Boneheaded detours

[SD Mapman]

It is spring, and thus the start of road construction season. To celebrate (?) this, I'm wondering what the most boneheaded detour you have ever seen is? For instance, last year in Spearfish SDDOT routed traffic from the closed eastbound exit 10 to turn around at exit 12 and take westbound exit 10... which makes no sense when you realize that there is a perfectly serviceable exit 2 miles to the west (overview of area here).

Anyone else's states do equally stupid detours?

[agentsteel53]

any that are signed as necessary when they do not need to be.  the other day I was told by a VMS that 805 was closed near my work, so I started following the detour... after I had already committed to going the other way, I saw 805 was wide open.  wtf was that for, Caltrans!

[vdeane]

NYSDOT did something similar on US 11 in Canton.  They signed the detour as mandatory even though the usual route was open, mainly to get the trucks off the road.  Staying on US 11 instead of using the detour was usually faster.

[Mr. Matté]

During a bridge closure in my area last summer, the signed detour was about 8.4 miles long while the shortest direct route would have been 5.8 miles long. The former was likely chosen so that the detour can remain on state and county roads rather than the residential roads the latter would utilize. In reality though, you wouldn't have taken the "detour" route anyway, you would have taken another road to get to either Village Road or Route 130 to take a longer arc around the closure.

[Brandon]

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will typically only sign detours along state routes, not county highways of municipal streets.  This often has the effect of creating a very long detour for a very short closure.

[The High Plains Traveler]

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will typically only sign detours along state routes, not county highways of municipal streets.  This often has the effect of creating a very long detour for a very short closure.

Minnesota will often improve a county road as part of a state highway reconstruction project so the county road can handle detour traffic. This limits the length of detours.

[Alps]

I'll do you one better. The signed PERMANENT route from NJ I-295 SB to the truck areas at Exit 56 (NB only) involve going down to Exit 52 and U-turning. To shave about 8 miles off of that, take Exit 57 (A or B) and make your way over to Rising Sun Rd.

In PA, I've seen I-80 WB to I-81 SB detoured by U-turning at the next exit (PA 93). Really, at that point you may as well stay on 93 south.

[roadman65]

I remember once when the FL Turnpike overpass over US 17, 92, and 441 was being worked on the detour  for the three route concurrency was via Orange Avenue between Taft-Vineland Road and Landstreet Road rather than Bachman Road.   Bachman Road parallels the US 17,92, and 441 concurrency less than a half a mile to the east between Taft- Vineland and Landstreet Roads.   Orange Avenue is over 2 miles further east of US 17, 92, and 441 mind you. The detour was only in effect at night when girders were being worked on, which meant the least amount of traffic was using it. Bachman Road could have handled it.

What was more boneheaded about it was one of the detour signs was for SR 528 EB (as WB could be accessed from US 17, 92, and 441 being it is south of the point of closure) where it had signs as part of the detour taking you back to SR 528 at where US 17, 92, and 441 met it instead of just detouring you a half a mile north on Orange Avenue (Orange Avenue has access to SR 528 via Jetport Drive) and then on from there saving 8 miles and a dollar (at the time) toll on the 528.

[getemngo]

Last summer, I-94 was having work done in Detroit's northern suburbs and (at least westbound) several miles' worth of exits were closed. My friend and I got off the freeway to get gas, not knowing this.

The detour involved heading south on M-3, which parallels the freeway - so far, so good - until we got to a major intersection, probably 12 Mile. The signs directed us past the intersection, past the signalized Michigan Left, but then through the next Michigan Left (unsignalized, where we had to wait several minutes for a semi to make it through), and back to the intersection to turn east. Annoying, but we were almost home free - we thought. As we got to I-94, we started to see signs that the onramp was closed. Yes, the I-94 detour ended at a closed interchange! 

[Doctor Whom]

One year, to accommodate a marathon (marathons are sacred in DC), traffic was detoured into a construction zone.   

[roadman65]

I love it when there is a route concurrency and only one of the routes gets a detour sign.  In Orlando just a few years ago a railroad grade was closed all weekend on the US 17 & 92, and FL 50 concurrency to replace the boards in between the tracks, where only detour signs for FL 50 were placed and no mention of the two US routes around the entire detour.

[jeffandnicole]

NJDOT will mark their detours starting with the closed roadway, with the belief that motorists won't notice the detour if it's signed before the closed road.  This results in some extremely lengthy detours, especially on highways when sometimes the much shorter route would've been utilizing the exit prior to the closed exit.

