Freeways that were once arterials

[74/171FAN]

4+ miles of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard northeast of I-285 outside of Atlanta was converted from a six-lane arterial in stages to a four-lane freeway with frontage roads during the 1980's and 1990's.

I was on that freeway a couple months ago and it actually has been upgraded to six lanes(at least to the Tilly Mill Rd exit), I'm not entirely sure east of there but I think it is.

Also I'm not sure people in Myrtle Beach proper would want to count US 501 between SC 31 and US 17.

[vtk]

Were you going to actually say something?

Yes. Don't interupt me when I'm writing.

I wasn't aware the "preview" button caused an incomplete post to become visible to other users.  Or are you not in the habit of using that handy little button?

[vtk]

As noted by Hot Rod Hootenanny, the West Innerbelt (then at least partially OH 782, thence I-71, now OH 315) was built over Sandusky Street, which reportedly was the main drag of the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus.  One block of Sandusky Street remains just east of OH 315, between Rich Street and Town Street, serving primarily as a connecting road in a split-diamond interchange.  Furthermore, it looks to me as though the portion of the South Innerbelt (now I-70/71) where it crosses the Scioto River evolved out of some kind of Mound Street viaduct.

You are correct. When the original Mound-Sandusky interchange was constructed in the 1950s, the "original" Mound Street bridge was incorporated into the approach to the interchange, being used for WB traffic, while a new bridge was built for east bound traffic.
When the interchange was rebuilt in the early 70s (to allow for I-70 to continue through) the Mound Street bridge was demolished and the current I-70(71) bridge for WB traffic was built.

From circa 1970-1974, OH 161 was upgraded-in-place to expressway grade from just west of OH 3 to Big Walnut Creek, just east of Sunbury Road.  Except for an at-grade crossing with a residential street (which may or may not have existed initially, but did by 1978) that section would be a full freeway.  (Interestingly, the 1969 Ohio Map shows a proposed OH 161 bypass around New Albany, which disappeared on future editions of the map, eventually being built about 30 years later.)

Plans for the widening of Oh 161 (Dublin Granville Rd) were first mentioned in the Dispatch back in 1967, again in 1970, and one last time in September 1971, never to be heard about again for another 20 years (until Les Wexner and friends brought it back as part of his Easton/New Albany development).
Those last articles from 1971 were about shifting funding from constructing the New Albany bypass to widening (and realigning) Oh 161 from Cleveland Ave to Sunbury Road.
Soon after the OPEC oil embargo and resulting recession of 1973/4 seemingly wiped the 161 bypass (and arterial route into Licking County) off the books.

I should have said this sooner: thanks for contributing this interesting information.  I was amused by your unconventional progressive posting procedure, and I wanted to share that amusement with the forum.  Sorry if it came out snarky.  Anyway, I was wondering if you could clarify something about Mound Street.  On the MORPC website, there are historic aerial photos available (link) from 1958 showing that Mound Street had an EB-exit/WB-entrance interchange with Whittier Street.  Because the photos are poorly-stitched, I can't tell how Mound Street meshes with the city grid east of there, but I don't think I see the various ramps at Front & 2nd Streets that existed later.  That Whittier Street half-interchange, however, persisted for some time after the Innerbelt was constructed, according to state highway maps.  Here's what I'm getting at: in the 1958 imagery, land was still being cleared for the Mound-Sandusky Interchange, but the Whittier Street ramps appear finished.  Were those ramps at Whittier Street conceived as part of a greater plan for the Innerbelt, and just finished early in the overall project, or had the Mound Street bridge, including those ramps, predated plans for the Innerbelt?

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

My response was drafted as such so I could address each point of your post seperately (while leaving in what you wrote) seperately instead of one large clump of responses at the bottom

The cloverleaf loops from the "Mound Street Expressway" to Whittier St. were conceved as part of the original innerbelt plans for Columbus.
http://www.roadfan.com/bergend.html (3rd image down)

Also see http://www.photohio.org/collections/cj/ and type in Mound-Sandusky.

[Rick1962]

One I've wondered about is I-44 in Tulsa. With its frontage roads filled with businesses and being designated as the non-freeway sounding Skelly Drive, I've wondered if it was ever a non-freeway arterial. I also have a map from the 80s that shows the E-W portion of I-44 in OKC that follows old US 66 as 4-lane non-freeway arterial.

Interstate 44 is an interesting case through Tulsa. It was originally planned to go through downtown, similar to the routing of I-244 today, but city leaders didn't want it built in-town. as a result, it was built along the then-southern city limits.

I-44 was built in sections. The first was the 51st Street Bridge over the Arkansas River, which opened in 1951. The section from the Turner Turnpike to the river bridge was opened in 1953 as an expressway with at-grade crossings (grade separations at 33rd W. Ave., Union Ave. & Elwood Ave.) This section was rebuilt as a full freeway in the late 1970s.

The remainder, from the river to the Will Rogers Turnpike, was opened as a full freeway with two-way frontage roads in 1958. The frontage roads were made one-way in the 1960s. In addition, the stretch from the river east to Utica Ave. was built over the existing 51st Street. As for why it's Skelly "Drive" insted of "Expressway", the most likely reason was to de-emphasize its being a freeway. Similar to how the original section of the Gilcrease Expressway out by the Airport was called Gilcrease "Drive".

In Oklahoma City, parts of what were to become I-35 and I-44 were originally built as the US 66 expressway in the 1950s. The section from Grand Blvd. to Lincoln Blvd. was built as a freeway, but the section from Western to I-35 had at-grade intersections and business access. The section of I-35 from US 66 to the Turner Turnpike had grade-separated interchanges at Wilshire Blvd., Britton Rd. and Hefner Rd., but there was some cross-traffic and business access.

The business access to I-35 was blocked in the 1970s, but the crossovers remained in place until the section was rebuilt into a full freeway in the late 1980s. The Lincoln-to-I-35 section remained an expressway with signalized intersections at Eastern Ave. and Kelley Ave. until it, too, was rebuilt in the late '80s.

Additionally, parts of I-35, I-44 and the Hefner Pkwy. were built on top of Grand Blvd., which was a boulevard loop around the city built in the 1910s-20s.