Worst roads you have ever driven?

[CapeCodder]

I-195 between its junction with I-495 and MA 25 to the Rhode Island line. Potholes everywhere. I don't know if they fixed them or if they remain.

[US 41]

I think the OP wins honestly. Even on GSV you can see how bad the road is. (MX 49 between Cuencame and Juan Aldama.) I know I've never drove on a highway near that bad. County (local) roads yes, state maintained no. If I was driving on that road I'd be in the shoulder probably driving around 40 mph (maybe even slower honestly). There's no way I'd be doing the 70 mph (110 km) speed limit, especially with deep potholes like that. The fact that they have let it get that bad is kind of amazing.

[coatimundi]

I think you have to separate between paved and unpaved.
For paved, there were some terrible secondary roads in Latvia that I drove on recently, and Nicaragua had some bad ones, but the worse near me are the farm roads west of Salinas.
I took a back way home a few weeks ago and got the chance to drive Cooper Road between 183 and Nashua Road, and I would say that that's the worst of them.
https://goo.gl/maps/KXW4o3uA7ok

That GSV is from five years ago, and it's hard to see the condition of the pavement from there, but it is definitely worse now. You can see the drop-offs on the sides and the level of deterioration. They get a lot of trucks coming through, then water run-off from the sprinklers in the field, and then just never really work on them.

A couple of days ago, they actually had a news story about the condition of the roads in Santa Cruz County, and how the county as a whole is near the bottom of counties in the state for road conditions. It was a pro-Measure D group (Measure D is the local road tax), and they specifically mentioned Airport Boulevard, showing a picture of it. The thing is, the second they showed is the dead-end section south of Highway 1.
http://www.goldenstatenewspapers.com/press_banner/roads-in-county-are-among-worst-in-the-state/article_980cd3e0-a2a8-11e6-87da-4702016b85aa.html

For unpaved, there are some roads in the West that I've walked on that I would have only brought a specialized 4x4 onto.

[oscar]

I think you have to separate between paved and unpaved.

You could include a third category of "broken pavement". The worst such roads I've driven in a regular passenger car were all numbered primary highways in Saskatchewan. I felt more comfortable on no pavement than "broken pavement". (But not the bad unpaved roads I posted about above, both of which would probably have chewed up and spit most regular passenger cars, though I've heard of Subarus surviving the first road I mentioned.)

I'd put the Mexican highway in the OP in the "broken pavement" category.

[cl94]

Pre-reconstruction I-86/NY 17 near Salamanca may have been the worst Interstate I have ever driven. I-88 in NYSDOT Region 9 is pretty miserable as well, though they're reconstructing most of it. The Thruway through the Cattaraugus Reservation is so bad that NYSTA lowered the speed limit. NY 421 or pre-reconstruction NY 431 might be the worst in New York. Alps has pictures of the former that don't do it justice. They replaced all of the signs recently, but the road surface is as bad.

Oh, and Erie County, NY. That one was redone a couple of years ago.

[cpzilliacus]

Road signed as an Interstate highway:  I-278, but not the BQE section. 

I think the crossing of the Goethals Bridge (especially the "free" direction crossing from Staten Island, N.Y. to Elizabeth, N.J.) is much, much worse with its very narrow lanes, heavy traffic, and the left-side exit ramp for traffic headed for the New Jersey Turnpike. Fortunately, relief will be happening relatively soon.

Dishonorable mentions: 

1. I-70 between I-79 at Washington, Pennsylvania and New Stanton (and yes, PennDOT is upgrading that section of freeway, though I have not been impressed by the results of previous PennDOT upgrade and reconstruction projects).

2. I-70 between the Turnpike at Breezewood, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania/Maryland state line, because Breezewood, and because of the steep grades and substandard interchanges along the way and predatory enforcement of the 55 MPH speed limit by the Pennsylvania State Police.

3. I-78, especially east of the U.S. 22 "split" at Exit 51 approaching Allentown to the end of PennDOT maintenance at Exit 75 - the pavement is PennDOT awful, and does not seem to have seen any substantial repair or paving work since it was constructed.

4. I-95 between the New York/Connecticut state line and New Haven.  Is there a freeway in the United States that is more in need of widening than this one?

Arterial highway:

W.Va. 42/W.Va. 93 (Union Highway) ascending/descending the Allegheny Front Range between Scherr and Bismarck.  Fortunately, this steep and twisting section of road has been largely bypassed by ADHS Corridor H (U.S. 48).

[PHLBOS]

In terms of paved roads/highways, for me such would be:

1.  The original 1930s-vintage Jamestown (RI 138) Bridge during the mid-80s.

2.  The Braga Bridge (I-195) in during the mid-80s.

3.  I-287 (Cross-Westchester Expressway portion) during the early-to-mid 90s.

[chays]

Max, some of those roads in CA might be in awful shape, but man, those views.  Thanks for sharing those great pics.

[Max Rockatansky]

Max, some of those roads in CA might be in awful shape, but man, those views.  Thanks for sharing those great pics.

