Worst Highway Ideas

[Revive 755]

One in design is the new Mississippi River Bridge for I-70 at St. Louis.  I've probably ranted on here before about this one, but here it is again.  For reference, here is a map of the proposed project:
http://www.newriverbridge.org/initialphase.asp

Note the lack of ramps to/from the south.  Thus this project fails to fix one of the main problems at the west end of the PSB:  the one lane, 20 mph ramps for I-55 traffic.

Another bad idea in the making is the truck lanes on I-70 across Missouri.  I don't see how having a truck merging at 60 mph - per ramp design speed, in reality they might be going faster - onto the left side of a roadway with 70, or more likely 80 mph traffic, and then proceed to weave across to exit is going to be safe.

And another bad one in Missouri in the making is having such long distances between rest areas.  I think 90+ miles is a little extreme when there are no major metropolitan areas in between.  Use a gas station or fast-food joint?  They don't usually have weather info - which Missouri doesn't have in rest areas yet either, but should certainly add for the winter months.

[florida]

Orlando not getting an interstate bypass, now fulfilled with toll roads which most just went up 25 cents this month in order to fund other toll road projects. Yay.

Another worst highway idea: Making FL 436 unlimited access. 

[Duke87]

One in design is the new Mississippi River Bridge for I-70 at St. Louis.  I've probably ranted on here before about this one, but here it is again.  For reference, here is a map of the proposed project:
http://www.newriverbridge.org/initialphase.asp

Note the lack of ramps to/from the south.  Thus this project fails to fix one of the main problems at the west end of the PSB:  the one lane, 20 mph ramps for I-55 traffic.

Interesting.

So, no more triple multiplex there. And I-70's going to get a mile or two shorter.

[74/171FAN]

The building of SC 22(future I-73) as most traffic still uses the treachorous US 501

[un1]

Ontario really know's what they are doing, they are by far the best Transportation Department I know.

[corco]

Ontario really know's what they are doing, they are by far the best Transportation Department I know.

Besides decommissioning the Gardiner, they haven't done anything dumb ever. The 401 remains the gold standard for freeway construction.

[un1]

True, also maybe decommissioning almost all of the highways in 1997 was dumb to. Although that was to save money.
All of the highways that are still around are in good shape though.

[Terry Shea]

The US-131 S-curve on the fringe of downtown Grand Rapids.  Many accidents and lives have been lost because of this unnecessary and badly designed monstrosity.  It was shut down, widened and redesigned several years ago, but it still sucks.

Also, the US-131/I-196 "corkscrew" interchange (that's what I call it) in downtown Grand Rapids.  The northbound and southbound lanes on US-131 "corkscrew" under and over each other so that the oncoming traffic is actually to your right instead of to your left right at the interchange.  This creates all kinds of left lane exits and entrances, which is never a good idea, but this stretch of US-131 carries 120,000 vehicles per day and some of the entering ramps are short and leave very little space to merge.  You can see the S-Curve and the interchange in the pics in the following link.

http://www.photography-plus.com/image_pages/GrandRapids.htm

[Alps]

Even if it's duplicative, a list of my personal favorites:

RI 403.  That highway will NEVER serve enough people to be worth it.  A 2-3 lane surface street on that alignment would have been fine (only bypassing the part between 4 and 1).
West Side Highway.  It may have been forward-thinking for its time, but whose idea was it to put up a structure and then not maintain it for 40 years until it falls apart?
I-95 Cross Bronx - The current alignment is what started the freeway revolution because Robert Moses would not compromise with the community.
VA 895.  How much money was pissed away on a huge toll bridge used by so few people?
Trans Texas Corridors.  I-69 and I-35 as 16-lane corridors with rail and... massive destruction.  I am so glad these died.
WV's corridors and expressway "freeways".  Instead of winding along the sides of mountains or using graceful narrow rock cuts as needed, WV's strategy is to blast the entire top of the mountain away.  The scenery is literally destroyed in that state.  In that light:
I-99 PA, Port Matilda/Big Top.  First of all, who started building a highway before doing rock borings and, um, TESTING the borings?  Second of all, they made the same mistakes WV did in destroying the mountains.  Third of all - it's I-99.  We all have our reasons to hate it.
NJ 185.  Connects no one to nowhere.  Was part of a larger plan, but why build the first piece unless traffic has a reason to use it?  Could have applied the money to getting NJ 169 (now 440) done sooner or starting to fix I-78 Interchange 14A.

[74/171FAN]

VA 895.  How much money was pissed away on a huge toll bridge used by so few people?

