Roadways that are potentially overbuilt

[iBallasticwolf2]

This is a thread about roadways are bridges that have been overbuilt

I will start with this. Most of these overbuilt bridges are built to look nice but serve no funamental purpose in terms of their extra support

Is this seriously neccasary? https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.265,-83.269917,3a,75y,264.42h,102.72t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sAAva0qH__dvqTtRK1G_tUA!2e0

This is certainly unnecasary but not as insane as the last example-https://www.google.ca/maps/@39.098106,-84.514519,3a,44.5y,257.12h,104.94t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWtFL0DAGgX0CtWeynD8tRQ!2e0

[cl94]

I could swear we had a thread on this somewhere.

For the I-94 example, the arch is structural. Each ~200 ft span was designed for 4 lanes plus full shoulders on both sides. To avoid placing a support in the center, you'd need extremely deep I-beams (requiring the freeway to be raised another 3-4 feet) or have a system that redirects either the compressive or tensile forces. In this case, the arch carries the load, greatly reducing the required depth of the I-beams. Is it aesthetically pleasing? Certainly, but there's probably a good reason why they avoided the 6-7 foot I-beams you'd otherwise need.

[I-39]

I've said this many times on this forum, but I think some state DOT's (specifically Wisconsin) are starting to overbuild freeways. Wisconsin in particular seems to think every single major route needs to be a full blown freeway or a high-quality expressway (that can be upgraded to full freeway status later). Examples include WIS 26 and US 151 and I-43 (between Beloit and Milwaukee). All of those are freeways or high-quality expressways that are scheduled to be upgraded to full freeway standards in the future. Those corridors could have easily been consolidated into one main corridor between Janesville and Fond Du Lac (roughly along the current WIS 26 alignment) and served the purpose of all three of those alignments.

Another example is US 10 west of Steven's Point. WAY too elaborate for the amount of traffic it gets (especially with WIS 29 not too far north).

I could go on, but that's my two cents.

[iBallasticwolf2]

I could swear we had a thread on this somewhere.

For the I-94 example, the arch is structural. Each ~200 ft span was designed for 4 lanes plus full shoulders on both sides. To avoid placing a support in the center, you'd need extremely deep I-beams (requiring the freeway to be raised another 3-4 feet) or have a system that redirects either the compressive or tensile forces. In this case, the arch carries the load, greatly reducing the required depth of the I-beams. Is it aesthetically pleasing? Certainly, but there's probably a good reason why they avoided the 6-7 foot I-beams you'd otherwise need.

I never thought about that

[vdeane]

I think I-11 outside of the Vegas/Phoenix corridor may become a future example of this.

I imagine there are quite a few cases where freeways weren't completed.  CT 25 and the Dunn Memorial Bridge come to mind.

[hotdogPi]

Wisconsin in particular seems to think every single major route needs to be a full blown freeway or a high-quality expressway

Basically a smaller-scale FritzOwl?

[jeffandnicole]

This is a thread about roadways are bridges that have been overbuilt

I will start with this. Most of these overbuilt bridges are built to look nice but serve no funamental purpose in terms of their extra support

Is this seriously neccasary? https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.265,-83.269917,3a,75y,264.42h,102.72t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sAAva0qH__dvqTtRK1G_tUA!2e0

This is certainly unnecasary but not as insane as the last example-https://www.google.ca/maps/@39.098106,-84.514519,3a,44.5y,257.12h,104.94t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWtFL0DAGgX0CtWeynD8tRQ!2e0

A lot of times, it comes down to cost.  Believe it or not, that 'overbuilt' bridge is probably cheaper than the alternative that cl94 provided.

[iBallasticwolf2]

This is a thread about roadways are bridges that have been overbuilt

I will start with this. Most of these overbuilt bridges are built to look nice but serve no funamental purpose in terms of their extra support

Is this seriously neccasary? https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.265,-83.269917,3a,75y,264.42h,102.72t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sAAva0qH__dvqTtRK1G_tUA!2e0

This is certainly unnecasary but not as insane as the last example-https://www.google.ca/maps/@39.098106,-84.514519,3a,44.5y,257.12h,104.94t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWtFL0DAGgX0CtWeynD8tRQ!2e0

A lot of times, it comes down to cost.  Believe it or not, that 'overbuilt' bridge is probably cheaper than the alternative that cl94 provided.

That is possible

[cl94]

Where New York completes stuff, it usually isn't overbuilt, the opposite almost always being true. I can think of a few other examples of highways that were overbuilt, most because something else wasn't built or completed.

*I-490 west of NY 531 was designed to accommodate 6 lanes that it'll never need. Unlike the others, this one was because suburbs developed differently than expected
*LaSalle Expressway near Buffalo
*Robert Moses Parkway north of Niagara Falls. Underutilized even with the diet.
*Lake Ontario State Parkway. Always empty due to it not being completed to Buffalo.
*Sheridan Expressway. Was supposed to bypass the Bruckner Interchange and roughly parallel the 5 to Co-Op City

A lot of times, it comes down to cost.  Believe it or not, that 'overbuilt' bridge is probably cheaper than the alternative that cl94 provided.