Thanks, yeah personally I always found the mountain roads in California to be the most difficult in the country...let alone worn surfacing.  About the only road I ever found in Colorado that really could match the steepness alone was Pikes Peak.  Nobody ever said getting somewhere good was an easy trip, always liked a good challenge.  There is one in Colorado that I can't recall the route number off the top of my head that went over the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction that was in top level bad asphalt conditions. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Max, some of those roads in CA might be in awful shape, but man, those views.  Thanks for sharing those great pics.

Thanks, yeah personally I always found the mountain roads in California to be the most difficult in the country...let alone worn surfacing.  About the only road I ever found in Colorado that really could match the steepness alone was Pikes Peak.  Nobody ever said getting somewhere good was an easy trip, always liked a good challenge.  There is one in Colorado that I can't recall the route number off the top of my head that went over the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction that was in top level bad asphalt conditions. 

[Rothman]

Back when I was a kid, the drive up Mount Washington was horrible.  I remember the needle on our car's gas gauge flipping from left to right due to the humps in the dirt road.  I believe it's paved now, though.

Western MA has a surprising number of dirt roads.  Sand Hill Road in Shutesbury, MA is pretty bad.  Rattlesnake Gutter Road in Leverett, MA was legendary (not sure if kids still try to beat the speed record through there).  Some sections of Cooleyville Road -- a dirt road that parallels and crosses US 202 -- can be pretty awful, too.

[Thunderbyrd316]

   Back in '91 I lived for a while about a block from N.E. Roselawn Street and N.E. 75th Avenue in Portland. Check out the section between 74th and 75th on Street View! I can't think of too many urban residential streets in North America worse than this, even in Mexico! (Street View image is from March 2016 and it looks about the same as it did back in '91.)

Link: http://gokml.net/maps#ll=45.561242,-122.585919&z=19&t=r

   And Portland has quite a few other streets in similar condition! 

[thenetwork]

Max, some of those roads in CA might be in awful shape, but man, those views.  Thanks for sharing those great pics.

Thanks, yeah personally I always found the mountain roads in California to be the most difficult in the country...let alone worn surfacing.  About the only road I ever found in Colorado that really could match the steepness alone was Pikes Peak.  Nobody ever said getting somewhere good was an easy trip, always liked a good challenge.  There is one in Colorado that I can't recall the route number off the top of my head that went over the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction that was in top level bad asphalt conditions. 

CO-139 Between Loma and Rangely, over Douglas Pass???  Last I drove it, the north side of the pass had the worst pavement.

[cl94]

Back when I was a kid, the drive up Mount Washington was horrible.  I remember the needle on our car's gas gauge flipping from left to right due to the humps in the dirt road.  I believe it's paved now, though.

I can say from experience that the drive up Mount Mansfield was quite miserable. Unpaved (of course) and in horrible condition.

[formulanone]

Former US 98, which was a diagonal route between FL 80 and US 441 (FL 15) was extremely bumpy. The road was paved over a levee, but in a flat, agricultural area with many sugar cane trucks, this road had heaves and dips that made your car bounce and wander all over the road. There was damaged, fallen, and bowed guardrail lining both sides of it. It many have been straight as an arrow, but going over 35 mph meant a wild ride. Sure, it's no mountainside, but with a 10-foot drop into an alligator-infested canal on either side, I dreaded driving on it a second time.

Sometime between 2000-2002, the road was entirely re-graded, widened, and was quite smooth. US 98 was moved off of that section in 2008 (although I guess it was to keep "continuity" as a duplex with US 441, because it was a less direct route, mileage-wise). That had to be most sub-standard paved road I've ever driven on, which didn't curve around a hill or alongside mountain.

[1995hoo]

In terms of short-term road damage that was quickly repaired, hands-down it had to be Van Dorn Street (Virginia secondary route 613) in Kingstowne between Lake Village Drive and Franconia Road in February 2003 in the weeks following a huge snowstorm over Washington's Birthday weekend. The term "potholes" wouldn't do justice to the massive holes that opened in the right lane. They were so big they could swallow a Jaguar. The lane was essentially impassable even by large SUVs. I don't have any pictures, though. I do remember one dumbass trying to use that lane to pass all the stopped traffic and getting stuck in one of the holes, but I didn't stick around to see whether he had to call a tow truck or what. I didn't have a lot of sympathy for him because if one lane is completely open at rush hour on a road that's normally very congested, there's probably something wrong.

Otherwise, I recall the roads on northeastern Cape Breton Island as being particularly bad, especially between Glace Bay and Louisbourg. Bumpy, narrow, potholed, not well-maintained. The owner of the Louisbourg Harbour Inn concurred about the terrible roads but added that we were lucky we had avoided most of the Fleur-de-Lis Trail around the southeastern part of the island, as he said that area easily has the worst roads in the entire province. (I should hasten to point out that the Trans-Canada Highway and the Cabot Trail were in excellent shape.)

The worst road I drive on a regular basis is 19 Street NW in DC between Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street. The right lane is a complete washboard, and I usually wind up in that lane due to a combination of traffic and the location of my wife's office (when we drive to work, I pick her up on the way home unless we're going to Verizon Center).

