[USA] United States Non-Interstate Roads and Highways

[EricIsHim]

Originally Posted by 10ROT

Here in Connecticut, a large percentage of the expressways are non-Interstate.

The main non-interstate expressways here, in black. They generally are the same as the Interstate Highways, except that they are narrower and for the most part, not built for interstate standards.

There a lot other small sections of expressway standard state road in the state:
Super 7 in Norwalk
Route 34 Connector in New Haven
Route 6 Expressway in Willimantic
Route 2A Expressway in Uncasville
Route 25 Expressway in Bridgeport/Trumbull
Route 40 in North Haven
Route 3 over Connecticut River
Route 66 in Meriden
... and more

A lot of the above expressways were built as the beginnings of an expressway connector in the 50s and 60s. But rest of the section has never got built and more likely will never be, leaving just segments of short expressway scattered all over the states.

[mgk920]

Originally Posted by EricIsHim

There a lot other small sections of expressway standard state road in the state:
Super 7 in Norwalk
Route 34 Connector in New Haven
Route 6 Expressway in Willimantic
Route 2A Expressway in Uncasville
Route 25 Expressway in Bridgeport/Trumbull
Route 40 in North Haven
Route 3 over Connecticut River
Route 66 in Meriden
... and more

A lot of the above expressways were built as the beginnings of an expressway connector in the 50s and 60s. But rest of the section has never got built and more likely will never be, leaving just segments of short expressway scattered all over the states.

Of all of those never-completed routes in Connecticut, US 6 between Hartford and Providence is the one that, IMHO, is most in need of being resurrected and built (it was originally planned to be I-84). US 7 in the western part of the state also badly needs completing, at least at the south end.

Mike

[Xusein]

Yeah, I-84 was supposed to go to Providence, not Massachusetts, originally. The current I-84 from Hartford eastward was signed as I-86 for a while. I think that it's ridiculous that Hartford and Providence are not connected by highway...and taking Route 6 can get dangerous at times. A nickname for the highway in East CT is "Suicide 6".

However, there are so much NIMBYs. I-84 was axed in Rhode Island totally because it was planned to go near the main resevoir for that state.

As for the US7 expressway extension, it comes in the news occasionally, but no concrete plan yet. I've driven down it before...parts of the road are only TWO LANES and get crowded fast. I think the thing keeping the highway from being built, aside from NIMBYs, is the fact that the land there is expensive beyond belief (Fairfield county is one of the richest counties in the US).

Originally Posted by EricIsHim

Super 7 in Norwalk
Route 34 Connector in New Haven
Route 6 Expressway in Willimantic
Route 2A Expressway in Uncasville
Route 25 Expressway in Bridgeport/Trumbull
Route 40 in North Haven
Route 3 over Connecticut River
Route 66 in Meriden
... and more

A lot of the above expressways were built as the beginnings of an expressway connector in the 50s and 60s. But rest of the section has never got built and more likely will never be, leaving just segments of short expressway scattered all over the states.

Yeah, I missed some. But isn't Route 66 in Meriden I-691? I know that there is a little part that is signed as Route 66 past I-91 but it can't be more than a mile long...

But yeah...lots of cancelled highways here. I posted this map before:


From www.kurumi.com/

And this is only for the Hartford area...imagine how it would be statewide.

[EricIsHim]

Originally Posted by 10ROT

As for the US7 expressway extension, it comes in the news occasionally, but no concrete plan yet. I've driven down it before...parts of the road are only TWO LANES and get crowded fast. I think the thing keeping the highway from being built, aside from NIMBYs, is the fact that the land there is expensive beyond belief (Fairfield county is one of the richest counties in the US).

The state is reconstructing large part of Route 7 right now to make the two lanes section becoming four lanes with turn lanes, and adding turn lanes at the existing four lanes section. This will help the situation out a little bit for a while until you get too much traffic again. I haven't heard anything for extending the Super 7 for real, but a new interchange between 7 and 15 will be built.

Originally Posted by 10ROT

Yeah, I missed some. But isn't Route 66 in Meriden I-691? I know that there is a little part that is signed as Route 66 past I-91 but it can't be more than a mile long...

But yeah...lots of cancelled highways here. I posted this map before:


From www.kurumi.com/

And this is only for the Hartford area...imagine how it would be statewide.

