Freeways that never got built

Started by Voyager, February 03, 2009, 03:17:19 AM

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vdeane

And the current widening from 6 to 8A (and the additional lane each way from 8A to 9).  I think the I-95 interchange being built in PA is the reasoning behind the widening ending at exit 6.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.


cpzilliacus

Quote from: 1995hoo on May 08, 2013, 12:52:48 PM
That same image shows the proposed Fort McHenry Bridge that was originally the preferred option instead of the tunnel they eventually built.

A bridge over the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore would have been hideous (and I normally like bridges, and I have affection for the I-695 Francis Scott Key Bridge as an appropriate structure across  the Outer Baltimore Harbor (and  it was called the "Outer Harbor Crossing" during project planning)). 

The State of Maryland  did the right thing when it put I-95 in the Fort McHenry Tunnel. 

I never understood why the state and the municipal government of Baltimore ever considered a bridge for I-95 - they had the enormously successful Patapsco River Tunnel (now known as the I-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel) as an early example of (non-intrusive) freeway development which did not spoil the view from Fort McHenry National Monument.  Thank goodness (at least in this instance) for Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

1995hoo

Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 09, 2013, 11:58:27 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on May 08, 2013, 12:52:48 PM
That same image shows the proposed Fort McHenry Bridge that was originally the preferred option instead of the tunnel they eventually built.

A bridge over the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore would have been hideous (and I normally like bridges, and I have affection for the I-695 Francis Scott Key Bridge as an appropriate structure across  the Outer Baltimore Harbor (and  it was called the "Outer Harbor Crossing" during project planning)). 

The State of Maryland  did the right thing when it put I-95 in the Fort McHenry Tunnel. 

I never understood why the state and the municipal government of Baltimore ever considered a bridge for I-95 - they had the enormously successful Patapsco River Tunnel (now known as the I-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel) as an early example of (non-intrusive) freeway development which did not spoil the view from Fort McHenry National Monument.  Thank goodness (at least in this instance) for Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966.

Agreed 100%, and I'd say your comments also apply to Robert Moses's proposed Brooklyn—Battery Bridge that was eventually built as a tunnel as well.

I remember at Thanksgiving 1985 what a Big Deal it was that the Fort McHenry Tunnel was finally open (as I recall, it opened the Saturday before Thanksgiving). I seem to recall on Wednesday night the traffic reports were warning people to avoid it because all the Thanksgiving drivers wanted to check it out! You know, that prompts another of those "how young were you a roadgeek" memories when I recall one summer in the early 1980s (almost certainly the summer of 1983) with my mom driving in our Volvo station wagon, me riding shotgun, my little brother in the back, and I told Mom "DO NOT take the Harbor Tunnel, go around on 695 over the bridge or we'll get stuck forever." She chose to disregard the advice of a 10-year-old kid, probably because she hated the two-lane segment of 695 east of the bridge, and we got stuck in traffic, took an hour to go five miles on the Harbor Tunnel Thruway.

(Why am I sure it was 1983? That was the only year we didn't go on a family vacation and it was the first year my parents had two cars, so my mom could take the car to take us to New York to visit our grandparents.)
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

mapman1071


silverback1065

Quote from: ssummers72 on February 03, 2009, 09:29:30 AM
Chicago Area:
I-494 LSD Route: Present To "I-90" at Stony Island Dr North to US-41(LSD) to Ohio St then West to I-90/94 at Ohio Street Feeder Ramps.

I-494 Crosstown: I-90/94 Split at Kennedy/Edens Expy South along IL-50 to 75th St then East to I-90/94 Dan Ryan/Skyway Split

One of my favorites:

Ohio:
I-80S from Milan SW along OH-18 to Akron

Indianapolis:
I-165 from I-65/70 North Split NE to 38th St (Future Proposed I-69)

Take Care,

Stephen

Are there any maps that have the proposed i-165 in Indy?

jeffandnicole

Quote from: vdeane on May 08, 2013, 03:41:28 PM
And the current widening from 6 to 8A (and the additional lane each way from 8A to 9).  I think the I-95 interchange being built in PA is the reasoning behind the widening ending at exit 6.

