Roads in former railroad rights-of-way

[Pete from Boston]

I had occasion to use the South Boston Haul Road the other day, a super-2 of which much  is crammed into a former (Old Colony, I believe) railroad trench to the waterfront area.

This got me thinking about other instances where roads were directly laid in old railroad rights-of-way. 

The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston. 

It's my understanding that some parts of the Pennsylvania Turnpike are built on never-finished railroad grade.

Where else?

[hbelkins]

The Nada Tunnel on KY 77 in the Red River Gorge in Powell County uses an old narrow-gauge logging railroad tunnel.

Much of the new route of US 60 through Morehead is on an old abandoned C&O rail line. The line used to run from Lexington to Ashland but was removed in the early 1980s.

[getemngo]

Peshekee Grade, running through the Huron Mountains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, mostly follows the grade of a railroad track that no train ever used! Legend has it that a test train attempted to travel its length but couldn't make it up a hill. Some portions had an over 5% grade.

H.B.'s example reminds me, Alaska has the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, where cars drive over a current railroad track through the length of the tunnel.

[jwolfer]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is on an old railroad right of way. 

US 90/ Beach Blvd between Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach is on an old railroad right of way as well.  Atlantic Blvd. (SR10) was the Beach Road  (for those familiar with Jax that is why Beach Road Chicken dinner is on Atlantic Blvd not Beach Blvd which can confuse people)  This is also where SR 10 is not hidden beneath US90 or US90A.. it is actually signed.  Non roadgeeks assume it is a continuation of I-10 numbering scheme.

[SidS1045]

The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston.

IIRC it wasn't just the extension, but almost the entire ROW from the NY border to the I-93/South Station exits.

[PurdueBill]

Part of Erie St. in Lafayette, IN runs on former Norfolk and Western ROW after the relocation completed in the 90s; interestingly, one track runs a fair distance along and ends somewhat randomly, probably to leave room to roll a train down it, throw a switch, and pull it into a different track in the yard nearby. 

[Brian556]

Texas: Significant portions of SH 114 from Dallas to I-35W are built on the Dallas, Pacific, and Southeastern Railroad right-of way. This grade was constructed in 1899, and the company went bankrupt before the tracks could be laid. Spur 348 (FMR SH 114), and Harry Hines Blvd south of Spur 348 are also built on this railroad's grade. This fact is omitted from local history books, and is not widely known, I discovered it by accident in 2003. I looked online later, and the local history buffs also know about it and had a topic for it on their forum.

[mcdonaat]

LA 955 between LA 19 and LA 964 (between Ethel and Port Hudson) is laid directly on top of the old Clinton-Port Hudson RR.

Not exactly DIRECTLY on top, but LA 15/US 425 between Clayton and Baskin uses the old railroad ROW for the other lanes, when the highway was widened. In fact, the location of the bridge for LA 15/US 425 SB in Clayton is directly over the old bridge.

[KEK Inc.]

Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle. 

In the Northwest, many abandoned rail-lines become bike trails.

[US81]

Part of Dallas North Tollway was built on the St. Louis Southwestern RR ROW, I'm told.

[Mapmikey]

Much of VA 309 is on an old railroad ROW...

Then there's always US 1 through the Keys...

Mapmikey

[Pete from Boston]

The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston.

IIRC it wasn't just the extension, but almost the entire ROW from the NY border to the I-93/South Station exits.

The B&A ROW is still intact west of 128, through the western suburbs as the Framingham/Worcester line of the MBTA.  The Mass Pike runs well north of that line at that point.

The only other RR right of way I can think of along its route is in the Palmer/Ludlow/Chicopee area where the road used the never-operational Hampden RR alignment for a bit.

Edit: In the 1954 USGS topo I used to confirm this, it calls the unfinished turnpike "Disabled American Veterans Turnpike," a name appended to it by the legislature in 1954.  I don't know if that name was ever posted, as the act says the turnpike "may" erect "suitable markers or tablets" to that effect.

[bulldog1979]

The Jeffries Freeway section of I-96 through Livonia follows part of the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ROW.

[jeffandnicole]

Not only is much the PA Turnpike on what should've been RR right of way, but the original tunnels were also meant for the trains as well.

[talllguy]

Side note: When in doubt, check OpenStreetMap. NE2 has added nearly every former right of way I've ever known to OSM.

[catch22]

The Jeffries Freeway section of I-96 through Livonia follows part of the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ROW.