Yeah. Ohio overbuilds things and/or adds stuff for show (i.e. the cable-stayed bridges in Franklin County) when it isn't needed. This isn't overbuilding. Having an arch also allows them to stage construction, reducing impact on traffic.

[SteveG1988]

Overbuilt for later traffic conditions: Betsy Ross Bridge. Built with 8 lanes, restriped in the late 1990s to 6 lanes with full shoulders on the outer edge, and a jersey barrier. Reason: PA90 was Canned.

US301 Over the Delaware canal. road is mostly a 2 lane road through DE, does not become a major 4 lane road until it is in MD. bridge was built for a freeway that never came.

US50 in IL, along the never used I-64 alignment, Overpasses and underpasses built for a 4 lane interstate, most of the time only the future westbound lanes are in use.

PA 413's Exit for I-95. Was at one time the northern end of I-95 and still remains configured as a freeway end, just with the actual freeway branching off.

[Dr Frankenstein]

From my hometown, the suspension bridge carrying R-132 across a part of the mouth of the canal, just downstream from the hydro dam.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.315718,-73.906358,3a,75y,118.53h,84.65t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s1YrblHEuNeUHdZwS9SZ6ag!2e0

[froggie]

I could swear we had a thread on this somewhere.

In some ways.  The largest waste of money thread has a lot of similarities.  We've also had threads on overbuilt interchanges.

[roadman65]

I-278 in Linden, NJ over Park Avenue was built with the wide median covered to make it one long underpass underneath instead of two separate bridges for the two carriageways.    That is because the super wide median was to be an express lane configuration had I-278 been completed west of US 1 & 9 to connect with its parent in Springfield, NJ.

[TheOneKEA]

MD 10 east of Glen Burnie was supposed to be the freeway bypass of MD 2 Ritchie Highway between I-695 and US 50/301. The current segment between the Beltway and MD 100/MD 2 is hilariously overbuilt for its length and location, and is really only useful as a rush hour relief route for both MD 2 and I-97.

[iBallasticwolf2]

This flyover ramp off US-52 in Cincinnati was built to eliminate cross-over traffic but sure seems overbuilt for a ramp to a road that isn't that important https://www.google.ca/maps/@39.083035,-84.420321,3a,75y,123.54h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sZham83oMP9mNgSgYiLOq6Q!2e0

[hotdogPi]

I-10 in western Texas. Interchanges are not needed, and at-grade intersections are enough (which do exist on I-10, but most are still interchanges). Maybe I-20, too.

[roadman65]

US 77 to I-69E.  Its fine as a 75 mph arterial through Kenedy County (the only US county without a traffic signal) with lightly traveled side roads intersecting.  It may not be done completely but it is overbuilt considering its entire reason for being upgraded: so that Canada and Mexico have a complete freeway on paper between them.

[hotdogPi]

Kenedy County (the only US county with a traffic signal)

Am I missing something? There are traffic signals in most counties in the United States. If what you said was true, traffic signals would be almost non-existent in the United States.

so that Canada and Mexico have a complete freeway on paper between them.

What about I-5?

[roadman65]

Kenedy County (the only US county with a traffic signal)

Am I missing something? There are traffic signals in most counties in the United States. If what you said was true, traffic signals would be almost non-existent in the United States.

so that Canada and Mexico have a complete freeway on paper between them.

What about I-5?

I meant without.  Sorry, I do not know why I did that as I was thinking without as I typed it.  Let me fix it.

Edit: Fixed.

[Alex4897]

US301 Over the Delaware canal. road is mostly a 2 lane road through DE, does not become a major 4 lane road until it is in MD. bridge was built for a freeway that never came.

Maybe at the time it was built, sure.  But given how quickly Middletown is growing (and how the US 301 spur road is eventually supposed to tie into the bridge), it's better that they didn't leave as a two lane bridge.  Not to mention, should something catastrophic happen to the DE 1 bridge, this is the next best canal crossing.

[roadman65]

Since I-95 got built in SC, US 301 is not used much south of Santee.  However, it remains a four lane road from I-95 Exit 97 to the Savanah River which under today's traffic counts using that stretch, does not even warrant it.

Just look at all the abandoned Fireworks stands that still line US 301 south of Orangeburg, and it will tell you how much of a drop in traffic occurred since I-95 opened for business.

[national highway 1]

The Warringah Freeway in North Sydney, Australia
https://goo.gl/m9XECQ

[Bitmapped]

Kenedy County (the only US county with a traffic signal)

Am I missing something? There are traffic signals in most counties in the United States. If what you said was true, traffic signals would be almost non-existent in the United States.

I meant without.  Sorry, I do not know why I did that as I was thinking without as I typed it.  Let me fix it.

Edit: Fixed.

There are plenty of US counties without traffic signals.  I can think of several in WV, VA, and PA off the top of my head.

[froggie]

Not sure where roadman got his information from, but as bitmapped noted there are plenty of counties without traffic signals.  Vermont has two and Minnesota has at least one (probably more).

[Pete from Boston]

I could swear we had a thread on this somewhere.

Could be thinking of this:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=14196.msg2026154

Mass. 116 in Hadley/Amherst is excessive anytime UMass isn't moving in or out or having commencement.  Football is an afterthought, and rarely played there anymore anyway.  The big sleepy road looks like they just needed practice building freeways.