The original schedule of the I-95/PA Turnpike interchange had that opening about the same time of the completion of the NJ Turnpike widening.  Since that project won't be completed for a few years, the NJ Turnpike Exit 6 signage, which actually has the I-95 South shield on the sign for Exit 6, has been covered up.

jwolfer

Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 08, 2013, 07:05:06 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on May 07, 2013, 03:31:16 PM
It would have been nice to see I-95 original alignment through those cities.   I must laugh now that the NJTA has to widen the NJ Turnpike from Exits 6 to 9 when if they would have allowed the cancelled Somerset Freeway to be built, they would have never had to undertake such a project now.

As much as I dislike NIMBYs (including NIMBYist opposition to the Somerset Freeway), I understand that had a "free" I-95 been built there, it would have diverted a large amount of commercial vehicle traffic away from the New Jersey Turnpike, which was built in large part to serve that traffic (and probably posed something of a financial threat to the long-term financial viability of the Turnpike Authority). 

In my perfect world, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (and not NJDOT) would have built I-95 from I-287 to Trenton across Somerset County as a tolled alternative to the existing Pike.

The NJTP Authority I am sure had a hand in canceling the Somerset freeway, or at least helped in any way they could.  There is enough traffic in the area to handle a free/tolled route.  With the tolled route handling the through traffic and the local being on I-95. The savings in time would outweigh the "free" road ( Much like I-95/Florida Turnpike in South Florida, going to the Keys the FL Turnpike makes the most sense or the NJTP/I-295 pair in the Philadelpia suburbs of NJ)  The NJTP would have needed widening for sure.  Also there would have had to have been a change to Exit 10.  I think what is now the first 10 miles of I-287 would have been an awful bottleneck and constant traffic problems

cpzilliacus

#82
Quote from: jwolfer on May 10, 2013, 12:29:39 PM
Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 08, 2013, 07:05:06 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on May 07, 2013, 03:31:16 PM
It would have been nice to see I-95 original alignment through those cities.   I must laugh now that the NJTA has to widen the NJ Turnpike from Exits 6 to 9 when if they would have allowed the cancelled Somerset Freeway to be built, they would have never had to undertake such a project now.

As much as I dislike NIMBYs (including NIMBYist opposition to the Somerset Freeway), I understand that had a "free" I-95 been built there, it would have diverted a large amount of commercial vehicle traffic away from the New Jersey Turnpike, which was built in large part to serve that traffic (and probably posed something of a financial threat to the long-term financial viability of the Turnpike Authority). 

In my perfect world, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (and not NJDOT) would have built I-95 from I-287 to Trenton across Somerset County as a tolled alternative to the existing Pike.

The NJTP Authority I am sure had a hand in canceling the Somerset freeway, or at least helped in any way they could.

They sure did not shed any tears when the NIMBYs won that battle, even if they were not involved.

Quote from: jwolfer on May 10, 2013, 12:29:39 PM
There is enough traffic in the area to handle a free/tolled route. 

I cannot speak to that, except to say that the Turnpike Authority obviously sees the need for much more capacity as far south as Exit 6.

Quote from: jwolfer on May 10, 2013, 12:29:39 PM
With the tolled route handling the through traffic and the local being on I-95. The savings in time would outweigh the "free" road ( Much like I-95/Florida Turnpike in South Florida, going to the Keys the FL Turnpike makes the most sense or the NJTP/I-295 pair in the Philadelpia suburbs of NJ)  The NJTP would have needed widening for sure.  Also there would have had to have been a change to Exit 10.  I think what is now the first 10 miles of I-287 would have been an awful bottleneck and constant traffic problems

Certainly the Turnpike would have been (and remains) a faster, better route for traffic headed from points south of Wilmington, Delaware to North Jersey and New York City.  Most drivers probably prefer to pay the Turnpike tolls instead of dealing  with the Delaware Expressway through Philadelphia, though there are drivers (including truck drivers) that  will shunpike if at all possible. 

