Ugliest Highways

[MATraveler128]

How about the New Jersey Turnpike from Woodbridge Township to Secaucus. It just goes by these ugly factories and railroad yards. Although you could argue that the NYC skyline is nice.

[jmacswimmer]

Baltimore-Washington Parkway in the vicinity of Baltimore. Perhaps it's been cleaned up since then but it was a pretty rough and ugly drive:

- https://goo.gl/maps/RoZgJmUn14TxNEkj7
- https://goo.gl/maps/D3m4wmx6hvv4dQKR8
- Looks like they may have cleaned up the median but did they plant anything new? https://goo.gl/maps/VfdvLPwkHQttypAdA
-

Agreed, that is one hideous segment.  Here's another one from across town: The ghost freeway that was supposed to be I-170.

[webny99]

Baltimore-Washington Parkway in the vicinity of Baltimore. Perhaps it's been cleaned up since then but it was a pretty rough and ugly drive:

- https://goo.gl/maps/RoZgJmUn14TxNEkj7
- https://goo.gl/maps/D3m4wmx6hvv4dQKR8
- Looks like they may have cleaned up the median but did they plant anything new? https://goo.gl/maps/VfdvLPwkHQttypAdA
-

Agreed, that is one hideous segment.

Yeah, that's a good one. I remember thinking how ugly it was as I was sitting in the terrible traffic on my DC trip back in 2017.

Here's another one from across town: The ghost freeway that was supposed to be I-170.

This one I don't have as much of an issue with. Sure it's empty and a bit spooky looking, but at least the pavement is in OK shape, there's not graffiti everywhere, and the median is spruced up pretty nicely.

[Henry]

For Chicago, I'd nominate the Ike (I-290) as its ugliest expressway, especially with all the construction that's been going on lately. It goes through a rough part of town, and certainly looks the part too, but the awesome downtown skyline view makes up for it. Before the Dan Ryan (I-90/I-94) got reconstructed back in the 90s, the same things applied to it as well.

[jaehak]

I-5 from Sacramento to the Grapevine.

Unless, one considers flat terrain and power lines "pretty" .

Agreed. This and I-70 in Missouri between Blue Springs and Wentzville are probably my least favorite drives. The 5 may be worse since 70 has a cool river crossing and isn't quite as long.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I remember the one time I drove on Ayd Mill Road in St. Paul, MN, that road was horrible all the way around.

The 4th St viaduct between I-94 and downtown Minneapolis is another of my "favorites".

[US20IL64]

For Chicago, I'd nominate the Ike (I-290) as its ugliest expressway, especially with all the construction that's been going on lately. It goes through a rough part of town, and certainly looks the part too, but the awesome downtown skyline view makes up for it. Before the Dan Ryan (I-90/I-94) got reconstructed back in the 90s, the same things applied to it as well.

When new(er), Ike/Congress was Mid Century Modern squeaky clean, the El/CTA transit stations looked good when new, too. Now, a run down mess, waiting for a rebuild/

[Flint1979]

What about the section of the Lake Ontario State Parkway that is closed in the winter? That is one ugly highway right there.

[Flint1979]

For Chicago, I'd nominate the Ike (I-290) as its ugliest expressway, especially with all the construction that's been going on lately. It goes through a rough part of town, and certainly looks the part too, but the awesome downtown skyline view makes up for it. Before the Dan Ryan (I-90/I-94) got reconstructed back in the 90s, the same things applied to it as well.

The thing with Chicago is that I never really worried too much about the expressways that go through the rough neighborhoods like the Ike on the westside or the Dan Ryan on the southside but I knew if I got off I would be in a dangerous neighborhood. Being a Sox fan I have gone to plenty of games at Comiskey Park and I got off a little early one time and went through the Fuller Park neighborhood that neighborhood is the definition of the word ugly.

[skluth]

IL 3 from Venice to Cahokia

[webny99]

What about the section of the Lake Ontario State Parkway that is closed in the winter? That is one ugly highway right there.

It is, although it wouldn't be too bad scenery-wise if it was paved. I still think the one in the OP is worse on balance.

[jdbx]

I-880 through Oakland is always pretty embarrassing when I am picking up guests from out of town:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7813731,-122.2386907,3a,75y,290.75h,92.03t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sdOuPJnC0bsat9tRgmNCGoA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DdOuPJnC0bsat9tRgmNCGoA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D104.10676%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

Riddled with graffiti, trash-strewn homeless encampments on both sides of the highway. An uncle who flew in from Miami told me that it reminded him of the favelas in Rio.  I guess the pavement is in good shape at least <shrug>

[Flint1979]

What about the section of the Lake Ontario State Parkway that is closed in the winter? That is one ugly highway right there.

