First freeway in your city to be widened

[Tom958]

I got to thinking about Greensboro, NC, with its fairly ancient express highway system. According to http://bridgereports.com/1326863 , the bridge carrying I-40 and US 29-70-220 over MLK Jr. Drive (former US 421) was widened in 1966, having been built in 1954. Much of the freeway west of there has a Jersey barrier median, which... that seems early. I'd guess that the Jersey barrier was installed some years after the widening.

Also, per http://bridgereports.com/1326840 , the Elm Street-Eugene Street bridge over the freeway was also widened in 1966, having been built in 1955. I don't see any compelling reason for that bridge to have been widened at the same time as the freeway unless it was used as a detour while some other road was closed, the most obvious candidate for closure being Randleman Road, which was US 220 at the time.

[Elm]

Around the Denver metro, it looks like the first freeway to be widened was the Valley Highway, which was US 87 (with some overlaps), and I-25 by the time it was expanded. CDOT lists 1958 as the completion date for the Valley Highway from Evans Ave north to 48th Ave–generally two lanes each way–after the initial project began in '48. Their "Highways to the Skies"  says "federal funding expands the Valley Highway"  in 1964; that was at least in part associated with the opening of the 46th Ave Freeway portion of I-70. Looking at Historic Aerials, much more had been widened by 1971.

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Heading south, Colorado Springs was predictably I-25, too; I think the first single project that added lanes through multiple interchanges was a widening from Bijou St north to Fillmore St in the 1998-2000 timeframe, but, together, the projects putting in what's now the MLK Bypass (US 24), and widening from that south to the middle of a rebuilt Circle Dr interchange may have beaten it, for a total widening from S Nevada Ave to the Circle Dr bridges. Not sure exactly when that finished; Historic Aerials and Google Earth show the Circle interchange under construction in 1999, done by '03.

Since I-25 was the obvious answer for Colorado Springs as its only freeway of appreciable length, I was curious if any of its other fragmented limited-access roads had been widened. I considered those to be the MLK Bypass, S Academy from I-25 through Proby Pkwy at Hancock, and Powers Blvd from Voyager Pkwy south to whatever cross street suited my purposes (Research, Woodmen, Dublin).

I'm inclined to say that none of those have been widened since their interchanges were built, but the other, even shorter limited-access section of S Academy Blvd from Hwy 115 to Venetucci Blvd was twinned in the late "˜00s. It's probably too generous to call it a freeway in its before or after setup, but that may be the closest the Springs has got to a non-I-25 freeway widening. The old study for Powers from Woodmen to I-25 calls for six lanes, so north of Woodmen may be the next one. (For one last, even less relevant non-example, Powers Blvd south of Platte Ave was widened to six lanes Instead of having a former "˜top priority' interchange added at Stewart Ave.)