It will be interesting to see if the completed I-95 will result in less traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike between 6 and 1.

I know that when there have been bridge replacement and redeckings on the Turnpike south of 6, the resulting new bridge appears to be plenty wide enough for 6 or even 8 lanes all the way to 1.

All the more reason that (IMO), the New Jersey Turnpike Authority should try to secure a 3di for that part of their road - perhaps I-895, since the proposed 895 between Pennsylvania and  New Jersey was cancelled long ago.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: 1995hoo on May 09, 2013, 12:34:48 PM
Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 09, 2013, 11:58:27 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on May 08, 2013, 12:52:48 PM
That same image shows the proposed Fort McHenry Bridge that was originally the preferred option instead of the tunnel they eventually built.

A bridge over the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore would have been hideous (and I normally like bridges, and I have affection for the I-695 Francis Scott Key Bridge as an appropriate structure across  the Outer Baltimore Harbor (and  it was called the "Outer Harbor Crossing" during project planning)). 

The State of Maryland  did the right thing when it put I-95 in the Fort McHenry Tunnel. 

I never understood why the state and the municipal government of Baltimore ever considered a bridge for I-95 - they had the enormously successful Patapsco River Tunnel (now known as the I-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel) as an early example of (non-intrusive) freeway development which did not spoil the view from Fort McHenry National Monument.  Thank goodness (at least in this instance) for Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966.

Agreed 100%, and I'd say your comments also apply to Robert Moses's proposed Brooklyn—Battery Bridge that was eventually built as a tunnel as well.

According to the Caro bio of Moses, he (Moses) hated tunnels, but a bridge there would have been very visually intrusive.

Quote from: 1995hoo on May 09, 2013, 12:34:48 PM
I remember at Thanksgiving 1985 what a Big Deal it was that the Fort McHenry Tunnel was finally open (as I recall, it opened the Saturday before Thanksgiving). I seem to recall on Wednesday night the traffic reports were warning people to avoid it because all the Thanksgiving drivers wanted to check it out! You know, that prompts another of those "how young were you a roadgeek" memories when I recall one summer in the early 1980s (almost certainly the summer of 1983) with my mom driving in our Volvo station wagon, me riding shotgun, my little brother in the back, and I told Mom "DO NOT take the Harbor Tunnel, go around on 695 over the bridge or we'll get stuck forever." She chose to disregard the advice of a 10-year-old kid, probably because she hated the two-lane segment of 695 east of the bridge, and we got stuck in traffic, took an hour to go five miles on the Harbor Tunnel Thruway.

(Why am I sure it was 1983? That was the only year we didn't go on a family vacation and it was the first year my parents had two cars, so my mom could take the car to take us to New York to visit our grandparents.)

1983?  That was the last time the Baltimore Orioles were in (and won) the World Series!

You are correct regarding I-895.  In the pre-Fort McHenry Tunnel days, that crossing could be super congested, especially on holidays.  Now the long backups are at the FMT, and traffic on I-895 flows fast, even around Thanksgiving.

Regarding that "Super-2" section east of the F.S. Key Bridge toll plaza on Md. 695 - she was right - it was not a lot of fun to drive, especially with trucks going the other direction, and the "wash" behind them.  But it had two redeeming features (IMO):

(1) Traffic there was never especially heavy (it wasn't then and it isn't now); and
(2) There were reasonably wide shoulders in both directions.

Of course, MdTA totally rebuilt that  Super-2 section of road into a four-lane freeway about 10 or 15 years ago, so now it's not an issue.  It is still a good (if longer) way to bypass the tunnels through Baltimore.

Did you know that in the early  (1970's) days of the F.S. Key Bridge, the west side approach road was also a Super 2?
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

theline

Quote from: silverback1065 on May 09, 2013, 11:52:03 PM
Quote from: ssummers72 on February 03, 2009, 09:29:30 AM
Chicago Area:
I-494 LSD Route: Present To "I-90" at Stony Island Dr North to US-41(LSD) to Ohio St then West to I-90/94 at Ohio Street Feeder Ramps.

