What actually is a Super-2 highway?

[bwana39]

I am getting mixed signals on what a Super-2 highway actually is.

Is a fully access controlled 2-laned road with  intermittent passing lanes?

Is it any 2-lane highway with 10' shoulders and limited access control (and seemingly not even intermittent passing lanes)?

IS it a 2-lane with all of the future R.O.W. already purchased?

A combination of the all of it?

Is it something else all together?

What I read here is all over the place. I am just wondering what the consensus is.

[74/171FAN]

My understanding is that your second question/definition best fits at minimum.

[Bitmapped]

My understanding is that your second question/definition best fits at minimum.

Ohio usage for Super 2 basically fits any new 2-lane alignment built since the 1960s. Controlled right-of-way with no access for adjacent property owners. 10-foot shoulders, although only 4-foot of that may be paved (full width is paved on newer builds). Passing lanes sometimes provided on steeper grades, but no requirement otherwise.

Ohio allows intersections on Super 2 roadways. In the last 20 years, turn lanes have generally been provided at intersections. Rarely interchanges, but sometimes there are quadrant roadways with overpasses over intersecting roadways.

PennDOT usage of the Super 2 term is basically just a 2-lane version of a freeway.

[kphoger]

This is already a thread (which was also originally a topic split)

What is a Super-2, really?

(I'm not being snarky.  It's actually a very valuable read on this topic.)

[J N Winkler]

I am getting mixed signals on what a Super-2 highway actually is.

Is a fully access controlled 2-laned road with  intermittent passing lanes?

Is it any 2-lane highway with 10' shoulders and limited access control (and seemingly not even intermittent passing lanes)?

IS it a 2-lane with all of the future R.O.W. already purchased?

A combination of the all of it?

Is it something else all together?

What I read here is all over the place. I am just wondering what the consensus is.

As others have alluded to, part of the confusion originates from there being a disconnect between the practitioner definition (two full-width lanes with full shoulders and occasional passing lanes, but not necessarily comprehensive grade separation) and the roadgeek definition (two lanes with full control of access).

Besides the thread Kphoger linked to, which hashes out the issue pretty thoroughly, there is a post quoting definitions from state DOT design references.

I think the best answer to your question is that us old-timers who remember these discussions sort of tiptoe around the lack of consensus.

[sprjus4]

A two lane road built to higher quality. Wide lanes, wide shoulders, good sight visibility, built for speed.

It does not have to be controlled access.

[bwana39]

A two lane road built to higher quality. Wide lanes, wide shoulders, good sight visibility, built for speed.

It does not have to be controlled access.

So probably 1/3 of the FM roads in Texas.... (Tongue in Cheek)

The TXDOT definition makes a lot of sense. It would only include a minimal number of FM Roads, then again, there are also a handful of FM full freeways in Texas too.
http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/TxDOTOnlineManuals/TxDOTManuals/rdw/super_2_highways.htm

[J N Winkler]

The TXDOT definition makes a lot of sense. It would only include a minimal number of FM Roads, then again, there are also a handful of FM full freeways in Texas too.

http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/TxDOTOnlineManuals/TxDOTManuals/rdw/super_2_highways.htm

It is essentially a practitioner definition with no component for limitation of access, per the verbiage catering for high driveway density.

In Kansas, rural state highways (including Super Twos) are subject to KDOT's Access Management Policy.  Even when there is no access control, a minimum spacing of 535 feet between adjacent driveways applies at 65 MPH.

A highway developed to Super Two standards in Kansas would ordinarily be subject at minimum to Access Control 3 (the lowest tier of limitation of access), which provides for refusal of new driveways to properties served by lower-function highways or that have other access available.  Access Control 2 (upgradable, but not with a freeway as the ultimate configuration) limits new accesses to public roads only, and Access Control 1 (upgradable, including to full freeway) additionally requires minimum spacing of two miles.

[Henry]

To me, a Super-2 has everything you'd expect to see on a four-lane freeway, just without the second carriageway. Lots of Interstates started out this way, including I-49 around Bella Vista.

[roadman65]

K-14/96 in Rice and Reno Counties of Kansas is a Super Two as access  control is from three crossroads with diamond interchanges and having other local roads be grade separated but no ramps.  It's made later to be widened to a proper freeway.

