Crimson and clover, over and over, it’s Monday Mail.

Clover field

Today’s opening comes from “Crimson and Clover,” a 1968 hit by Tommy James and the Shondells.

Cloverleaf

Today we have responses to a May column on the interchange at Bradley Park Drive and the J.R. Allen Parkway, where a fatal wreck led to re-evaluating of a tight cloverleaf design with little space for traffic moving at very different speeds to merge:

Tim:

I went to school with you and Bobby at Glenwood years (way too many) ago. Hope you all are doing OK.

I read the article about the interchange and the tragic accident and wanted to point out a painfully obvious design flaw that seems to be overlooked by DOT and others.

The westbound “transition area” from the ramp lanes to the main roadway is approximately 750 feet long, while the “transition area” for the eastbound ramp lanes is only approximately 150 feet long. This flaw is hard to fathom, considering the interchange was built when there was nothing but raw land to work with, and the entire right-of-way was donated to the DOT to build the interchange.

Thanks,

William P. Mitchell

Growing Room Inc.

Dear William:

You know, if you hadn’t started off by telling everyone your age, I could have made a joke about your possibly being among the children enrolled at the Growing Room. (“Your English-language skills are incredible! Which pre-K program are you in?”)

Your email reminds me of something my wife’s late father said while nervously peering over the precipitous edge of a rocky mountain road in Montana: “They didn’t waste any dirt on this road.”

They didn’t waste too much asphalt on those cloverleaf ramps.

Cut short

Here’s an email taking on other interchanges:

Tim,

I’ve wondered who designed Georgia’s expressway ramps since my first experience with one in Atlanta in 1967. I was flying down an on-ramp thinking I was in an acceleration lane -- we Californians are so naïve -- when suddenly there was no ramp and a Greyhound bus was nearly climbing up my rear. Then finally Columbus got an interstate and look what they did -- Manchester Expressway on and off ramp. And the reverse slope at exit one....

RJM

Dear RJM:

What’s a reverse slope? Does that mean you have to back off the exit?

That way you could get a better view of what’s racing up behind you, I guess.

Tim Chitwood, tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com, 706-571-8508