I-494 Crosstown: I-90/94 Split at Kennedy/Edens Expy South along IL-50 to 75th St then East to I-90/94 Dan Ryan/Skyway Split

One of my favorites:

Ohio:
I-80S from Milan SW along OH-18 to Akron

Indianapolis:
I-165 from I-65/70 North Split NE to 38th St (Future Proposed I-69)

Take Care,

Stephen

Are there any maps that have the proposed i-165 in Indy?

Scroll about half-way down this page for a crude map. Until Stephen's post, I never knew that the proposed route terminated at 38th St. I had assumed it would have continued north to the end of I-69. Hooking up to the south end of Binford Blvd. would have worked for awhile, though there would eventually been need for more improvements.

NE2

Thanks for the link, theline. It provides a better answer to this:
Quote from: cpzilliacus on May 07, 2013, 12:52:08 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on May 07, 2013, 12:44:24 PM
I once saw an I-595 once planned near the Pentagon.  I was wondering what was up with that?  It seemed like it was a very short stub of I-395 that used one of the existing roads.

I believe this was a planed spur of I-395 to run south along U.S. 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway).

Arlington County was very much opposed to this, and it was changed to an upgrade of U.S. 1 to a kind of  boulevard with  some interchanges but mostly signalized intersections at-grade.

pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

Revive 755

Quote from: 1995hoo on May 09, 2013, 12:34:48 PM
Agreed 100%, and I'd say your comments also apply to Robert Moses's proposed Brooklyn—Battery Bridge that was eventually built as a tunnel as well.

Though I can't fully disagree since I've never seen the view that the bridge would spoil, the image of the proposed bridge shown in the book Engineers of Dreams by Henry Petroski showed it as a nice looking cross of the western half of the Oakland Bay Bridge with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Revive 755

#87
Quote from: theline on May 10, 2013, 08:50:29 PM
Scroll about half-way down this page for a crude map.

Interesting; I didn't know that I-35 had a part withdrawn in Duluth.

EDIT:  It appears the withdrawn section would have ended at or very near to where the MN 61 expressway now starts.

EDIT 2: So Cleveland, OH was going to have I-490 continue east and then southeastward to I-480, in addition to there once-proposed I-290 that would have gone east to I-271?

BakoCondors

Quote from: mapman1071 on May 09, 2013, 11:02:23 PM
AZ 50 Paradise Parkway

I was living in Phoenix in the mid-90s, around the time ADOT finally gave up on the Paradise Pkwy, selling off all the land they had acquired for its construction. Community oppositon and a shortfall of funding.

ztonyg

Quote from: BakoCondors on May 18, 2013, 12:36:25 AM
Quote from: mapman1071 on May 09, 2013, 11:02:23 PM
AZ 50 Paradise Parkway

I was living in Phoenix in the mid-90s, around the time ADOT finally gave up on the Paradise Pkwy, selling off all the land they had acquired for its construction. Community oppositon and a shortfall of funding.

Is the Paradise Parkway the reason that there is no direct connection between AZ 51 and Camelback Rd? 

froggie

A few items from comments over the past couple weeks:

Yes, I-35 in Duluth, MN was at one point planned to go to 68th Ave E, right around where the Two Harbors Expressway (4-lane portion of MN 61 up to Two Harbors) begins.  An alternative eastern terminus was at 10th Ave E, in today's Leif Ericcson Park.

Several of the unbuilt Baltimore freeways were covered in a separate thread.

