In rural parts of the US you can abandoned bridges and roads,that came about over the years as new roads were built. They're often near their replacement so it's fascinating look at how roads change over time. Are there similar relics from the automobile age where you live?


The National Road near the Illinois-Indiana border it was one the first federal roads projects. Built in early 1800's from Maryland to Illinois, when the US Highway system was created in 1926 it became part of US 40. An aerial view gives so the history of highway development in the US, the current US 40 built in 30's, with it's replacement I-70 meant nearby

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/4086634134_b061d18684_b.jpg

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=terre+haute&oe=&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Terre+Haute,+Vigo,+Indiana&gl=us&t=h&ll=39.423763,-87.577858&spn=0.008122,0.02105&z=16






Former US 41 bridge Hazelton, Indiana
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4231898054_7de9d739af_b.jpg




Old Silent Shade Bridge Montgomery, Mississippi

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2662/3760036823_eef60652ce_b.jpg








One the more famous abandoned roads is 13 mile former part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Breezewood, PA. Opened in 1940, the PA Turnpike was the first freeway in the US, but the four lane road had the two lane tunnels by late the 50's that were congested. Some of the tunnels were twinned, but around Breezewood the decision was for bypass of two tunnels(Sideling Hill and Rays Hill) and a travel plaza opened to traffic in 1968.

The Sideling Hill Tunnel
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_YUdY70I6ykk/SwIfYn3DbcI/AAAAAAAABfw/Owq7DKODEPM/IMG_1064.JPG


jPfIlDvqiUw

Excellent idea for a thread, I love the pictures you posted.

Unfortunately I don't think we have anything like this in our tiny and densely populated country. Unless you count old Roman roads but those aren't exactly "relics from the automobile age" as you so poetically described them.

^^^We have some small parts never finished highways and abandoned bridges here in Belgium I guess, I'll find out :)

Edit:
Bridge near Haseelt on the N702 Expressway between Hasselt-Genk. Build (1972) but never used.

http://wernermaes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tuikabelbrug_godsheide.jpg
http://wernermaes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tuikabelbrug_godsheide.jpg

http://members.home.nl/cr-corporation/images/velo/godsheide.jpg
http://members.home.nl/cr-corporation/images/velo/godsheide.jpg

Near Strépy-Bracquegnies there is a bridge and road that was build but never used.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/ViaducInutile.jpg/797px-ViaducInutile.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/ViaducInutile.jpg/797px-ViaducInutile.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/215695_10150153711118183_777683182_6688498_2260842_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/215695_10150153711118183_777683182_6688498_2260842_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/221834_10150159758288183_777683182_6735853
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/221834_10150159758288183_777683182_6735853

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/207140_10150153711338183_777683182_6688500_7387513_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/207140_10150153711338183_777683182_6688500_7387513_n.jpg

In rural parts of the US you can abandoned bridges and roads,that came about over the years as new roads were built. They're often near their replacement so it's fascinating look at how roads change over time. Are there similar relics from the automobile age where you live?

The National Road near the Illinois-Indiana border it was one the first federal roads projects. Built in early 1800's from Maryland to Illinois, when the US Highway system was created in 1926 it became part of US 40. An aerial view gives so the history of highway development in the US, the current US 40 built in 30's, with it's replacement I-70 meant nearby

....

One the more famous abandoned roads is 13 mile former part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Breezewood, PA. Opened in 1940, the PA Turnpike was the first freeway in the US, but the four lane road had the two lane tunnels by late the 50's that were congested. Some of the tunnels were twinned, but around Breezewood the decision was for bypass of two tunnels(Sideling Hill and Rays Hill) and a travel plaza that opened in 1968.



Nice pics. I mean no disrespect to you (or the Turnpike, which I actually rather like) but I have to quibble with the idea that the Pennsylvania Turnpike's the first freeway in the U.S.; first long-distance, inter-city, whatever term you prefer, freeway, yes (at least that I can think of), but there was a lot going on in the New York area during the 30s and even the late 20s. Not up to current standards perhaps, but I'd consider them freeways/expressways* today.

30 years ago in my local library, I came across a fascinating book called "US 40," by someone named George Stewart, if memory serves. Published around 1950. He follows it from end to end and gives us a lot of the history you alluded to...pictures of old stagecoach stops in Ohio, spanking-new divided highways in Indiana, and the like....

