Popular Mechanics – The World’s 18 Strangest Roadways

I’m only posting this list because the Dallas High Five comes in at #16:

Background: This five-level marvel of engineering can be found on the outskirts of Dallas, where Interstate 635 connects with U.S. 75. Construction crews, despite the project’s enormous scope, were able to complete the labyrinth of lanes in December 2005, a full year ahead of schedule.

How It’s Unique: As Mahmassani points out, building wider roads is just not feasible in most cities. The solution for Dallas? Go vertical. Certain points of the High Five are as tall as a 12-story building, and about 500,000 commuters pass through it daily. The project required 37 permanent bridges and six temporary bridges to be built. Additionally, 300,000 square feet of retaining wall and 74,000 square feet of drainage pipe run along the interchange. In 2006, the American Public Works Association selected the interchange as one of its “Public Works Projects of the Year.”

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Olapic

Olapic is a Columbia Business School startup that allows users to easily gather, share and print the pictures from a unique event. Olapic provides online and offline support to guarantee that the maximum number of pictures is recovered.

Weddings provide the best example to grasp how Olapic creates value for its customers.

Olapic allows couples to get all the pictures that guests took during their wedding:

  • We provide communication tools (email and cards) that ensure guests will upload their pictures
  • We ensure all pictures remain private until the couple decides to make them public on our site or on their Facebook/Flickr/Picassa accounts
  • We guarantee maximum pictures quality (what guests upload is what you get) and we deliver printing services to generate albums and prints

Link

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