The 1969 Northern Virginia Major Thoroughfare Plan is indeed at the Fairfax City library...I have photographed and also photocopied all the pages from it (the latter being quite expensive).  It had several freeways and controlled-access facilities, not just the Monticello Freeway and the Outer Beltway, that were dropped.  There were also these:
- Bluemont Dr, from I-395 at Turkeycock Run northeast to I-66 just north of Fairfax Dr.
- Four Mile Run Expressway, from I-66 near Patrick Henry Dr, southeast along Four Mile Run to Potomac Yard.
- The above-mentioned Monticello Freeway, which would've continued inside the Beltway, east to Holmes Run, then northeast to the above-mentioned Four Mile Run Expwy near Walter Reed Dr.
- The "Northern Virginia Expressway", a loop route about 3 miles outside the Capitol Beltway.  From US 1 near Gum Springs, west to near Burke, then north, passing east of Fairfax City.  It was also to tie into whatever route the Outer Beltway would've taken across the Potomac.
- Pimmit Run Expressway, from the Dulles Access Road north of I-66, northeast to the then-planned Arizona Ave Bridge.
- Potomac Freeway, from I-95 at the Occoquan (utilizing today's Exit 161) northeast to roughly the Kingstowne area, then east near Huntley Meadows Park to US 1 near Beacon Hill, then north, crossing the Beltway west of Route 1, continuing north through Carlyle and today's King St Metro station, then generally paralleling the railroad on the east side (and west of GW Pkwy) to about 15th St.
- 15th St Expressway:  this was a continuation of the above-mentioned Potomac Freeway, passing through Potomac City between the Potomac Freeway and I-395 along today's 15th St.
- A realigned Van Dorn St would have had a full cloverleaf at the Beltway and been effectively freeway-grade from south of SR 644/Franconia Rd to Edsall Rd.
- Even at that time, VA 28 was slated to become a freeway, but it would've continued south of I-66, and bypassed the core of Manassas to the west, starting near SR 658/Compton Dr and utilizing Godwin Dr.
- Two sections of US 50 would have been upgraded to freeway under the 1969 plan: from VA 28 to I-66/Fair Oaks and from the then-planned Northern Virginia Expressway (a little east of Fairfax Circle) east to the TR Bridge.

Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, MD had a few as well, from the 1967 Master Plan of Highways:
- The Outer Beltway, utilizing the Rockville alignment
- Sligo Creek Pkwy, from what would've been I-70S in Silver Spring northward into Howard County.
- A freeway along the WB&A, from the Outer Beltway into Anne Arundel County.
- A "Southeast Expressway", from DC south into Charles County near Waldorf.  It would've crossed the DC line near the Southern Ave Metro station and roughly paralleled Branch Ave to the west.  Later renditions of it had it extending southeast from the Beltway/I-295 interchange near today's National Harbor.  I've never seen any maps or plats of what routing it might have taken within DC.
- "Desire lines" for an "Outer Outer Beltway", crossing the Potomac near Leesburg, northeast to I-270 north of Germantown, then eastward into Howard County.  I believe this would have tied into MD 32 near MD 108...I've seen a 1965 map of a similar freeway proposal between MD 32 and I-270.
- Another "desire line" for a freeway parallel to and southwest of I-270, from where Democracy Blvd would've met the Outer Beltway, northwest into Frederick County.

amroad17

#91
The Syracuse, NY area had a few.

NY 5 was supposed to continue as a freeway from both its stub ends in Camillus (west) and Fairmount (east).  The Camillus end was supposed to go toward Auburn and the Fairmount end was supposed to loop around the southwest side of Syracuse and interchange with I-81 either in Nedrow or at the I-81/I-481 interchange.  Due to costs and development, this will never happen.

I-690 was supposed to continue past I-481 and either interchange with the Thruway between Collamer and Canastota or interchange with NY 5 east of Fayetteville.  The same reasons above will keep this from ever being built.

From what I have read in "Upstate N.Y. Roads", I-88 was supposed to continue from Schenectady and at least reach Manchester, NH.  Parts of this have been built as the NY 7 freeway from I-87 to Troy, the Bennington, VT bypass, the short NH 101 Super-2 freeway around Milford, NH, and the NH 101 freeway around Manchester.  It could have conceivably continued along NH 101 to I-95 in Hampton, NH.  Also, I read somewhere (where, I cannot remember) that I-99 (or some variant) would have continued from Painted Post, NY and reached Utica, NY by following NY 13 past Cortland to NY 12 to Utica.  The parts of this that are built are the NY 13 freeway around Ithaca. the exit 12 interchange of I-81 in Homer, and the North-South Arterial (most of it) and I-790 from Utica to the Thruway.