I-96 in Livonia runs 1/2 mile north of and parallel to the ex-C&O (now CSX) tracks, never getting near them.

[Brandon]

The Chicago Skyway (I-90) runs in some former railroad right-of-way and next to active railroads.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.726966,-87.553552&spn=0.001633,0.002642&t=h&z=19

The Stevenson Expressway (I-55) runs in a former canal right-of-way, between active railroads, and an active canal.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.816661,-87.744729&spn=0.002307,0.005284&t=h&z=18

[kurumi]

Foothill Expressway (Santa Clara [Calif.] County Route G5)  is built on a railway branch ROW. At Loyola Corners (the only interchange along Foothill) some old railroad buildings have been repurposed.

[thenetwork]

SR-25/Greenbelt Parkway between I-280 and SR-120/Cherry Street near downtown Toledo was once abandoned railroad, and now because of the new Skyway Bridge the parkway has more or less replaced Summit Street as the new gateway to downtown from the east.

[Stephane Dumas]

Part of the Queensway(TCH-417) in Ottawa is built on a former CNR railroad ROW between Nicholas Street and Hwy-416

[txstateends]

The original phase of North Central Expwy.-US 75 north of downtown Dallas, as well as the South Dallas part of the former South Central Expwy.-US 75 (now S.M. Wright Frwy.-US 175 & TX 310) was built along the old Houston & Texas Central RR (hence the 'Central' in the Expwy. naming).

The I-10 - Katy Frwy. widening done in Houston in recent years took in a former parallel railroad ROW.

Part of Dallas North Tollway was built on the St. Louis Southwestern RR ROW, I'm told.

That would be the original late 1960s-era section between Harry Hines / I-35E and I-635.

[lepidopteran]

In Brooklyn, NY, was the Gowanus Expressway built on the same structure as the former Third Ave. elevated train line?  Or was it torn down and rebuilt for the highway.  Either way, you could say it's in the same r/w.

[Stephane Dumas]

The I-10 - Katy Frwy. widening done in Houston in recent years took in a former parallel railroad ROW.

Part of the Westpark tollway also used a former parallel railroad ROW.

Edit: The former railroad overpass was built when TX-99 was built at the junction of TX-99 and Westpark tollway befroe the line was removed is still there.
http://goo.gl/maps/stqj3

[Roadgeek Adam]

Interstate 80 between exit 1 and exit 4 in New Jersey is on the old alignment of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad between Dunnfield/Browning and Columbia. The last train to traverse the alignment was in 1940. The right-of-way was torn up and built over with U.S. Route 611/Interstate 80. You wouldn't be able to tell a railroad was there, except that the Karamac Trail, which is a piece of the right-of-way just off exit 1.

[lepidopteran]

In Anne Arundel County, MD, there's a "WB&A Road".  So named because it follows the route of an old interurban, the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis Electric Railway, which shut down in 1935.  A number of other roads follow the r/w, including one aptly named (cue Eddy Grant) "Electric Avenue".  It's also used for rail trails, power lines, part of a light rail line, and a whole section is obliterated by a little thing like, oh, BWI Airport.

Way out in the middle of the Pocono Mountains, starting near where PA 4031 branches off of PA 370,  there's an "O and W Road." (It's called "Old Railroad Rd." on OpenStreetMap for some reason; perhaps renamed for historical awareness?) This was a branch of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railway that went from the mainline near Hancock, NY to Scranton, PA.  The NYO&W was scrapped wholesale in 1957, thought I think the Scranton branch went out earlier.  A road with the same name can be found in the hamlet of East Branch, PA, and I think parts of NY-17/I-86 cover the r/w as well.

Just east of Athens, OH, I think a mile or two of OH-32/US-50 has its eastbound lanes on the r/w of a B&O mainline that was only abandoned in the late 1980s.  The loss of this line, which once ran all the way from Clarksburg, WV to Cincinnati, OH via Parkersburg, WV, is much-lamented by railfans.

In Beavercreek, OH, part of Research Blvd. is located on the r/w of the B&O Wellston Division, which ran between Dayton and Washington Court House via Xenia.  It takes advantage of an I-675 bridge built to take the tracks underneath (though the RR was actually already abandoned a few years before the freeway opened)  The road used to use a narrow underpass beneath US-35 to access a loop ramp, but that ramp seems to have been eliminated (too tight maybe, or they needed wetlands space) in favor of an extension of Research Blvd. that goes over US-35 to N. Fairfield Rd.