Roads running through restricted government lands that are open to the public

[wriddle082]

What state- or federal-maintained roads are running through restricted federal lands that are open open to the public?  Primarily I'm referring to military bases and federal research lands.  I know that FL 85 runs right down the middle of Eglin AFB in North FL and is open to the public, and that US 17 and NC 172 each run through Camp Lejune in NC, both open to the public as well.  (and I'm sure each of those roads has strict restrictions pertaining to stopping on the side of the road)  But what about SC 125 through the Savannah River Site?  Signage in Barnwell Co., SC suggests you can pass through the SRS to get to Augusta, but I thought I had heard you couldn't do that anymore.  Does anybody know for sure?  Right now SRS is a federal clean-up area, in that they're no longer actively enriching uranium and they're simply trying to pour concrete over all of their contamination "mistakes".  To me, that says they're hiding the sensitive bits and they should allow the public to pass through.

[NE2]

http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/scroads/sc120-129.html#sc125 has a description of driving through the SRS in the 1980s. Google has Street View coverage of the entire route, so it was accessible in the past few years: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.140016,-81.61833&spn=0.510559,1.318359&gl=us&z=11&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=33.140016,-81.61833&panoid=YBBpKCd-2jVt7STRiwxxcg&cbp=12,159.8,,0,6.05 and I don't see any guard booths on SC 125 on aerials.

I think there are two different types of 'passing through'. One, probably more common, is where the restricted area exists on both sides of the highway but the highway itself is public right of way (e.g. NJ 34 through NWS Earle).

[Alps]

NJ 34 runs through Naval Weapons Station Earle. For that matter, CR 539 runs through the east side of Fort Dix.

[mapman]

In California, I-5 passes through Camp Pendleton for nearly 17 miles (between Orange County and the northern suburbs of San Diego).  It's a freeway, so by default stops are restricted to emergencies only.

[huskeroadgeek]

US 31W and US 60 run through the borders of Fort Knox in Kentucky.

[mgk920]

WI 21 and I-90 pass through Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

Also, US 27/280 passes through Fort Benning in Georgia.

Mike

[roadfro]

Surprisingly, with all the federal lands in Nevada, there are no state or other public highways going through restricted lands.

There's a few that come close, though. Most notably, SR 375, the "Extraterrestrial Highway" near Area 51. In its previous incarnation as SR 25, state highway maps from the early 1940s show the route going through some of what is now the Nevada Test Site and the Nellis Air Force Range. The 1950 map show the route as "travel restricted". The highway was rerouted by 1957 to avoid the restricted area.

[Mapmikey]

http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/scroads/sc120-129.html#sc125 has a description of driving through the SRS in the 1980s. Google has Street View coverage of the entire route, so it was accessible in the past few years: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.140016,-81.61833&spn=0.510559,1.318359&gl=us&z=11&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=33.140016,-81.61833&panoid=YBBpKCd-2jVt7STRiwxxcg&cbp=12,159.8,,0,6.05 and I don't see any guard booths on SC 125 on aerials.

I think there are two different types of 'passing through'. One, probably more common, is where the restricted area exists on both sides of the highway but the highway itself is public right of way (e.g. NJ 34 through NWS Earle).

I received an email this week that actually addresses SC 125...since 2008 there has been no southern guard shack, and traffic is still allowed through.  However, you are still not supposed to stop.

I don't believe Virginia has any routes anymore that pass through military facilities where they don't own the ROW.  They got rid of the ones they did have in the WW2 era, except maybe US 60-258 through Fort Monroe which lasted until the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel opened in the late 1950s.

Quantico MCB had a road several miles long through the back of the facility that connected SR 611 to SR 646 (MCB route 8) that was open to the public until about 5 years ago.

VDOT controlled routes through facilities include: US 1 through Quantico and Fort Belvoir; I-95 through Quantico; VA 110 through the Pentagon; I-564/VA 337 through Norfolk Naval Base; US 301 through Fort AP Hill;

Note that the town of Quantico, VA has VDOT-maintained streets but the town itself can only be accessed via a 3 mile road under the control of the Marine Corps Base.

Mapmikey

[vdeane]

NY 26 runs right through Fort Drum.

[J N Winkler]

Loop 375 in Texas passes over a gunnery range which is part of Fort Bliss and has bilingual signs directing motorists not to leave the highway because of unexploded ammunition.  I have no information on ROW ownership.

[Alex]

Georgia 119 is restricted through Fort Stewart. I drove through there in late 2006. The road was open through to GA-144, but you have to take a combination of GA 144 east to the Ft. Stewart Bypass (Old Sunbury Road on Bing Maps) to Hinesville. A couple photos from the southbound entrance into the base:









Florida 87 and Florida 285 also travel through Eglin A.F.B., but neither of those are restricted. Military vehicles sometimes travel them to get to the many dirt roads that travel east-west across the base.

[SP Cook]

In Australia, there is a joint British/Australian military base called the Woomera Test Range.  The Wiki article on it has a cool shot of the signage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woomera_Prohibited_Area  on the Stuart Highway, the only north/south road in the dry heart of Australia.

[mjb2002]

http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/scroads/sc120-129.html#sc125 has a description of driving through the SRS in the 1980s. Google has Street View coverage of the entire route, so it was accessible in the past few years: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.140016,-81.61833&spn=0.510559,1.318359&gl=us&z=11&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=33.140016,-81.61833&panoid=YBBpKCd-2jVt7STRiwxxcg&cbp=12,159.8,,0,6.05 and I don't see any guard booths on SC 125 on aerials.