Nope, 691 officially begins/ends at the I-91 interchange. East of the interchange is just Route 66.

I-84 viaduct in Downtown Hartford is coming to the end of its 60 years life span. The maintenance bill is getting much more expensive and much traffic going by is by-passing Hartford. There are talks about removing I-84 from Downtown to reconnect the two sides of the city again and this will help to redevelop Hartford. So these canceled expressways may come back again in the future to create a ring road around Hartford, and the existing I-84 will be gone. But who knows how long it will take to make the talks become a serious discussion by the governments, and possibly turning into reality. Probably another decade or more.

[ChrisZwolle]

State Route 110, California

[Xusein]

Originally Posted by EricIsHim

I-84 viaduct in Downtown Hartford is coming to the end of its 60 years life span. The maintenance bill is getting much more expensive and much traffic going by is by-passing Hartford. There are talks about removing I-84 from Downtown to reconnect the two sides of the city again and this will help to redevelop Hartford. So these canceled expressways may come back again in the future to create a ring road around Hartford, and the existing I-84 will be gone. But who knows how long it will take to make the talks become a serious discussion by the governments, and possibly turning into reality. Probably another decade or more.

Interesting. I know something would have to be done with the Aetna viaduct, but are they seriously thinking of getting rid of the whole highway? And where would this ring road go? There are like NIMBYs everywhere! Cool news.

[EricIsHim]

Originally Posted by 10ROT

Interesting. I know something would have to be done with the Aetna viaduct, but are they seriously thinking of getting rid of the whole highway? And where would this ring road go? There are like NIMBYs everywhere! Cool news.

As far as I know, Hartford does want to rebuild I-84 around the Hartford Metro, or more wildly going underground like the Big Dig, and then get rid of the highway going right through the city to open up opportunities. But the State DOT is not sure and don't quite want to comment on it at this point. Plus since I-84 is a interstate, it's also a federal question as well.

Here is a related news article:
http://www.wfsb.com/traffic/15904065/detail.html

[Xusein]

Personally, I do hope they tear that sucker down. It's a terrible elevated road that does, as you said, a great job of isolating Hartford's North End from downtown. It would be nice if they brought back the I-291 beltway, but that's probably too expensive. I think the most realistic solution is to put the highway on the ground. Hopefully this issue will develop further, something needs to be done.

[Tom 958]

Thursday and yesterday I drove up GA 400 north of Atlanta for the first time in a while (Google link with recent photos here). As with so many other freeways in Atlanta, the median has been completely paved over and a concrete median barrier added to expand the roadways from the former two or three lanes in each direction to four from GA 140/ Holcomb Bridge Road to McFarland Road. There's something unusual, though: Northbound there are four lanes throughout, but southbound the right lane is used only as an auxilliary lane between interchanges-- between each offramp and onramp, it's closed to traffic.

The interchange at McFarland Road was rebuilt within the last few years to widen the bridge and add the loop ramp. Since I was in a company vehicle with GPS tracking I only went as far north as Windward Parkway on my latest trip, but now I'm curious as to how the two added lanes are terminated at McFarland Road. Prolly one each drop off at each of the two offramps, which would mean that traffic entering 400 northbound at Windward Parkway would have to merge, then change lanes twice to continue north on 400.

Two more fun facts about this stretch of 400:

A few years ago, the asphalt shoulders were replaced with heavier-duty concrete ones so that GRTA express buses could run on them during rush hours. Soon after this was done, GDOT began the mainline widening and used the new transit shoulders as a detour for all traffic.

And...

GA 400 is also US 19 except for the toll segment, but absolutely no one calls it that-- it's 400.

[gladisimo]

There are a host of good driving roads in the Bay Area that are state routes.

By far the most used is US 101, as it's the main trunk road for the peninsula. Other ones I frequently use are CA 92 and CA 35, as well as CA 1.

I particularly like skyline boulevard, a good cruising road not as demanding as some of the smaller mountain roads, but a welcome respite from normal highways

[hoosier]

Originally Posted by 10ROT

Yeah, I-84 was supposed to go to Providence, not Massachusetts, originally. The current I-84 from Hartford eastward was signed as I-86 for a while. I think that it's ridiculous that Hartford and Providence are not connected by highway...and taking Route 6 can get dangerous at times. A nickname for the highway in East CT is "Suicide 6".

