Roads that states should maintain

[cpzilliacus]

State DOT road maintenance facilities should be on state highways.  {although it would be funny if the state employees had to wait for the county to get around to plowing the snow off the road so the state employees could get to work}

County seats, in my view, need to be on a state highway.  Also, their Highway Patrol offices/hubs.

I can name at least three state highway maintenance facilities in Maryland that are not on state-maintained highways.

[tidecat]

I used to audit county clerks in my old job, primarily in eastern Kentucky.  Having the county courthouse on a state highway was very handy, and many times I didn't even bother to look up directions beforehand, because all I had to do was follow the signs to whatever town happened to be the seat.

[Jardine]

State DOT road maintenance facilities should be on state highways.  {although it would be funny if the state employees had to wait for the county to get around to plowing the snow off the road so the state employees could get to work}

County seats, in my view, need to be on a state highway.  Also, their Highway Patrol offices/hubs.

I can name at least three state highway maintenance facilities in Maryland that are not on state-maintained highways.

That is, indeed, funny!

Thanx!


The county I live in is generally loathe to call in snowplow operators if it involves overtime.  Consequently, a snowfall Friday night might stick on the county roads till daytime on Monday.  County employees don't even get their roads plowed first anymore either.

[hbelkins]

I used to audit county clerks in my old job, primarily in eastern Kentucky.  Having the county courthouse on a state highway was very handy, and many times I didn't even bother to look up directions beforehand, because all I had to do was follow the signs to whatever town happened to be the seat.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of a couple of possible examples where the courthouse wouldn't be on a state highway. My home county is such a case now, as KY 52 has been rerouted off Beattyville's Main Street. Pikeville (Pike County) is another such case, as no state highway runs through downtown now. Not quite sure about Hazard (Perry County).

[jbnv]

I can think of at least three cases in Louisiana where parish seats may not be on a state highway if the one route they have is dropped. (Convent, Edgard and Hahnville, all right on the Mississippi River.)

Which is a better way of remediating this problem?
1. Build a state road directly from the nearest state road to the county seat; or
2. Relocate the county seat to another city that is on a state road.

[jeffandnicole]

Many of NJDOT's maintenance yards are on state roads, although one yard tucked off of 130 near the Commodore Barry Bridge requires their trucks to take small portions of local roads.  We do put the plows down and salt them, and thus are probably the best maintained local roads in the state during a snowfall.

The Deepwater NJDOT maintenance yard (which can be seen from I-295 North just after entering NJ) has a street address of the NJ Turnpike!  (The only access points to the yard is a ramp to/from the NJ Turnpike/US 40, and to/from the County Rt. 551 Ramp from I-295 South.)

Trenton: It's the capital city dammit, and it looks like crap.

FTFY

That's not very nice. Yes, it's run-down, but there are parts of the city that are beautiful. In the case of it's roads: not so much. NJ 29 isn't in bad shape.

Rt. 29 is fine.  It's taking the off ramps into Trenton that's a big mistake. :-)

[Beeper1]

Connecticut doesn't have county routes, as far as I know. We do have many "secret" routes which are state maintained. Example: Willow Brook Connector in Berlin. It's a little over a mile, heading west from CT 9's Exit 24 to the junction of CT 71A and CT 372, close to the New Britain city line. It's secret state route 571. Oddly enough, 372 happens to be the highest numbered state route we have.

You're correct.  Connecticut doesn't have county routes because it doesn't have county governments.  Everything not maintained by the state is maintained by the town or city.

Are there any non-state roads that aren't in a city or town?

There are no unincorporated areas in CT.  All points in the state have some form of municipal government responsible for it's local roads.   All the unsigned routes are generally either to serve a state-run facility, mostly state parks, or short connectors between other major state highways.    There are a couple that could probably be promoted to signed  route, such as SR-664 connecting CT-14 and US-6.

[SD Mapman]

State DOT road maintenance facilities should be on state highways.  {although it would be funny if the state employees had to wait for the county to get around to plowing the snow off the road so the state employees could get to work}

Yup.

[tidecat]

I used to audit county clerks in my old job, primarily in eastern Kentucky.  Having the county courthouse on a state highway was very handy, and many times I didn't even bother to look up directions beforehand, because all I had to do was follow the signs to whatever town happened to be the seat.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of a couple of possible examples where the courthouse wouldn't be on a state highway. My home county is such a case now, as KY 52 has been rerouted off Beattyville's Main Street. Pikeville (Pike County) is another such case, as no state highway runs through downtown now. Not quite sure about Hazard (Perry County).

I audited the Lee County Clerk about a decade ago.  I remember Pike being an exception to the rule.  I did audit Perry County as well, and it is on KY 2449 (KY 2451 is the next street over), although the layout of the town is so radically different from most place in Eastern Kentucky.

Clark County was also different than many other places I audited as many of the county offices are on US 60.

Edit:  Rowan County (Morehead) is an exception since Main St is not a state or US highway.  I've been there too.

[hbelkins]

Edit:  Rowan County (Morehead) is an exception since Main St is not a state or US highway.  I've been there too.

I think Rowan County was in the process of moving the courthouse from downtown to the east side, near the MSU campus, when I was in college. That was before the new US 60 was built, which didn't come until a few years after I graduated from MSU.

[bing101]

interestingly, there isn't any particular mandate in place for states to maintain the roads to their government offices; even the symbolically important ones. 

in at least one case, the state capitol is on a former state-maintained highway.  (Sacramento.)  I'll bet this is common elsewhere too, but right now I am far too lazy to do the research.

Woah CA-275 back in the 1940?

[cpzilliacus]

State DOT road maintenance facilities should be on state highways.  {although it would be funny if the state employees had to wait for the county to get around to plowing the snow off the road so the state employees could get to work}

The Maryland State Highway Administration's Fairland Shop is over a mile away from the nearest state-maintained road.  I suspect (but do not know for certain) that SHA will clear the county maintained roads it needs to reach state maintenance if it has to.