Too much   Seriously more people would use this road if it wasn't tolled(everyone uses I-64 due to it being free) and besides it should be I-895(Thanks Feds ).  On the other hand, they have started constructing a connector road from VA 895 to Richmond Int'l Airport but I doubt that traffic volumes would go up that much.

[Scott5114]

I-240 in Oklahoma City. Used as the illustration in the Roadgeek Abridged Dictionary for the entry on weaving.

Having a railroad level crossing on the James River Freeway in Springfield, Missouri was pretty boneheaded too!

[ComputerGuy]

The decomissioning of SR 99 from Federal Way to SeaTac in 2004 by WSDOT...what's the point?

[corco]

The decomissioning of SR 99 from Federal Way to SeaTac in 2004 by WSDOT...what's the point?

The city of Tukwila essentially said "We want to pay to maintain and do as we please with the main road through our town," WSDOT said "That's fine since SR 99 isn't a through route anymore right there, and was barely signed anyway"

It was really no big deal; Tukwila got control over International Blvd which it wanted,  and it saved WSDOT money. Tukwila is a fairly rich town with all the airport facilities, and was sick of waiting for WSDOT to maintain the road. They decided they'd rather pay to do it themselves, and WSDOT certainly didn't care.  All parties won out on that.

[mightyace]

There is a law on the books whose goal it is to provide at least a four lane divided highway to every county seat in the state regardless of whether traffic warrants it or not.

[DrZoidberg]

In Portland, OR-217....4 lanes the entire length, apart from the 6 lane bits between certain exits. constantly backed up.  traffic lights at the junction with I-5

Rawr, I agree with you 100% on this.  There is a plan in place, according to a Portland Tribune article I posted on the West Coast section, to add a third lane.....from OR-8 to US-26, the section that needs it the least!! Once again, ODOT has proven they're incapable of thinking long term.

I think if they're hesitant to add a new lane all the way through, and the region encourages mass transit, create a CLOSED HOV lane for the entire route.  That way, through traffic going from I-5 to US-26 aren't caught in the bottleneck of people using the freeway for running errands.

[WillWeaverRVA]

VA 895.  How much money was pissed away on a huge toll bridge used by so few people?

Too much   Seriously more people would use this road if it wasn't tolled(everyone uses I-64 due to it being free) and besides it should be I-895(Thanks Feds ).  On the other hand, they have started constructing a connector road from VA 895 to Richmond Int'l Airport but I doubt that traffic volumes would go up that much.

They won't go up much at all. I-64 isn't THAT far away from the airport, certainly not as far as Transurban might think.

[74/171FAN]

I'd hazard a bet that they're expecting 895 to be more of a draw, especially once the airport connector is completed, for traffic coming from the south or southwest.  Reason being that 95 is effectively "capped" at 6 lanes.  So it's a fair assumption that traffic congestion on 95 in/near downtown (nevermind 64's sorry state east of downtown) will spur traffic to use 895, especially if they're going to/from the airport

First I've never experienced or have known of any problems on I-64/I-95 outside of rush hour and have there ever been any plans to widen the entire I-64/I-95 multiplex?

[74/171FAN]

Doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.  Especially if Chesterfield County continues growing like weeds...

This traffic will just take the pain of paying $2.15(as the RMA has raised tolls on VA 76 at Forest Hill Ave and VA 195) to get to free I-64 over VA 895(currently $2.75).

[74/171FAN]

I wasn't referring specifically to western Chesterfield County.  You have a large area of the county to where VA 76 is out of the way, and they get to slog along I-95 instead.

But most of the growth these days is definitely in western Chesterfield County   I haven't heard of any new eastern Chesterfield County subdivisions in some time

[akotchi]

I'd hazard a bet that they're expecting 895 to be more of a draw, especially once the airport connector is completed, for traffic coming from the south or southwest.  Reason being that 95 is effectively "capped" at 6 lanes.  So it's a fair assumption that traffic congestion on 95 in/near downtown (nevermind 64's sorry state east of downtown) will spur traffic to use 895, especially if they're going to/from the airport.

IIRC, the Airport Connector was supposed to be part of the original construction, but I think funding became an issue.  The highway was to be more of a bypass from the south and southwest, as Froggie surmises.  IMHO, it would probably draw more (each direction) if a direct connector from 895 to I-64 east of I-295 were also constructed.