There's an article in today's Newark Star-Ledger (I'm at my parents' and they get the paper) about what's apparently the last covered bridge in New Jersey still in use. I don't know exactly where it is, but judging from details in the article I must have passed very close to it yesterday. Are covered bridges a North American phenomenon?

Here's the article: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/new_jerseys_only_covered_bridg.html


*Just to pre-empt any argument about this, I'm using the term "expressway" in the way Northeasterners use it - interchangeably (so to speak) with "freeway." And I still find it odd to call a toll road a "freeway," although the idea I got into my head decades ago about freeways being so called because they were toll-free is apparently mistaken.

Ham, Bridges for a railway line and connection of the N74 to the E313, never used.

http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0067.jpg?w=450
http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0067.jpg?w=450

http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/brug.jpg?w=450
http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/brug.jpg?w=450

http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0114.jpg?w=450
http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0114.jpg?w=450

http://http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lilii.jpg?w=450
http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lilii.jpg?w=450

http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0128.jpg?w=450
http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0128.jpg?w=450

In NL there are not much abondoned highways, which heve not been completely teared down. This (http://maps.google.nl/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=nl&geocode=&q=&aq=&sll=52.384192,4.65168&sspn=0.157583,0.439453&ie=UTF8&ll=52.371337,4.714349&spn=0.001231,0.002411&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=52.371337,4.714349&panoid=L1B8ZJsw9Dl2y_TXVGBHfg&cbp=12,128.03,,3,3.39) is one of them. Opened in 1967 to traffic, this roadway had already been abandoned in 1974. From that moment on it could survive because of the fact it could be used as an outdoor storage. Mostly everything not being in use is being removed in NL. Very old abandoned, rusty bridges: I don't know them...

^^
Can you post links to Google aerial images of these?

Thanx!

:cheers1:

Mike

There is a nice abandoned bridge a couple of miles from here, a stone one which was built over the river in 1774 as part of one of Britain's major coach highways of the time (and a major Roman road before that, Iter II). It was replaced in 1929 by another adjacent stone bridge as it was considered too weak for the motor traffic which was starting to become common then.

The old bridge still stands there, you can walk across it but its just grass and gravel where the road surface used to be.

I'll see if I can find a decent picture

Everything around Pripyat and Cernobyl is abandoned:

Small illustration:

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/367img/image11.3.jpg

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/367img/image12.3.jpg

^^^We have some small parts never finished highways and abandoned bridges here in Belgium I guess, I'll find out :)

Edit:
Bridge near Haseelt on the N702 Expressway between Hasselt-Genk. Build (1972) but never used.

http://wernermaes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tuikabelbrug_godsheide.jpg
http://wernermaes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tuikabelbrug_godsheide.jpg

http://members.home.nl/cr-corporation/images/velo/godsheide.jpg
http://members.home.nl/cr-corporation/images/velo/godsheide.jpg

How could they build such a beautiful bridge and never use it? :bash:

Here's a section of the original Trans Canada Highway over the Savona/Six Mile Hill, west of Kamloops that I drove a while ago. The current alignment passes to the north around the bluffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoGpZGyz8LY

Also a drive over the old Okanagan Lake bridge, which was removed after the W.R. Bennett Bridge opened to traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dSYNKIRMw

The viaduct section for Western Distributor in Sydney has a lower deck that was never used.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sydney&aq=&sll=-25.335448,135.745076&sspn=62.858164,89.560547&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sydney+New+South+Wales&ll=-33.865498,151.203251&spn=0.003546,0.005466&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=-33.865441,151.203225&panoid=8SbdbeSYW5eNaGEiPunrbw&cbp=12,148.65,,0,-3

How could they build such a beautiful bridge and never use it? :bash:
100% Agreed, what a waste of taxpayer money and resources. :ohno:

Yes, seems stupid. Why not make it into a local street?

Anyways, there are few examples of that in the US I can think of. Except for tiny stubs and unused interchange ramps designed to connect to something that was never built

But there is one in Baltimore, the failed I-70 segment known as the Franklin-Mulberry Expressway which is not technically abandoned yet but is so unused that its been closed indefinitely for a minor construction project since 2010. Here is an interesting article: http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/02/01/highway-to-nowhere-shut-down-and-baltimore-doesnt-notice/ Basically, its so useless that closing it hasn't caused any traffic or complaints from drivers.