[thenetwork]

When ODOT closes state or US highways in Ohio, the detours almost always follow other state/US/I- routes around the closed section -- mostly to keep the large vehicles and/or semis on the main, wide roadways.  In a lot of cases (Especially in Northern Ohio), official detours usually add unnecessary miles to the route (on average, about 10 miles). 

Yet when most county roads are 1 mile apart, unofficial detours can average 2 miles around a closed section of numbered highway.

With the advent of GPS, I'm curious to see how many smaller vehicles will actually follow the ODOT Detour route or just use GPS to go around the closed "block"? 

I know when I encountered a Road Closed xx Miles Ahead sign when I used to live there, I'd follow the route as normal and start looking for side roads about a mile before the actual closure and work my way around the closure. Saving a helluva lot of time, gas and mileage.

[cu2010]

NYSDOT did something similar on US 11 in Canton.  They signed the detour as mandatory even though the usual route was open, mainly to get the trucks off the road.  Staying on US 11 instead of using the detour was usually faster.

Not last summer!

[Molandfreak]

I read this as "beheaded detours"

[Brandon]

I read this as "beheaded detours"

That would be for Ned Stark's family after his beheading.

[kurumi]

Caltrans likes to notify you as late as possible that an exit is closed. Suppose your next 3 exits are exit 10, exit 11, and exit 15. Only after exit 10 will you see a sign saying basically "BTW, exit 11 is closed. You could have gotten off earlier, but now you're stuck until exit 15, kthxbye"

[mcdonaat]

LaDOTD likes to put the VMS signs at the worst possible places. When you drive toward Baton Rouge on US 190, and take the LA 415 cutoff road to I-10, you never know that I-10 is backed up until you're right there. The VMS telling you that traffic is backed up usually rests about 1/2 mile before 10, where you can see the traffic stopped. It would make much more sense to post them along US 190 BEFORE the split, instead of right at the Interstate, where traffic can use the information to take the old MRB.

That leads me to my next point - traffic on I-10, if the bridge is closed, is sent north to the old MRB... which is currently undergoing repairs. You're told to follow 10 to LA 1, then north along LA 1 to US 190E. However, you're told to skip LA 415, a clear shot to 190, and instead take LA 1 through downtown Port Allen and multiple plants, to reach US 190. By the time the trucks accelerate up to speed, they're halfway through climbing the grade, then slow right back down to cross the railroad. It's boneheaded because you could actually tell trucks to use LA 1 through Plaquemine to the Sunshine Bridge, and spit em out south of Baton Rouge. Or, you know, take the quickest route instead of through Port Allen.

A second boneheaded detour? We, like IDOT, sign only state routes as detours, instead of parish roads or city roads. LA 1236 is closed right now, sending you down LA 126, which is perfectly fine. However, LA 988 was closed in Brusly for a small repair project. You were told to pass about a billion side streets which connect directly to LA 988, and drive about five miles (urban miles) to connect with a state highway. The kicker? The work on LA 988 was about 200 feet off of LA 1. So you would make a round trip of ten miles instead of about 800 feet of city streets.

[DandyDan]

The 2011 Missouri River flood spawned at least one ridiculous detour.  Iowa 2, from its intersection with US 59 just south of Shenandoah, had a detour which went north on US 59 past US 34 to Iowa 92, and then it went west on Iowa 92 over to the South Omaha bridge in Council Bluffs, where once it entered Nebraska, was never spoken about.  It was utterly ridiculous because A) Iowa 2 continued west to Sidney, which wasn't in the flood zone and it could have gone to US 275 there B) The official I-29 detour during the flood was US 34 east from I-29 and then US 71 south from US 34.  If it is going to go north to US 34, it should have turned onto US 34 at US 59, which, in practice, was the unofficial detour for I-29 C) The real I-29 was intersected, it should have followed the interstate D) If people were interested in going over Iowa 2 to Nebraska City (and Nebraska 2), Nebraska should have been involved. E) It still didn't involve the shortest route, which would be US 34 through Plattsmouth (except I think that was the year downtown Plattsmouth was under construction, not to mention the toll bridge that's there) F) Who goes from Shenandoah, Iowa to Nebraska City, Nebraska anyway?