I don't need a GPS.  I AM the GPS! (for family and friends)

froggie

Regarding Syracuse, I found a couple Onondaga County planning docs at the SU library some years back that highlighted the freeway plans as they existed in the late '60s and sometime in the 70s.  I "acquired" a few of the maps contained within the docs:

- It should be noted that, in the 1960s, today's I-481 was planned as I-281, and today's NY 481 was planned as a NY 57 relocation.

- "I-690 East", per the documents, was planned as a NY 5 East relocation, not an I-690 extension.  Originally, it was to extend to NY 5 somewhere near Chittenango.  Later proposals cut it shorter...to NY 290 near Manlius Center and even called it a "NY 290 Relocation".

- The 1970s plan doesn't explicitly show NY 5 West past Camillus, but it was obviously built to accommodate any such extension.

- The 1960s plan does not show the "Southwest Loop" (extension of NY 5 at Fairmount to I-81).  Instead, it showed it continuing eastward as the "East-West Corridor", tying into Genesse St on the west side of downtown.  The 1970s plan kept this as well as adding the Southwest Loop to I-81 in Nedrow.

- One of the 1970s alternatives for the south end of I-481 was connecting to I-81 in Nedrow instead of its current location.

And speaking of Syracuse, in the late 1970s, there was a plan that went as far as a 1979 EIS to build a NY 31 freeway between NY 690 in Baldwinsville (south of the village) and NY 481 in Clay (at or north of existing NY 31).  The only thing that came out of this was the building of NY 631 south of NY 31 to NY 370.

Regarding I-88....while the Bennington, VT bypass was proposed around the same time as I-88 planning, the serious planning and construction of the Bennington bypass didn't happen until well after I-88 was finished and "truncated to Schenectady".  I don't believe I-88 was ever seriously planned east of Troy.

cpzilliacus

#93
Quote from: froggie on May 18, 2013, 08:28:28 AM
Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, MD had a few as well, from the 1967 Master Plan of Highways:
- The Outer Beltway, utilizing the Rockville alignment

Sometimes called the Rockville Facility or Rockville Freeway.  The western end has become Montrose Parkway over furious NIMBYist objection.

The eastern end, from Md. 586 (Viers Mill Road) to Md. 200, became the  least-utilized park in Maryland thanks to the efforts of the late Maryland state Sen. Idamae Garrott, who never met a proposed highway project that she didn't want to cancel.

Quote from: froggie on May 18, 2013, 08:28:28 AM
- Sligo Creek Pkwy, from what would've been I-70S in Silver Spring northward into Howard County.

That was the Northern Parkway.  Some variations had it as an extension of Md. 390 (16th Street) from Md. 97 (Georgia Avenue), under I-495 (Capital Beltway) (there was a bridge built to accommodate it passing under the Beltway near Holy Cross Hospital, and there were signs for many years informing drivers that Exit 22 [before exits on the Maryland part of the  Beltway were renumbered to mileposts starting at the Wilson Bridge] was a planned future improvement).

Quote from: froggie on May 18, 2013, 08:28:28 AM
- A freeway along the WB&A, from the Outer Beltway into Anne Arundel County.

I believe that was A-57.  It would have run east from A-44 (the ICC in Prince George's County) across the Patuxent River and connected to Md. 3 in Crofton or Gambrills.  The variation I have heard had it running a short distance south of the abandoned bed of the WB&A interurban line.

See map below from M-NCP&PC Prince George's County:

Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

1995hoo

Froggie mentions the Bluemont Drive proposal. I hadn't heard of that before and found it interesting because it answers a question I had in the back of my mind about what ran along the existing street of that name in Arlington. If you look at a map you can see how there is a long, skinny right-of-way through there that cannot have been a coincidence. There's a bike path that branches off the W&OD and then runs parallel to Bluemont Drive, emerging not far from the area now known as Ballston. I always wondered whether that was another "rail trail" or whether a road right-of-way had been repurposed.