It is, although it wouldn't be too bad scenery-wise if it was paved. I still think the one in the OP is worse on balance.

It would be great if it was repaved and had it's bridges replaced. Those are some ugly bridges there too. I hear people are looking to vacation in Orleans County, NY.

[formulanone]

Any route with temporary Jersey barriers that been left in place for several years, long after a construction project. Bonus points when they're crumbling and slightly dislodged.

But that crap is seriously weak...I can deal with brutalist architecture, mid-century modern, and shabby appearances.

[tsmatt13]

There are monstrous potholes on I-95's GWB and when they get fixed, new ones always come up.

[thspfc]

Just about the entirety of I-43 is showing its age (except for within the limits of the Marquette and Mitchell interchange projects).

[FightingIrish]

I remember the one time I drove on Ayd Mill Road in St. Paul, MN, that road was horrible all the way around.

Ayd Mill is a very crude road.

[SSR_317]

I-17 south of The Stack on the Durango Curve isn't much of a looker.  Much of the Black Canyon Highway portion north I-10 was built as AZ 69 isn't doesn't have any design flair to it unlike the other freeways around Phoenix.

I always joked that the original Black Canyon Freeway should have been named the CONCRETE Canyon Freeway. Talk about brutalist! Of course, back when it was new in the late 1950s, it might not have been quite that bad, but the cheap design (understandable at the time, though it made adding new lanes nearly impossibly expensive & time consuming) and the explosive growth of the Valley since (which created legendary traffic jams, making lane expansion imperative) combined to make it one of the ugliest freeways in the country. I suppose that at SOME point ADOT will finally get around to redoing that section of I-17, but if anyone wants to see what the entire BCF used to be like, that remaining stretch of the original freeway south of The Stack & north of the Durango Curve is it!

[FightingIrish]

Just about the entirety of I-43 is showing its age (except for within the limits of the Marquette and Mitchell interchange projects).

I-43 is just terrible all around. North of the Marquette, it goes through some of the worst neighborhoods in the city. North of Silver Spring, it drops down to two lanes in each direction, creating a nasty bottleneck. The rest of the way to Green Bay is pretty boring. And in Green Bay, it maintains it's four lane width, even across the bridge.

The Milwaukee -Beloit extension isn't as bad. Nice rolling hills, but only four total lanes from the Hale Interchange into Waukesha County. The single lane ramps of the Hale get very backed up. And the left ramp for US 45 that quickly pops up is dangerous. Another highway designed decades ago for a non-Interstate designation (the former WIS 15) that has not been upgraded much since.

At least there are vital parts of the road currently being upgraded. Silver Spring to WIS 60 is getting additional lanes, and I'm hoping that the reconstruction of the Layton Ave bridge SW of the Hale is a sign of improvements in that area.

All in all, the Milwaukee-area freeways are still better than that US 12 mess between Illinois and WIS 67. That road is straight out of a third-world country.

[SSR_317]

The former Airport Expressway, now renamed Sam Jones Expressway, is probably the worst, but fortunately one of the shortest, stretches of "ugly" highway in Indiana's Capitol City. Poorly designed and horribly maintained even before it stopped being the main highway route to IND airport, the Sam Jones was a major embarrassment to the Circle City, one most visitors arriving and/or departing our city by air travel no longer have to see. Which is probably why, other than the rebuild of its I-465 interchange, very little has been done to improve it.

[achilles765]

SH 225 here in Houston isn't winning any awards for sure.  Old, badly maintained pavement, potholes, it runs through the most heavily industrialized and poorest areas of the metro area... all you see for 22 miles or so is one petrochemical plant and tank yard after another. And some old run down cities that most people inside the loop or in the west and north never even think about. 

The stretch of I-10 East from Beltway 8 to Grand Parkway in Baytown is very similar.  Heavy industry, nasty little towns, old pavement, graffiti.

[roadman65]

I would say I-70, I-78, and I-83 in PA all qualify as they look more like urban expressways than rural interstates due to them taking over previous US and state routes.

I-295 over US 130 in NJ used to be before it got reconstructed. Previously it looked like a local off freeway road and not an attractive freeway.

[Chris19001]

Roosevelt Expressway, Philadelphia, PA:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0200769,-75.1513222,3a,75y,94.38h,94.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5kMhuOMbLX0DKZqZs9AGTg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Abandon Hope all who enter here..

[OCGuy81]

Before they moved it underground, the Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle was an eye sore

[Max Rockatansky]

Before they moved it underground, the Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle was an eye sore

The views from the top sure weren't ugly.  I found the Viaduct to be an extremely distinct and had a "so ugly it's beautiful"  quality.  But then again I found the Embarcadero Freeway had similar qualities which I enjoyed.  I guess that I'm a fan of mid-20th Brutalist infrastructure design and the accompanying sense of dystopia.