Never finished expressway in Bangkok
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8955/h1nj8.jpg
http://www.hflight.net/blahdocs/uploads/hopebuild_7421.jpg
http://www.hflight.net/blahdocs/uploads/sports_1877.jpg
http://topicstock.pantip.com/wahkor/topicstock/2009/05/X7828660/X7828660-7.jpg
http://topicstock.pantip.com/wahkor/topicstock/2008/02/X6346186/X6346186-3.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/th/thumb/2/2c/Hopewell.gif/800px-Hopewell.gif
http://topicstock.pantip.com/wahkor/topicstock/2009/05/X7828660/X7828660-5.jpg

This part of Interstate 44 was abandoned outside of Tulsa.

Aerial view
http://goo.gl/maps/f4y8



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3630/3477964365_1b03c5f2f0_o.jpg


Another from the National Road an old Illinois state highway marker
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2883074591_64c9e6117a_b.jpg

A 3.3km section of old SS76 in central Italy, near my hometown, was replaced by a series of tunnels back in the '70s. The road passed through a gorge called Gola della Rossa (Gorge of the Red One):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_C7Hcb2-Z2j0/Tbbp63zRJKI/AAAAAAAAFwQ/85pnKWUn_2o/s640/11072010654.jpg

And this is (what's left of) the road:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_C7Hcb2-Z2j0/TbbqAd6I8vI/AAAAAAAAFwY/gt2gkEEn67Q/s640/11072010656.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_C7Hcb2-Z2j0/TbbqGpB4XwI/AAAAAAAAFwg/XqMqK3-SLkQ/s640/11072010658.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_C7Hcb2-Z2j0/TbbqZv3LrRI/AAAAAAAAFw4/28EvlvvXhK0/s640/11072010665.jpg

In this picture you can see the Esino river which formed the gorge and the remains of the old medieval bridge, which still gives the name to the site (Ponte Chiaradovo - Egg white bridge) and was destroyed during WWII.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_C7Hcb2-Z2j0/TbbqYCI23NI/AAAAAAAAFw0/UgGCOIWS0XU/s640/11072010663.jpg

Yes, seems stupid. Why not make it into a local street?
I did find this one on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.939041,5.401046&spn=0.007856,0.021973&t=k&z=16

From the looks of it, it is in use as a local road.

Mike

After viewing a motorway interchange recommended by another user on another thread (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=76714165&postcount=5336) I was looking around that point when I discovered this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Birmingham,+AL&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.259599,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Birmingham,+Jefferson,+Alabama&t=h&ll=33.581018,-86.842461&spn=0.039042,0.077162&z=14). Looks like a built but never completed end of I-22.

^^Someone local can correct me, but I think that's less a case of an abandoned (or "never completed") road than a "not yet completed" road. I-22's fairly new - not marked yet as far as I know - and that interchange with 65 will be one of the last pieces. I assume the intent is to finish it sooner rather than later.

You can use the bridge to jump off :lol:

After viewing a motorway interchange recommended by another user on another thread (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=76714165&postcount=5336) I was looking around that point when I discovered this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Birmingham,+AL&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.259599,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Birmingham,+Jefferson,+Alabama&t=h&ll=33.581018,-86.842461&spn=0.039042,0.077162&z=14). Looks like a built but never completed end of I-22.

That interchange is under construction now Freeway Jim just vid through Birmingham. Got to 4:20

ytY54sjU3yw

http://www.strecke46.de/ (mostly in german, but try a translation)

site about the never completed "Reichsautobahn" Bad Hersfeld-Würzburg. Routing was severly changed after WW II, but we can call it the partly grandma of nowadays german A7.

In my hometown an abandonned railway bridge was converted recently into a road bridge, so it added a 5th road bridge over the river in my hometown. It was quite convenient for the authorities to already have a bridge at their disposal without having to build it. I should take a picture next time I'm there.

Lika county, Croatia:
During the 70's, a highway from Zagreb to Split (via Bihać) was planned (it was called "Savkin autoput" after Savka Dabčević Kučar, president of the Central commitee of the communist union of Croatia) and construction started on section between Tiškovac and Kaldrma. But those were times when it wasn't politically desirable to connect 2 biggest cities in Croatia as part of Yugoslavia, so suddenly all the works had been stopped. The facts about the construction and withdrawal of the money are vaguely known.