I think there are two different types of 'passing through'. One, probably more common, is where the restricted area exists on both sides of the highway but the highway itself is public right of way (e.g. NJ 34 through NWS Earle).

I received an email this week that actually addresses SC 125...since 2008 there has been no southern guard shack, and traffic is still allowed through.  However, you are still not supposed to stop.

Mapmikey

Yeah, that sounds about right. I was wondering if civilians were allowed to go on SC 125 from Martin to Jackson.

SC 125 is the only way to get access to Hattieville (a small town in southwestern Barnwell County).

[realjd]

Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC has a public highway that passes through the middle. There's even an odd stoplight leftover from when Bragg was an open post. Cars are allowed to pass from one side of Bragg to the other across the highway, or turn onto the public road to exit the post, but cars on the public highway aren't allowed turns into the post. There are guards on the corners to enforce this.

SR-A1A here in Brevard passes along the edge of Patrick AFB, between the east fence and the USAF-owned (but public) beaches.

Many military bases (particularly the larger Army posts) aren't restricted necessarily. All it takes is a drivers license to get on to many of them.

[SteveG1988]

CR 545 runs right between fort dix and mcguire afb, it used to be open until the base closed after 9/11, there are no plans to reopen the road on base at all. Too much security would be required I.E. building of more fences on the fort dix side of the road, bigger fence at the edge of the mcguire afb runway, etc.

But it is pretty much rerouted through the ranges on fort dix, on browns mills-cookstown road. There is also Range Road that intersects that road that is pretty much wide open.

[SidS1045]

NM-213, US-54, US-70 and US-380 go through the White Sands Missle Range.  Danger signs are posted, warning people not to wander beyond the six feet or so on either side of the road, and the roads are sometimes closed for tests of missles whose trajectories would cross the roads.

[wriddle082]

OK, drove really close to (technically, through) Savannah River Site today.  This afternoon/early evening, I had to make a round trip from Allendale, SC to Aiken, SC.  Followed my GPS to get to Aiken (mistake), but to get back to Allendale I took SC 19 south to US 278 south.  From the SC 19/US 278 intersection, I could see the SRS barrier about 1/2 mile in the distance, and it looked like a massive toll plaza (probably has to be big since it's most likely the main gate, as workers who live in the medium-sized city of Aiken would commute this way).  Once I was on US 278 south, I was officially cutting through a sliver of the SRS.  Fences on both sides with warning signs attached to them (couldn't read them).

The strangest thing along that route?  Saw a sign for the "University of Georgia Conference Center".  And this is in South Carolina!!!

Makes you wonder if this UGA facility pre-dates USC becoming a member of the Southeastern Conference, because these days I'm sure South Carolinians wouldn't have wanted Bulldogs soiling their land.

[sp_redelectric]

On the Hanford Reservation in southeastern Washington, the highway from Richland north to the "Wye Barricade", and then the road southwest from the Wye Barricade that leads to the intersection of SR 240 and 225 are public (although there's virtually no reason to use them.)  SR 240 could be considered to cut through the reservation but the lands south of SR 240 are all natural habitat and no longer officially part of the Hanford Reservation for Department of Energy purposes.

Interstate 5 cuts through Joint Base Lewis-McChord and 150th Street S.W. essentially forms the boundary between the old Fort Lewis (Army) and McChord AFB and is public.

[agentsteel53]

NM-213, US-54, US-70 and US-380 go through the White Sands Missle Range.  Danger signs are posted, warning people not to wander beyond the six feet or so on either side of the road, and the roads are sometimes closed for tests of missles whose trajectories would cross the roads.

damn.  and here I thought "F-18s flying about 200 feet overhead" was badass enough.  that's I-15 near my house; the landing path to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

[ghYHZ]

TCH 2 passes through CFB Gagetown (near Fredericton, New Brunswick) and cautionary signs advise you to not leave the highway:

http://g.co/maps/grka

[hbelkins]

I remember a lot of old maps making reference to the old Air Force gunnery range (now named after Barry Goldwater) on AZ 85, and saying that drivers were not allowed to stop between Gila Bend and Ajo. Don't have an old atlas or map handy, but would love to see a scan of that wording as it existed back then.

[NE2]

I remember a lot of old maps making reference to the old Air Force gunnery range (now named after Barry Goldwater) on AZ 85, and saying that drivers were not allowed to stop between Gila Bend and Ajo. Don't have an old atlas or map handy, but would love to see a scan of that wording as it existed back then.

http://www.arizonaroads.com/maps/index.html
1961 and 1971 have different wording.

[mtantillo]

What state- or federal-maintained roads are running through restricted federal lands that are open open to the public?  Primarily I'm referring to military bases and federal research lands.  I know that FL 85 runs right down the middle of Eglin AFB in North FL and is open to the public, and that US 17 and NC 172 each run through Camp Lejune in NC, both open to the public as well.  (and I'm sure each of those roads has strict restrictions pertaining to stopping on the side of the road) 

NC 172 was closed through Camp Lejune a few years ago.  It is only accessible to those with military ID/Decals.

[Mike_OH]

Ohio Route 444 travels through Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

[Bryant5493]

Not sure if this counts or not, but U.S. 27/280/S.R. 1/520 (South Georgia Parkway) passes through the northern tip of Fort Benning.


Be well,

Bryant