
Practical Engineering is a channel I follow on YouTube. The host, Grady, is a brilliant engineer and explainer of things engineered. Consider for instance a video he uploaded yesterday. In it, he talks about the Dallas High Five Interchange.
I have taken that interchange scores of times. My friend Yoga has a home in Allen, TX — a suburb about 30 miles north of Dallas on highway 75.
And there’s a Costco about 10 miles south from Allen on 75 in Plano, TX. Wherever I am in the US, I visit a Costco every week. I get everything from Costco: food, drink, clothes, furniture, fridge, washer/dryer, TV, computers. I even got my most recent car from Costco. As I say, if you can’t get it at Costco, you can do without it.
Also, to go from Allen, TX to Austin, TX, I would have to head south on 75, cross downtown Dallas, and continue south through that interchange. It’s quite an impressive feat of engineering, as you will see in the video “Why Are Texas Interchanges So Tall?”
Here’s a high level map of that interchange:
I’ll be back in Dallas TX in a few months. I will take some videos then and post it here.

Japan: build another train vs. America: build another lane
https://x.com/sam_d_1995/status/1372704855756697602
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Japan is tiny compared to the US. The population density for Japan is 330 inhabitants per sq km; for the US it is 35. The US can afford the road network that Japan cannot. Conversely, because Japan is so densely populated, extensive rail network is economically viable.
For India, an extensive fast rail network makes sense. But of course India’s infrastructure is really poor. That’s a reflection of poor governance. Pity.
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Contiguous US has a slightly higher population density (43/km2). Nearly 2 out of 3 live in the “100 Mile Zone.” — within 100 miles of the borders of mainland US.
https://vividmaps.com/us-population-density/
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Actually, population density of contiguous US is 105/km2 not much different from France and Spain
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oops.. miles vs km confusion.. sorry for spamming here
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Extensive may be. But why fast ? What will Indians do with that saved time ? They happily stand in line (or mob) for 5 hours to exchange their demonetized currency for proper currency. Or visit SBI bank each week to update KYC.
I don’t see why Indian railways have to be “fast”.
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Muricans have families and many children they need to travel with unlike Japanese which is mostly sad single people working 80 hours a week.
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