Today there is some 10 km long section of macadam road which follows the CRO-BIH border (there's also an abandoned railroad), few tunnel portals and water canals can be seen.
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1694/savkinautoput1.jpg
photo by Lugar, panoramio

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/9991/savkinautoput2.jpg
by Dr Ndoje, panoramio

tunnel:
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=44.2610141&lon=16.1965942&z=18&l=0&m=s

another tunnel portal and a notch in the hill:
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=44.2503098&lon=16.2082028&z=17&l=0&m=s

After viewing a motorway interchange recommended by another user on another thread (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=76714165&postcount=5336) I was looking around that point when I discovered this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Birmingham,+AL&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.259599,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Birmingham,+Jefferson,+Alabama&t=h&ll=33.581018,-86.842461&spn=0.039042,0.077162&z=14). Looks like a built but never completed end of I-22.
Never completed? It's actively under construction and may be scheduled to open this fall (IMHO, likelier fall 2012).

Mike

http://www.strecke46.de/ (mostly in german, but try a translation)

site about the never completed "Reichsautobahn" Bad Hersfeld-Würzburg. Routing was severly changed after WW II, but we can call it the partly grandma of nowadays german A7.
There are also visible abandoned grades, one running eastward from the A7/A44 interchange at Kassel:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.256436,9.579649&spn=0.015604,0.043945&t=k&z=15
(That's Vollmarshausen at the upper left)
Is this grade being used to complete the A44 to the A4 at Wommen?

Also, along the A2 just southeast of Hamm:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.640314,7.900286&spn=0.015474,0.043945&t=k&z=15
The never-completed grade is traceable for several km to the east-southeast. Where was this one planned to go?

Mike

There's an existing thread on this topic with some really good pictures and maps.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=541809&page=11&highlight=abandoned+motorways

Never completed? It's actively under construction and may be scheduled to open this fall (IMHO, likelier fall 2012).

Mike

Hi Mike!

I didn't know the anything about I-22 construction works. I was just looking on google maps and there it looks like I-22 stops few hundred meters before I-65, without any construction works to be seen.

We don't have such things in the Netherlands. The Dutch public workers have an obsession for managing this country into the most extreme details, so unused stuff is likely to be demolished pretty fast.

The A4232 in Cardiff Bay stops abruptly at the roundabout in the bottom left after emerging from the Bute tunnel. There's been plans to extend the link though the random looking roundabout on the right, through the docks and up to meet the A48 but nothing ever seems to materialize.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/Exethalion/0bb31b0b.jpg

The A4174 Ring Road in Bristol is bizarre. For a long time the only complete sections were from the future MoD site to the M32 and a little towards Downend. There was also this dual carriageway section even with a grade separated junction, whcih just runs into a roundabout and a single road to a council estate and industrial park.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/Exethalion/226e35c1.jpg

You can see where this section was originally intended to go. The green space now has a nursing home built on top.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/Exethalion/06120e92.jpg

Let's look at the awful general picture of the "Ring" road. Yellow is the oldest original built section, probably made at the same time as the council estates. Most of the Red section was built in the early 00's. The two cant be linked with upgrading existing roads because of the density of housing and development. This makes the Bath Road (the green A road linking the two halves) an absolute nightmare for traffic.

Dotted Blue is proposed extensions of the Ring road. They either run through fields (pissing off treehuggers) or through dense housing. In an ideal world the full ring road would link together the airport, Long Ashton and Brislington Park & Rides, the M32, A38, A4, A37, Gloucester Road and MoD. But with Bristol's incompetent city council I bet this pathetic "quarter-ring" road will be what we're left with.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/Exethalion/72edfce3.jpg

On the Passo Gavia in Italy you can find a few sections of the old road,i dont have any pictures now but i was there a few times

Hi Mike!

I didn't know the anything about I-22 construction works. I was just looking on google maps and there it looks like I-22 stops few hundred meters before I-65, without any construction works to be seen.
Well, the most recent 'completion' on I-22 had the section up to the very last crossroad interchange before I-65 opening a couple of years ago. I'm not sure why that last part was put off until now, but it was likely related to funding.

Mike