Densest County Line Crossings

[wxfree]

TX 115 passes through Andrews, Martin, Gaines, and Dawson Counties in a little over a half mile.  Three county lines in 0.52 mile equals one crossing per 0.1733 mile.  How many places of similar density are out there?  A list of roads straddling the line between two counties or single clipped corners would be long, so it's better to focus on three or more counties or two more more clipped corners.

Here's a Street View image of one crossing, with another nearby in each direction.  http://goo.gl/maps/5bQZO

[bassoon1986]

I-49 in Louisiana crosses 6 lines (7 parishes: Rapides, Evangeline, Avoyelles, Evangeline, St. Landry, Evangeline, St. Landry) in 16.2 miles for a ratio of 1 crossing per 2.7 miles.

Actually if i move it closer to the cluster, 4 crossings (Avoyelles, Evangeline, St. Landry, Evangeline, St. Landry) I get 4 lines in 6.9 miles so 1 per 1.725 miles.

[hbelkins]

I can think of several rapid-fire crossings involving three counties on Kentucky state highways but I'm too lazy to post them all or comment on ratios. US 62 does Scott-Bourbon-Harrison, KY 587 does Lee-Owsley-Jackson, KY 1209 does Estill-Lee-Jackson and KY 61 does Cumberland-(mumble)-Adair.

There's also one on I-79 in West Virginia where it clips the corner of either Braxton or Gilmer county, I can't remember for sure which it is.

[Duke87]

Does it have to be all on one route? Via US 6/202 and NY 9D, one can go from Orange to Rockland to Westchester to Putnam counties in New York in about 0.7 miles. Making this exceptional is that it involves a bridge over a major river.

[wxfree]

In order to avoid including too many instances, I intended to include two or more corner clippings or three or more counties in line straddlings.

KY 61 goes Cumberland, Adair, Metcalfe, Adair.  That's two clipped corners and three lines crossed in 1.2 miles.  KY 1209 goes Estill, Jackson, Estill, Jackson, Estill, Lee, and then back to (at or near) the Jackson County line.  That's six crossings or "concurrencies" in 3.6 miles.

US 6/202 and NY 9D is a good example if we include multi-route examples.  What got me interested in this was remembering a photo I found online years ago showing the example I mentioned on TX 115.

[sbeaver44]

I-80/90/Ohio Turnpike from the Elmore Exit (81) to maybe 2 miles past the Mile 77 service plaza pair goes Sandusky-Ottawa-Sandusky-Ottawa-Wood. 

Bonus points to Ohio for having the cities of Sandusky (Erie County) and Upper Sandusky (Wyandot County) not be located in Sandusky County.

[JustDrive]

The most I've seen in California is on I-80 between SF and Vallejo, for a total of four counties (San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano) in a span of roughly 25 miles.

[Alps]

In the span of less than 100 feet, US 129 goes from Graham County into Cherokee County, where it ends, and turning east on US 74/north on US 19 enters Macon County. It's just over 2 miles into Swain County from there.

[jp the roadgeek]

If you take I-691 East from I-84 West, and stay on CT 66 after the I-91 interchange, you go from Hartford-New Haven-Hartford-New Haven-Middlesex in about a 10 mile stretch. Or in a 15 mile stretch on I-684, you go Westchester-Fairfield (CT)-Westchester-Putnam.

[NE2]

If a road cuts directly across a four corners, does that count as zero?

[sbeaver44]

I knew there was one nearby I couldn't think of yesterday-- PA 696 leaves Franklin County and enters Cumberland County on the south side of Shippensburg.  It then makes a left onto Fayette Street and goes back into Franklin County for a few hundred feet before reentering Cumberland County right after the shopping center. 

Bishop Road in Dillsburg, PA starts in York County, crosses the Yellow Breeches into Cumberland, has a few houses, then crosses the creek again back into York.  Back in the day it appears to have crossed the creek a third time back into Cumberland, heading into the village of Bowmansdale.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

US 160 near the Four Corners. It goes from Apache county AZ to San Juan NM and then to Montezuma CO, three counties (and three states) in less than one mile .

By the way, in the TX 115 case, on the maps it appears that Andrews, Gaines, Dawson and Martin counties meet at a quadripoint, but given the signage there are actually two tripoints (Andrews, Gaines and Martin, and Gaines, Martin and Dawson) separated by a few feet. And it happens TX 115 cross the line that goes between both tripoints.

[formulanone]

There's a road called "Shades Crest Drive" just south of Bessemer, labelled County Road 2. It crosses Jefferson and Shelby Counties about 17-18 times, due to the sawtooth boundaries between the two counties.

[wxfree]

If a road cuts directly across a four corners, does that count as zero?

I did think about that.  If the four-corner point is in the middle of the road, then each side will cross two boundaries and clip one corner of a different county.

By the way, in the TX 115 case, on the maps it appears that Andrews, Gaines, Dawson and Martin counties meet at a quadripoint, but given the signage there are actually two tripoints (Andrews, Gaines and Martin, and Gaines, Martin and Dawson) separated by a few feet. And it happens TX 115 cross the line that goes between both tripoints.

In that example, there are two tri-points about a half mile across, and TX 115 crosses between them.  In relation to a different topic, there is a reference marker at each county line.  They're numbered 296, 298, and 300.  The only seem apparent in the pavement is at the middle crossing, between Martin and Gaines Counties, divides the Lubbock and Odessa districts.

There's a road called "Shades Crest Drive" just south of Bessemer, labelled County Road 2. It crosses Jefferson and Shelby Counties about 17-18 times, due to the sawtooth boundaries between the two counties.

That makes me wonder about how maintenance responsibility is shared.  I see maintenance markers at some of the crossings in Street View, but keeping strictly to county lines seems like it would be inefficient and result in more seems, although I don't see seems where I've looked.

[cl94]

NY 65 spends 1/4 mile in Livingston County between Monroe and Ontario Counties.

NY 17/I-86 crosses from Chemung to Tioga to Bradford (PA) and back to Tioga within 1.5 miles near Waverly. Westernmost stretch in Tioga is approximately 1/4 mile.

[cpzilliacus]

I-295 straddles the border between Prince George County, Virginia and the [independent] City of Hopewell, and the freeway crosses the boundary about seven times over about 3.7 miles.

Google Maps here.

This is also the site of a notorious speed trap run by the Hopewell city Sheriff's Office. 

[Jim]

I-75 in SW FL clips maybe a tenth of a mile of the corner of DeSoto county between Sarasota and Charlotte counties.

For all the times I've been through there, I've never grabbed pictures of the DeSoto county signs with either the Charlotte county (SB) or Sarasota county (NB) sign visible a bit of the way up the road.

[hbelkins]

On Iowa 330. This was part of the meet tour for the 2010 two-day Marshalltown, Ia. meet.