[vtk]

Two years ago the I-71 northbound exit to OH 665, (exit 97, on the edge of Grove City) was closed as the interchange was converted to a SPUI.  The logical detour would be to get off an exit earlier (exit 94) and follow US 62 / OH 3 north to meet OH 665 at Pleasant Corners.  Instead, the official detour was to stay on I-71 northbound; past exit 100, a diamond interchange with a busy local road; past exit 101, a partial cloverleaf with I-270 whose loop ramps would have made a U-turn easy; to exit 104, an underpowered diamond-ish interchange with a significant local arterial/freeway to turn around and go south again.  I am at a loss to explain this bizarre choice.  They might as well have made the detour I-71 N, OH 315 N, I-670 E, I-71 S: at least that would have been all freeway with no loop ramps.

[Duke87]

I once encountered a closure of US 6 east of Mansfield, PA, which had maybe 500 feet of road closed due to a washout.

The closure was in the viciinty of where Corey Creek Golf Course is on the map, here is the detour that a bunch of locals took and that I followed them in taking: https://goo.gl/maps/0INVB

PennDOT's signed detour was this: https://goo.gl/maps/X244f

Of course, the much shorter alternative involved several narrow gravel roads, so I'm sure they didn't want to route a bunch of traffic, especially truck traffic, that way.
So, this is another case where the DOT tells people to take an unoptimal route that can handle all the traffic, in lieu of an optimal route which would not be optimal if everyone tried to take it.

[mgk920]

Not a construction-related boughnheaded detour, but there because the US 10/US(I)-41/WI 441 'Bridgeview' interchange is incomplete (the EB to NB ramp connection does not exist there), is that coming into the Appleton, WI area from the west on US 10, there are BGSes approaching the WI 76 interchange on EB US 10 directing travelers to exit there for a semi-permanent surface road detour to NB US(I)-41.

If I were the signing Poo-Bah in the NE region WisDOT office, I would instead install green signs closer to US(I)-41 saying (note that US 10 picks up WI 441 there and US 10 drops off of the freeway several interchanges later):

-----------------
Green Bay
Kaukauna
Follow [WI 441]
------------------

Mike

[WNYroadgeek]

Right now, NYSDOT has a signed detour for NY 352 in Corning because the bridge that carries it over the Chemung River is being replaced.

The route of the signed detour is NY 415 -> I-86 -> NY 414: http://goo.gl/maps/rIuYV

However, a shorter detour would be NY 415 -> Bridge St.: http://goo.gl/maps/dLh8U

In fairness, I'm not sure if the Bridge St. bridge (heh) would be able to handle all of the detoured traffic, but even if that's the case there was certainly nothing preventing NYSDOT from signing the detour as NY 415 -> NY 414.

[Mr_Northside]

PennDOT's signed detour was this: https://goo.gl/maps/X244f

So, this is another case where the DOT tells people to take an unoptimal route that can handle all the traffic, in lieu of an optimal route which would not be optimal if everyone tried to take it.

When PennDOT has to set up a detour of one of "their" roads, they keep their detours on other PennDOT maintained (state) routes, which can lead to some lengthy "official" detours, but usually the locals know the more efficient detours using borough/township/etc. roads instead.

[briantroutman]

Of course, the much shorter alternative involved several narrow gravel roads, so I'm sure they didn't want to route a bunch of traffic, especially truck traffic, that way.

I would think that many seemingly senseless, long detours have to do with bridge and road weight restrictions. Also in the case highlighted here, it appears that PennDOT routed over state-maintained highways whereas the short route would have involved some township roads.

And I would imagine that local DOT districts are more concerned with mollifying their local constituents (i.e. the people who would phone their state representative and complain that the boneheads at PennDOT routed a tractor-trailer down their narrow street which could have run over their precious kids...).

...a partial cloverleaf with I-270 whose loop ramps would have made a U-turn easy...

I've seen this type of missed opportunity elsewhere. One example that I recall well was reconstruction of the cloverleaf between I-180 and I-80 near Milton, PA. When they closed one of the outer ramps, PennDOT detoured traffic to the next exit (a diamond) to turn around and take the inner loop ramp on the opposite side–when they could have just taken three consecutive loops to make a 270° turn.

I assume that people's behavior patterns on a cloverleaf are so hard-wired (loop around, then merge immediately) that they'd likely ignore any detour sign and merge after the loop, ending up 180° off course. But being savvy enough to make the maneuver, I looked at it as an insider shortcut for roadgeeks.