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The Highest Point Each Countries Road and Motorway Network

27K views 102 replies 46 participants last post by  Strajder 
#1 · (Edited)
Portugal
Road Network: 1 993m
Motorway Network: 1 070m

UK:

Road Network: 847m
Motorway Network: 439m

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to put "of" between Point and Each
 
#36 ·
Switzerland:
road, Umbail Pass, 2501 m: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrail_Pass
main road, Great St Bernard Tunnel, 1918 m: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_St_Bernard_Tunnel
motorway, A2 Gotthard tunnel, 1150 m~: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A2_motorway_(Switzerland)
funicular railway, Felskinn-Mittelallalin in Saas Fee, 3462 m: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Alpin
railway, Jungfraubahn, 3454 m: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraubahn
non tourism-only railway, Berninabahn, 2253 m: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernina_Railway
ropeway, Klein Matterhorn, 3820 m: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_Matterhorn
 
#39 ·
A little detail about highest point.

In Spain all altitudes are compared with the average sea level at Alicante since a lot of years ago. Sometimes they use two levels... one comparing with Alicante and other comparing with sea at Santander.

There is about 1,5 m of difference in those points (Mediterranean and Atlantic)... but if you find in Spain a level measure is always compared to Alicante (I do not know what about Canary islands, Balearic islands, Ceuta and Melilla...).

In all old stations it appeared a signal like this one informing about altitude

 
#40 ·
Greece

National Roads: Katara Pass 1705m (on NR6) - Pisoderi Pass 1420m (on NR2) - Polymylos Pass 1360m (on NR4) - Vytina Pass 1135m (on NR74) - Artemisia Pass 1024m (on NR82).

Motorways tend to avoid high altitudes by cutting through tunnels. I assume that the highest points should be at about 800 - 900m on quite a lot of points on the A2 between Ioannina and Kozani and around Artemisio Tunnel on the A7.
 
#42 ·
Didn't exist in the 19th century... : Cheers:



Surfing on the web.... at the end of 19th century and for more than 10 years it was calculated the sea level altitude at Alicante thanks to the tide-meter.
Considering the tools they had, precission was very high.

They started to calculate all altitudes always with that reference (end of 19th century) and had been considered official at all.

Using any computering program today we will have similar altitudes than those calculated more than one century ago.


As it can be though, sea level at Atlantic is upper than in Mediterranean (where water evaporation is highest and it is enough to see ocean current at Gibraltar strait).

This is why they chose a new point in the Atlantic for specific meditions... but in any case, all Atlantic cities will be oficially 1,5m over sea level at least!!!.
 
#45 ·
There are no tunnels on M1 in Hungary. The only motorway tunnels in Hungary are on M6.

u/c picture:
A bit earlier aerial photo of the u/c tunnels of M6...

 
#49 ·
The initial option was to build the road trough open cuts of 30-50 metres deep and build longer and higher viaducts. As the soil is silt and clay, that appoach would have had a major impact to the landscape. The cut would have been several hundred meters wide. To create a more esthetic solution, they decided to build those tunnels.
 
#48 ·
In Spain they will never make a tunnel for that type of road.
Furthermore... there are cases when I ask myself why they didn't planned a tunnel somewhere (when more necessary)... and the reason is the cost.
 
#50 ·
Spain: Already said. But according to Google Earth, the E05 only reaches 1440 meters above sea level. AP-6 climbs to about 1290 meters. When completed, E07 will reach 1280 meters.

And as said, the highest paved road in Europe is not the Restefond pass in France (2802 meters), but the Veleta peak (3367 meters). But that is restricted, so Restefond keeps as winner. I know there is a pass on Canary islands at 2300 meters.

And outside my country, I've read that Chinese will build an expressway up to 5100 meters above sea level. Currently they have one at 3800 meters, and roads up to 6000 meters (Maybe highest in the world?).
 