US 15 in Gettysburg, PA was a super two, but was widened later to irs current freeway form. Yet pre four lanes its access was the same as today, thus giving the two lane road the same attributes as the freeway today.

Then Humboldt County, CA has super four, a freeway with a narrow paved median, for US 101. Basically it is a freeway without a grass median and narrow paved median instead, but has grade separations from other roads and ramps at access points like any other freeway has, however like all freeways, with no business or residential activity at all.

[TheDon102]

Good examples would be US 7 from Bennington VT to Manchester VT and I-93 through Fraconia Notch State Park. 

[3467]

Here's a new  version from Illinois district 4 engineers.
They rebuilt US 67 North of Monmouth .
It's 2 12 foot lanes and 2 11foot shoulders About half paved .
Why 🚜 not just to keep them out of traffic but to prevent damage by running half the weight off the paved shoulders
It appears that one of the most destructive forces on roads .
That design could easily add a passing lane if needed too.
One engineer said he would like to see all their roads look like it.

You might want to check out street view . It's showing some finished road some under construction
It also includes turn lanes at state roads and or busy intersections .

[JREwing78]

Here's a new  version from Illinois district 4 engineers.
They rebuilt US 67 North of Monmouth .
It's 2 12 foot lanes and 2 11foot shoulders About half paved .
Why 🚜 not just to keep them out of traffic but to prevent damage by running half the weight off the paved shoulders
It appears that one of the most destructive forces on roads .
That design could easily add a passing lane if needed too.
One engineer said he would like to see all their roads look like it.

That's basically bringing it up to more modern standards; I would hesitate to term it as a "Super" highway. It's still on 66' ROW. The shoulders are basically up hard against the ditch. They haven't leveled out the few grades it has, nor widened the bridges.

I have a couple examples that hew closer to the "Super 2" idea. Both are on a minimum of 100' ROW. 12' travel lanes with 10' shoulders, long sightlines and gradual curves. You could plunk down a twin parallel roadway and instantly turn it into an Interstate-standard freeway.

Hwy 11 outside Janesville, WI: https://maps.app.goo.gl/yg9LKfTJZ72aAvQb7
US-41 between Baraga and Chassel, MI: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5bzKmFLVrjqFn1nT7

[hbelkins]

If it has at-grade intersections, it's not a Super-2.

[J N Winkler]

If it has at-grade intersections, it's not a Super-2.

That's the roadgeek definition!

[algorerhythms]

A Super-2 is a two lane highway that went into a phone booth, changed its clothes, and took off its glasses, and now nobody recognizes it anymore.

[Dirt Roads]

A Super-2 is a two lane highway that went into a phone booth, changed its clothes, and took off its glasses, and now nobody recognizes it anymore.

...unless you are a road named Lois Lane.

[webny99]

If it has at-grade intersections, it's not a Super-2.

That's the roadgeek definition!

Yeah, I don't see how NY 104 between Sodus and Red Creek isn't a super-2. It has at grades, but no driveways, plus wide shoulders, good sightlines, and ROW for a second carriageway that was never built.

[sprjus4]

If it has at-grade intersections, it's not a Super-2.

That's the roadgeek definition!

Yeah, I don't see how NY 104 between Sodus and Red Creek isn't a super-2. It has at grades, but no driveways, plus wide shoulders, good sightlines, and ROW for a second carriageway that was never built.

That would be a super-two. It does not have to be a freeway.

[mvcg66b3r]

Can a Super 2 have stoplights?

[Roadgeekteen]

When I hear super 2 I think of a 2 lane fully controlled access highway like US 6 in Cape Cod. Apparently, some disagree with me.

[Rothman]

Yeah, this idea of a super-2 being just an unlimited access two-lane road with wide shoulders seems silly to me.

[bwana39]

OK, I opened a can of worms and still there is no consensus opinion.

[3467]

Illinois it was defined as 2 lane with a passing lane every 5 miles. Pulse curve corrections and the like. Now it seems to be we may do the passing lanes on long stretches over 5000 vpd. There are not many of those.
Iowa seems to be over 3 or 4000 a day. You can see that on US 34 west of Ottumwa.

[kphoger]

Yeah, this idea of a super-2 being just an unlimited access two-lane road with wide shoulders seems silly to me.

Who said anything about unlimited access?  Just not fully controlled access.