1991 Bucks County, PA Map Scans

[Alex]

Some scans I spliced together from a 1991 Franklin County street atlas for Bucks and Montgomery Counties showing some proposals that were likely long dead at the time of publication. The key maps reveal even more proposals that do not translate onto the street-level maps. Click on the images for larger views.



The US 202 (Piedmont Expressway?) alignment shows up on the Bucks County key map (extracted from their regional map) as well as a proposed for a highway from PA 9 at Kulpsville to US 202. Note also the freeway spur from I-95 at Bristol.



A look at the US 202 freeway proposed southwest of what was a half-used cloverleaf interchange (until the current Parkway project was underway) at Doylestown.



The map also shows the US 202 freeway continuing northeast from Doylestown to New Jersey.



This atlas was the first I saw of a new alignment for PA 611 in northern Bucks County.



The US 202 alignment continues onto Montgomery County key map. Also one of the Philadelphia freeway proposals is visible to the bottom right.

[Beltway]

Some scans I spliced together from a 1991 Franklin County street atlas for Bucks and Montgomery Counties showing some proposals that were likely long dead at the time of publication. The key maps reveal even more proposals that do not translate onto the street-level maps. Click on the images for larger views.

Very surprising that they considered them active proposals in 1991.  Those are the same alignments that were planned as far back as around 1970.  The PA-611 bypass was one of them.

Notice the proposed Phoenixville Spur of the Pottstown Expressway on the last map.

I don't recall any name back in the 1970s other than "US-202 Expressway" for the US-202 bypass.  Never saw "Piedmont Expressway".

I recall from maps then the proposed freeway from PA 9 at Kulpsville to US 202.  The freeway spur from I-95 at Bristol was one of the early plans to connect I-95 to the Turnpike.

Their US-309 and US-611 designations were long removed by then, they were PA state routes when I first drove there in 1972.

[english si]

Why is it that Bucks county only has two names from it's namesake? (Buckingham and Chalfont)

Sloppy given that Mr Penn Snr called himself that as he thought he was related to the family who owned the manor at Penn, Bucks, England. Oh, and that a lot of Quakers came from Bucks.

[Stephane Dumas]

Interesting to note then US-422 was still marked on Germantown Pike.

[Roadsguy]

I spy the Northeast Expressway.

The random piece of disconnected 611 expressway isn't new to me. I know that Woodhaven would have gone all the way up to PA 33 at Bethlehem/Easton via the Doylestown Bypass. But I thought it was all killed at once. I didn't know that a segment was still proposed, or brought back, or something else.

How 202 would have met the alignment from King of Prussia south is also new. I thought it would meet with the short piece of expressway in Norristown (somehow), and from there down it would be upgraded to the current expressway, since PennDOT was big on the build-up-now-blast-out-later plan back then. I didn't know that it would meet 422 at the 363 interchange.

Was the Phoenixville spur from 422 ever officially cancelled, or is it just shelved like Woodhaven Road in northeast Philly?

[qguy]

Those scans are great for showing where the proposed alignments were once intended to be, but don't use them to infer when the proposals were live versus abandoned. Franklin tended to show dead proposals on their maps lo-o-o-ong after they were officially dropped.

PennDOT District 6-0 does still hope to build the Phoenixville spur from US 422 though.

[Alex]

Those scans are great for showing where the proposed alignments were once intended to be, but don't use them to infer when the proposals were live versus abandoned. Franklin tended to show dead proposals on their maps lo-o-o-ong after they were officially dropped.

PennDOT District 6-0 does still hope to build the Phoenixville spur from US 422 though.

Indeed, their usage of US 309 and 611 shields was consistent, and another map I have from the early 90s, similar to this 1991 atlas, shows several long-dead freeway proposals in Philadelphia that their editors should have noted for removal.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Interesting to note then US-422 was still marked on Germantown Pike.

And you can find older maps that show US 422 marked along Ridge Pike/Ave.

[Beltway]

How 202 would have met the alignment from King of Prussia south is also new. I thought it would meet with the short piece of expressway in Norristown (somehow), and from there down it would be upgraded to the current expressway, since PennDOT was big on the build-up-now-blast-out-later plan back then. I didn't know that it would meet 422 at the 363 interchange.

That was the plan... to merge into the County Line Expressway near Betzwood.

The Dannehower Bridge US-202 segment bypassed Bridgeport, but wasn't planned to extend any new highway north of there.

Was the Phoenixville spur from 422 ever officially cancelled, or is it just shelved like Woodhaven Road in northeast Philly?

Yes, it was deemed too disruptive to river and residential areas, and too costly from environmental and financial standpoint.

Still semi-active in 1994 --
http://articles.philly.com/1994-01-27/news/25825851_1_penndot-engineers-snarl-traffic

Currently there is an arterial proposal that would serve the corridor --

InterCounty Relief Route
http://www.dvrpc.org/reports/06024.pdf

[Roadsguy]

Yes, it was deemed too disruptive to river and residential areas, and too costly from environmental and financial standpoint.

...

Currently there is an arterial proposal that would serve the corridor --

[Beltway]

Yes, it was deemed too disruptive to river and residential areas, and too costly from environmental and financial standpoint.

...

Currently there is an arterial proposal that would serve the corridor --

The original freeway spur would have been ideal from a traffic standpoint, but the current proposal would certainly help provide relief to the existing antiquated PA-29 arrangement and river bridge between the US-422 freeway and the Borough of Phoenixville.