#60 · (Edited)
People's Republic of China:

And outside my country, I've read that Chinese will build an expressway up to 5100 meters above sea level. Currently they have one at 3800 meters, and roads up to 6000 meters (Maybe highest in the world?).
Currently no timetable for the 5100-meter expressway, not in this decade.

Road: 5,433 meters above sea level, China National Highway G219 from Kargilik in Xinjiang to Lhatse in Tibet

Pictures: Building a highway 5,000 meters high (China Daily)

Motorway: 3,650 meters above sea level, Lhasa to Gonggar Airport Expressway (world's highest)

World's highest motorway, connect Lhasa to its international airport, in Tibet, opened in July 2011:





 
#52 ·
Germany:

Highest road *should be* the one leading to Kehlstein (Hitler's Eagle's nest), ca. 1700m, but it is closed to normal traffic and only buses can go up there. This is a picture taken by me at the end of the road (but I did not take the bus, I hiked up there instead):


Highest regular road should be Roßfeld high ring road, ca. 1560 m.

from www.koenigssee.com

Highest motorway is A980 at 947 m:

from geocaching.com
 
#57 ·
^^ Hungary is probably a country which can afford such a things. ;)

It is same as here, just to make motorway more expensive. :bash:

The new government is doing really well, so far they have saved up to about 500 million € on a on going motorway projects comparing to the old government.
 
#61 ·
Andorra: 2.405 in the Valira mountain pass.

Take a look going down to France because at 2350m there is a kart circuit (Can it be the highest in the world?)

Border is at Pas de la Casa. There is a 3 km tunnel down the pass. Both entrances to the tunnel, west and east are at Andorra, but eastern is closed, closed to border to France and the road is prepared to cross a little French territory to go from Pas de la Casa to the rest of the country of Andorra. It could be possible to do without crossing the border, but there are no a lot of space.

Border custom cabins are some kilometres inside France.
 
#70 ·
G219 Xin-Zang Highway: Fully paved since Oct 2013.
Highest point: around 5200m - 5300m at Hongtu Pass (Some said the elevation is 5260m according to GPS while some other claimed it's 5370m)
elevation profile borrowed from Wiki


I drove through this highway in 2010, pictures taken in that trip:
Wow. The record altitude reached ever by a car is not much higher than that. How did the car behave? Did you feel a significant loss of power?
 
#69 ·
Poland:

Highest A-road: A4 Góra Świętej Anny, 386 metres
Highest S-road (motorway standard): S69 @ Aquapark Bielsko-Biała, 410 metres
Highest S-road (non-motorway standard): S69 @ Tunnel Emilia, 678 metres
Highest DK-road (Class GP): DK7 Chabówka, 684 metres
Highest DK-road (Non-Class GP): DK8 Szklarska Poręba, 890 metres
Highest main road: DW960 @ Gubałówka, gm. Bukowina Tatrzańska, 1142 metres
Highest publicly accessible paved road: Przełęcz Karkonoska, 1198 metres
Highest publicly accessible dirt track: Schronisko @ Turbacz, 1280 metres
Highest non-publicly accessible paved road: Morskie Oko, 1410 metres

There are tracks going up higher into the Tatra Mountains, but I'm unsure whether one could get anything bigger than a quad up those...
 
#71 ·
No-one seems to have done Norway:

Dead-end road to Juvasshytta - 1841 m.
Mountain pass: Sognefjellet - 1434 m (also highest numbered road, the fv 55).
National road: Hardangervidda - 1250 m (rv 7)
E road: Haukeli - 1085 m (E134)
Motorway: Don't know, probably E6 somewhere around Kløfta/Jessheim or E16 close to Gardermoen. Roughly 200 m, though.
 
#74 ·
China

G318 Chuan-Zang Highway: Highest point above 5000m
Paved except for few sections where the geographic condition doesn't allow that

Elevation profile borrowed from http://www.lasalvshe.com/


I drove along this highway from Shanghai(0km) until Tingri (around 5215km) where I left it for the base camp of the Mountain Everest. The highway ends at China-Nepal border making it 5476km long.
 
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