wisconsin and more recently Missouri, the Quad Cities Alliance was able to put enough oil to the refinery to begin re-paving and restoring I-74 and I-57, both to encourage trade in the area and to foster links to Kentucky and other trading partners. An impetus to develop a native concrete industry was felt beneficial as well, more recently their engineers are seen in those areas seeking to restore the Interstate Highway System to its former glory.

By 2000 an idea was floated to restore one east-west segment, 'to promote communication and trade from sea to shining sea'. Government officials from Kentucky, Virginia, Delmarva, the Restored United States, Lincoln, Utah, Oregon, and several other governments met to further the idea. Portland was deemed the first Pacific port for restoration while Norfolk, VA would become the first Atlantic port for restoration with highway branches to reach Philadelphia via old I-285 around Washington DC. From east to west, the restored 'American Highway' would begin with I-64 in Norfolk, move with I-57 to Champaign IL, then I-74 to the Quad Cities, then I-80 to old Salt Lake City, then I-84 to Portland. For over a decade the work continued with a sense of unity imparted as many governments worked together to even partially restore the system, branches soon appeared including restoration of access to just inside the upper Peninsula of Michigan as teams work to upgrade highway 41 and highway 2 to interstate status all the way to Stowe, I-65 connecting with the resettled Nashville area and I-24 connecting back up to I-57 and I-55 for easier access to rural Kentucky, portions of I-40, I-75, I-77, and I-79 for easier access into the Appalachian portions of Kentucky and Virginia, portions of I-15, I-25, I-90, and I-94 for better access into the other parts of the remaining Restored United States (I-90 being completed almost all the way to Seattle as of this writing and may open up as a rival to the rapidly growing Portland [Just west of old Portland but encroaching on the city], whose population already exceeds 50,000), and other sections of I-75 with hopes to connect to Florida as well as I-44 and I-35 to connect Kentucky and Texas. Texas was already restoring parts of I-20 and I-10 on its own but as the state combined it integrated efforts with the new efforts, Pennsylvania is also doing so on a much lesser scale following their unification two years ago. Talk of a 'National Highway Council' is becoming more common, though the evolution of TGV technology from Europe is also of interest as trade resumes.

So far the oil of Texas is moving to the expanded refineries of the Quad Cities, which looks more like Quad States, and it universities attract the best and brightest engineering minds to the University of Illinois - Peoria for training. Most participating nations can now make their own concrete and many have *some* oil refining capacity, but the most interesting spinoff from this is the talk of restoring the old TVA (and other federal) dams to furnish the entire country with potentially clean hydroelectricity. Solar would supplement the remaining needs but it is estimated these dams could run the entire country with surplus to spare for at least the next 40 years. A combined expedition evaluated the key dams along the Colorado River starting with Powell then Hoover then Havasu. Preliminary work on Hoover continues but Powell is already generating power and there is talk of making the desert light up once more, though for now power is carefully routed back East as not to garner the attention of the locals. Mexico has made proposals to buy electricity from the restored dams and revenue-sharing proposals are already under discussion.