[vdeane]

This road always stands out to me when we do our annual pavement survey in Region 1.  The reference route ends at the gate.  Frost heaves, cracking, potholes... the years have NOT been kind to the two reference routes off NY 73!

[cl94]

This road always stands out to me when we do our annual pavement survey in Region 1.  The reference route ends at the gate.  Frost heaves, cracking, potholes... the years have NOT been kind to the two reference routes off NY 73!

Meh, Region 7's dead-end routes are worse.

[vdeane]

I don't do pavement sufficiency for Region 7.  But from my clinching trips, I remember NY 170A in Region 2 being very bad.  From the actual data, NY 163 is one of very few roads in the state to actually be rated 3 (the lowest rating we have currently assigned; 2 and 1 are largely theoretical).

[cl94]

Having clinched NY 163 2 weekends ago, I completely agree. Thankfully, it looked like they did a chipseal on part of it to make it nicer.

[pderocco]

When I lived out in the high desert (Hesperia) a few years back, I had regular occasion to travel over some of the worst dirt tracks masquerading as "city streets"; too many to individually cite!  I will say that the worst state-maintained road I've been on to date is the unpaved section of CA 173 (now gated & inaccessible) north of Lake Arrowhead.  Caltrans tried their best to keep it at least graded, but portions washed away or became severely rutted every year until the agency just gave up and shut it down.

I drove that in a regular passenger car shortly before they closed the gates. It was scary. There were nearly foot-deep gullies eroded lengthwise along the road in many places. On encountering them, you'd have to peer way down the road in order to figure out which side of which gullies to put your wheels on, so you wouldn't get trapped. Took me maybe 45 minutes to do those ten miles. But it's exhilarating when you make it through.

[pderocco]

Wards Ferry Road, between Groveland and Sonora, CA, is a challenging drive. Most of it really is one lane wide, and part of it clings to the side of a very steep cliff. The last time I drove it, I encountered a bus and a couple of vans coming the other way, carrying bungee jumpers. I had to squeeze waaay over to the left so they could inch their way past me on their left, while watching how close their tires got to the edge. Just like something on Deadliest Roads.

[pderocco]

On the California Side CR 66 in San Bernardino County is another poorly maintained section of Old US 66.  The road is good in places but extremely rough and jagged almost everywhere else.  The worst part is west of Amboy to Ludlow which probably will make you drive down the center stripe to avoid pot holes quite often.  The area has a lot of ancient roadways like Kelbaker Road, Kelso-Cima Road, Cima Road, and Nipton Road up in the Mojave Preserve which are degraded even to a worse extent:

There are other examples of old highways that have been replaced by new ones, and are rarely maintained. Usually, they're the worst where they run right next to the new road. The old 66 is pretty awful west of Ludlow for that reason. Same for the eastern parts of Yermo Rd alongside I-15. Also, Evan Hewes Hwy, which is the old US-80 in Imperial County, CA, is teeth-chattering where it parallels I-8. Also, Ragsdale Rd next to I-10 in Desert Center, and Pinto Rd next to I-10 near the S entrance to Joshua Tree NP.

But none of those is particularly scary, just really rough.

[Max Rockatansky]

On the California Side CR 66 in San Bernardino County is another poorly maintained section of Old US 66.  The road is good in places but extremely rough and jagged almost everywhere else.  The worst part is west of Amboy to Ludlow which probably will make you drive down the center stripe to avoid pot holes quite often.  The area has a lot of ancient roadways like Kelbaker Road, Kelso-Cima Road, Cima Road, and Nipton Road up in the Mojave Preserve which are degraded even to a worse extent:

There are other examples of old highways that have been replaced by new ones, and are rarely maintained. Usually, they're the worst where they run right next to the new road. The old 66 is pretty awful west of Ludlow for that reason. Same for the eastern parts of Yermo Rd alongside I-15. Also, Evan Hewes Hwy, which is the old US-80 in Imperial County, CA, is teeth-chattering where it parallels I-8. Also, Ragsdale Rd next to I-10 in Desert Center, and Pinto Rd next to I-10 near the S entrance to Joshua Tree NP.

But none of those is particularly scary, just really rough.

Actually I found Ragsdale to be pretty placid, might have been rough but the pavement wasn't breaking up...went and checked it at Tex Wash and Desert Center recently:

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh630/MadMaxRockatansky73/19_zpsjqb14qez.jpg
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh630/MadMaxRockatansky73/21_zpsruh1ktnr.jpg

Kind of dug the creep gas station just east of the Tex Wash Bridge:

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh630/MadMaxRockatansky73/17_zpsx0vagklq.jpg

Now...speaking of US 60/70 poor ole Chuckwalla Valley Road can't seem to catch a break:

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh630/MadMaxRockatansky73/12_zpsxjja2wy8.jpg

[machias]

US 219 SB between Interstate 86/NY Route 17 and the Pa. state line near Bradford, Pa. is in really, really bad shape. Most of it is marked at 55 MPH, with the exception of the Limestone, N.Y. at 40.  It was the first time that I've felt concern for the suspension of a Jeep Wrangler while driving a state owned highway. I had to ramp back to about 45 MPH to keep from bouncing all over the place. I believe this is the original concrete with lots of paved patchwork.