(I haven't figured out how to get a map link when posting by iPad.)
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

froggie

QuoteThat was the Northern Parkway.  Some variations had it as an extension of Md. 390 (16th Street) from Md. 97 (Georgia Avenue), under I-495 (Capital Beltway)

Given that this was 1967, it was a direct connection off the then-planned Northeast Freeway (I-70S).

QuoteI believe that was A-57.  It would have run east from A-44 (the ICC in Prince George's County) across the Patuxent River and connected to Md. 3 in Crofton or Gambrills.  The variation I have heard had it running a short distance south of the abandoned bed of the WB&A interurban line.

In 1967, it was F-10, and ran more or less right on top of the WB&A.  To the southwest was M-38 which was effectively a MD 704 extension right up the WB&A right-of-way.

QuoteI always wondered whether that was another "rail trail" or whether a road right-of-way had been repurposed.

What's there now is a rail-trail.  The rail right-of-way was to have been used for that segment of Bluemont Dr.

Interstatefan78

Even if I drive I-78 at exit 49 and 56 I still see some remnants of unbuilt freeway projects, and the ramp to exit 49 A is supposed to be the I-278 east ramp and also exit 56 is supposed to be NJ-75 Newark midtown freeway. Links are http://www.nycroads.com/roads/I-278_NJ/ http://www.nycroads.com/roads/NJ-75/  :D

thenetwork

Quote from: Revive 755 on May 10, 2013, 10:27:51 PM
EDIT 2: So Cleveland, OH was going to have I-490 continue east and then southeastward to I-480, in addition to there once-proposed I-290 that would have gone east to I-271?

From that map, it looks like I-490 was to follow parts of 2 alignments of unbuilt freeways:  the aforementioned I-290 Clark Freeway alignment and part of the Bedford Freeway alignment.  However, I always thought that was to be numbered as the new alignment of US-422.  First generation signs along I-480 between I-271 & SR-14/Broadway already had the US-422 shields on them, but were green-patched in anticipation for the new freeway. 

I'd love to see that unbuilt freeway (either as I-490 or US-422) come back to life again. The area in which the road would have paralleled East 93rd Street is pretty much a ghetto wasteland, but could spur more industrial re-development along that corridor, Plus, that freeway would eliminate most of the daily bottlenecks along I-77 and across the I-480 Valley View Bridge.

Bruce

Seattle had two freeways struck down in 1972: the R.H. Thomson Expressway and the Bay Freeway. (Source)

They were part of a whole system of freeways planned for Seattle, but were mostly canceled. (Map)

cpzilliacus

Quote from: froggie on May 19, 2013, 01:27:16 PM
QuoteThat was the Northern Parkway.  Some variations had it as an extension of Md. 390 (16th Street) from Md. 97 (Georgia Avenue), under I-495 (Capital Beltway)

Given that this was 1967, it was a direct connection off the then-planned Northeast Freeway (I-70S).

I believe that was the Northwest Freeway, even though the big-money NIMBYS at Ground Zero of Washington-area anti-highway (and anti-everything else) NIMBYism fought the freeway, especially in the Tenlytown area of the District of Columbia. 

Even though D.C. citizens had (and have) no voting representation in Congress, the overwhelmingly white citizenry of upper Northwest D.C. had successfully lobbied the House and Senate to mandate the move of the proposed alignment of the U.S. 240 Northwest Freeway (later I-70S) east of Rock Creek Park (where there were many more people of color (along with Irish whites of modest means) - hence Takoma Park Mayor Sammy Abdul Abbott's slogan of "white man's freeways through black man's neighborhoods" (during the 1960's and 1970's freeway wars) was factually correct), it remained the Northwest Freeway or later the North Central Freeway.

The Northeast Freeway was I-95 through West Hyattsville and out to the Capital Beltway in College Park.
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