However, there are so much NIMBYs. I-84 was axed in Rhode Island totally because it was planned to go near the main resevoir for that state.

Can't CT and RI just widen US 6 to four lanes from Hartford to Providence?

[ChrisZwolle]

Intersection & Cul-de-Sacs in Fontana, CA

[IMG]http://i31.************/2ujm6g0.jpg[/IMG]

[Timon91]

That looks strange.

[ChrisZwolle]

Blue Ridge Parkway:

Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovr2ln032oo

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPdSg9ZdJEg

Part III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkHdMR_FmYs

Watch them in higher quality, that's why i don't embed the video here.

By Ilnesinthesand

[Majestic]

There's so many beautiful, scenic highways in the USA!! I wish I could drive them all.

[pwalker]

Check out this link for pictures of all 50 state highway signs, and how they have changed since the 1940's.

www.routemarkers.com/states/

[mgk920]

The Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive is one of the roads that ANYONE whom has any interest in driving MUST drive at least once in his/her lifetime! I did the entire length in 2004 (from south to north) and it is definitely something that I'd budget three days for.



I heartily thank those whom had the foresight to begin its construction in the 1930s.



Mike

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by Chriszwolle

Blue Ridge Parkway:

Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovr2ln032oo

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPdSg9ZdJEg

Part III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkHdMR_FmYs

Watch them in higher quality, that's why i don't embed the video here.

By Ilnesinthesand

More:

Part IV
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=oHgQHWNoHfE

Part V
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=1b26HzjYNVg

Part VI
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=uAkD59ItHEo

[xzmattzx]

As I have posted in here before, Delaware is building a limited-access highway around Middletown for U.S. Route 301. This expressway will connect with Delaware Route 1, providing a fast alternative into Maryland.

Since U.S. 301 currently crosses the Summit Bridge over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and head north towards Glasgow and Newark, a limited access spur route will be built connecting this new 301 expressway with the Summit Bridge. This article is about that spur route.

U.S. 301 spur project to get closer look
Workshops imminent on $100 million roadway


Property acquisition for the new U.S. 301 corridor is under way, but there may be a detour ahead for a critical component of the project.

The General Assembly wants the state Department of Transportation to take a closer look at the 4.5-mile Spur Road that would connect U.S. 301 to Summit Bridge.

That's the message the Bond Bill Committee sent in epilogue language attached to DelDOT's fiscal 2009 budget on June 24.

Although opponents of the Spur Road may cheer the decision, DelDOT public relations director Darrel Cole said the directive will not delay the new U.S. 301, which is in the early stages of design. DelDOT engineers chose their preferred path for the new road after a series of public workshops that began in June 2005.

"Does it set the project back? No. Nowhere in the epilogue language does it say we have to start over," he said.

The Spur Road, expected to cost $100 million to $120 million, would run roughly from Armstrong Corner Road to Summit Bridge.

DelDOT contends the new U.S. 301 plus the Spur Road are the best option to reduce congestion and improve safety. Between January 1999 and May 2006, according to DelDOT, 776 crashes occurred in the project area south of the canal.

Rep. Bethany Hall-Long, D-Middletown, applauded DelDOT's progress on the U.S. 301 mainline, but said a closer look should be taken at the proposed Spur Road.

Andye Daley, head of the Middletown Corridor Coalition, likened the epilogue language to a "speed bump" and said additional public workshops may give opponents of the Spur Road "a little breathing room."

Her coalition aggressively lobbied the Bond Bill Committee for weeks to have the epilogue language included.

Representatives from DelDOT and the Middletown Corridor Coalition have tangled repeatedly over the Spur Road during public workshops in the last three years.

"We've agreed in the past to phase the project, and we're going to fill the requirements of the epilogue language, meaning we will hold a public workshop and report our finding to the General Assembly," Cole said.

"We don't have any inclination that we're going to hear anything different from the public," he added.

However, Daley said "a large majority of the residents would like for DelDOT to uncouple the Spur Road from the project."

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...=2008807190330

[Scba]

Congestion!? All the times that I've been between Glasgow and Summit, there has been NO traffic. A desert. And rarely ever much at the big intersection or around People's.