[Anthony_JK]

Some of the stupidest things that LaDoTD did:

-- Putting the Audubon Bridge across the Mississippi River on the TIMED program and keeping the US 90/I-49 South upgrade out. Unless they are planning to 4-lane LA 1/LA 10 from Alexandria to New Roads and LA 10 from St. Francisville to Franklinton, then what exactly was the point??

-- Structuring the I-10/I-110 Split in Baton Rouge so that the main through traffic went between I-10 East and I-110 North, so that I-10 entering the city ends up as an exit to Washington St. Nice going, guys....way to have traffic backed up all the way across the I-10 bridge to LA 1.  (Yeah, they temporarily did a fix five years ago to relieve partially the bottleneck at the I-10 "entrance" ramp, but until they get real and totally upgrade the entire section of I-10 through BR, it's still going to be a royal PITA.

-- Not building Clearview Parkway in NOLA as an elevated freeway from Earhart Expressway to I-10, and not building some form of controlled access onto US 90 through the Huey P. Long Bridge to the Westbank Expressway to begin with. With the recent rumors that LaDoTD wants to truncate I-49 South to run along I-310 west of Luling and abandon completing the Westbank Expy and upgrading US 90 east of Boutte, it's going to get mighty interesting when the Huey upgrade is completed.

-- Not completing the Inner Loop Expressway/Terry Bradshaw Passway (LA 3132) as a full southern beltway loop of I-220 in Sherveport. Or..will they wait until the Toll Fairy comes in to fund LA's portion of I-69 and build an extension there??

-- Not building a highway bridge across the Atchafalaya River for LA 10 through Melville. Come on now, folks...LA 10 goes from Leesville to Franklinton, and gets the Audubon Bridge...but you can't build a two-lane bridge through Melville???

That's all for now, at least.


Anthony

[Revive 755]

-- Not building Clearview Parkway in NOLA as an elevated freeway from Earhart Expressway to I-10, and not building some form of controlled access onto US 90 through the Huey P. Long Bridge to the Westbank Expressway to begin with. With the recent rumors that LaDoTD wants to truncate I-49 South to run along I-310 west of Luling and abandon completing the Westbank Expy and upgrading US 90 east of Boutte, it's going to get mighty interesting when the Huey upgrade is completed.

[slight sarcasm]Oh, but you would divide the neighborhood and tear down some large trees to put in an elevated freeway.  Can't have that, we have to have an overloaded surface speedway that is a pain to cross instead[/slight sarcasm]

-- Not completing the Inner Loop Expressway/Terry Bradshaw Passway (LA 3132) as a full southern beltway loop of I-220 in Sherveport. Or..will they wait until the Toll Fairy comes in to fund LA's portion of I-69 and build an extension there??

Some other topic here had a map showing that the loop was going to be completed with I-69.

[Stephane Dumas]

The reconstruction of the I-76 PA Tpk Valley Forge Interchange. They rebuilt it with the same cloverleaf. 

too bad there some importants buildings in the northwest of the trumpet, if those buildings wasn't built they could had converted this trumptet into a "cloverstack" interchange with a rerouted US-422 expressway to end there instead of US-202

ironically, Montgomery county wants to use tolls to rebuilt the US-422 expwy and funding rail extension http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4120

other well-know worst highways ideas are
-Perimeter highway in Winnipeg who have railroad crossing and traffic lights (Winnipeg don't have a single freeway and the Disraëli freeway is a sort of bad joke)
-no freeway link linking A-5 and A-50 with ONT-417 in Ottawa
-Decarie interchange in Montreal who have left exits
-A10/15/20/PQ-132 interchange to access the Champlain bridge http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=fr&ie=UTF8&ll=45.467385,-73.492677&spn=0.010158,0.02738&t=k&z=16

[mightyace]

-A10/15/20/PQ-132 interchange to access the Champlain bridge http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=fr&ie=UTF8&ll=45.467385,-73.492677&spn=0.010158,0.02738&t=k&z=16

Ack!

Would it have been so hard for them to have a trumpet on the bridge approach so you didn't have two trumpets on PQ-132?

[SSOWorld]

Dubuque, Iowa's Highway 946 - what is one of the sorriest excuses for an "intersection" with US 20.  The hidden highway is there to connect US 151/61/52 with US 20.  going south, it merges with the triplex via a half interchange, but going north, it passes two traffic lights.  plus the traffic light on US 20 itself.  the triplex goes under US 20 which is using the Julian Dubuque Bridge to cross the Mississippi River.  US 20 also goes through at least 12 traffic lights going westward after a brief "freeway" segment, all of which you'll hit red on especially during rush hours when traffic doesn't move swiftly.

Oh, and Breezewood - I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet