Bizarre Endings

[NE2]

cahighways.org never gave me a conclusive answer on that, but did 710 originally take one of the other two spurs?

No: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_U.S._Roads/California/History/List_of_laws_by_route_%28post-1964%29
The only relevant text is:

307.1. (a) Route 7 shall also include that portion of the freeway between Route 1 and the northern end of Harbor Scenic Drive, that portion of Harbor Scenic Drive to Ocean Boulevard, that portion of Ocean Boulevard west of its intersection with Harbor Scenic Drive to its junction with Seaside Boulevard, and that portion of Seaside Boulevard from the junction with Ocean Boulevard to Route 47. (b) Subdivision (a) shall not become operative...unless the commission approves...a financial plan...

which was renumbered 710 in 1984.

[TEG24601]

There is also MD 249 (Piney Pt. Road).  It just disappears.  No end sign, the roadway just eventually becomes someones driveway.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN 11 ends at the entrance to the Sha-Sha Resort east of International Falls. I'm not sure why the section east of I-Falls isn't just a county road as 11 doesn't connect to anything meaningful east of there anyway.

Slightly less weird but MN 169's north (east) end is at a random intersection in the middle of nowhere 4 miles east of Ely.

A formerly non-weird one that became weird is the north end of US 75 at Noyes, MN. The Canadian authorities closed the border crossing and the US soon followed suit, but 75 still goes north from the MN 171 turnoff to get to I-29 and dead-ends in Noyes.

[CapeCodder]

Rhode Island Route 7. It just ends at the MA border (US 7 goes through mass.) There are no END signs for RI 7. the same goes for RI 100. It just ends at the MA. border (Google for years insisted that 100 continued into MA.

[Beeper1]

Actually, the north end of RI-7 is technically at the intersection with Joslin Road, about 1/2 mile north of RI-102.  The section from there to the state line is just un-numbered Douglas Pike, maintained by the town.

For weirdest end in RI, I think both ends of RI-238 would win the prize.

[DandyDan]

Nebraska recently created one for the east end of NE 370.  There's signage coming off of the US 75 exit for NE 370 pointing the way for eastbound NE 370 traffic, and there is a gantry with a sign for eastbound NE 370 for its exit for Fort Crook Road (the former US 75), but since the opening of the new US 34 bridge south of Bellevue, 370 ends at US 75.

There's also the weirdness of NE 66 in Louisville.  On the east side of Louisville, westbound NE 66 ends in the middle of a 90 degree turn to the north as it turns from Koop to Walnut.  On the west side of Louisville, NE 66 eastbound officially ends when W. 5th Street intersects Main Street, but none of NE 66 is signed on W. 5th Street.  It is co-signed with NE 50 south of the W. 5th Street intersection, but north of there and all through town, there are a lot of "TO" signs.

[Mapmikey]

There is also MD 249 (Piney Pt. Road).  It just disappears.  No end sign, the roadway just eventually becomes someones driveway.

MD 249 ends just short of Thomas Rd/Arthur Fenwick Ln intersection, about a mile from the end of the road at Indigo Pt.

Here is 2008 GMSV showing the beginning NB...

https://goo.gl/maps/lDG5T


Mapmikey

[cpzilliacus]

Another one that ends just short of the beach is Md. 292 in Betterton, Kent County (here).

[cpzilliacus]

Near the eastern edge of the Mountain Time Zone, in Sherman County, Kansas, is K-267.  It starts at a diamond interchange with I-70, heads north until it encounters Old U.S. 24, then west until it reaches the southern edge of Kanorado, where it just ends for no particular reason, except perhaps to provide a state-maintained highway between Kanorado and the freeway.

Old U.S. 24 continues west across the state line into Colorado toward Burlington.

[thenetwork]

SR-291 in Middleburg Hts., OH is signed along Engle Road from SR-17 Brookpark Road on the north to just south of Bagley Road on the south.   At or near the railroad tracks, Engle Road becomes a non-ODOT highway until it ends at Fowles Road.

https://goo.gl/maps/zmLnO

Never understood why SR-291 just doesn't follow Engle Road to Fowles, then make the 1 mile jog east to US-42 via Fowles, unless the local NIMBYs didn't want the potential for increased truck traffic -- although trucks would make better time via Bagley Road and I-71 to US-42.

[kphoger]

Near the eastern edge of the Mountain Time Zone, in Sherman County, Kansas, is K-267.  It starts at a diamond interchange with I-70, heads north until it encounters Old U.S. 24, then west until it reaches the southern edge of Kanorado, where it just ends for no particular reason, except perhaps to provide a state-maintained highway between Kanorado and the freeway.

Old U.S. 24 continues west across the state line into Colorado toward Burlington.

Several 3-digit state routes in Kansas exist solely to provide a state highway to a town. Your example actually wasn't surprising to me in the least.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Near the eastern edge of the Mountain Time Zone, in Sherman County, Kansas, is K-267.  It starts at a diamond interchange with I-70, heads north until it encounters Old U.S. 24, then west until it reaches the southern edge of Kanorado, where it just ends for no particular reason, except perhaps to provide a state-maintained highway between Kanorado and the freeway.

Old U.S. 24 continues west across the state line into Colorado toward Burlington.

Several 3-digit state routes in Kansas exist solely to provide a state highway to a town. Your example actually wasn't surprising to me in the least.

It's also common in rural Minnesota to have this scenario of a state highway connecting a small town to a major route (as Steve Riner points out, many of these highways are numbered in the 200s). Some of these are starting to be turned back though.

[DandyDan]

Near the eastern edge of the Mountain Time Zone, in Sherman County, Kansas, is K-267.  It starts at a diamond interchange with I-70, heads north until it encounters Old U.S. 24, then west until it reaches the southern edge of Kanorado, where it just ends for no particular reason, except perhaps to provide a state-maintained highway between Kanorado and the freeway.

Old U.S. 24 continues west across the state line into Colorado toward Burlington.

Several 3-digit state routes in Kansas exist solely to provide a state highway to a town. Your example actually wasn't surprising to me in the least.

It's also common in rural Minnesota to have this scenario of a state highway connecting a small town to a major route (as Steve Riner points out, many of these highways are numbered in the 200s). Some of these are starting to be turned back though.

The majority of Nebraska's spur highways are like that as well.  Usually, it reaches the edge of town and that's the end of the highway.  For Leshara, Nebraska, in Saunders County, only about 30 miles west of Omaha, at least at the one time I went there many years ago, there is a sudden transition to gravel road where the spur route ends.

[mapman1071]

AZ 210 (https://goo.gl/maps/Snqyg) is an island highway



N Broadway to Golf Links road in Tucson.

It's Temporary NW end is At E. Broadway and is in design and funding acquisition to complete the highway NW to I-10 at Exit 257A St Marys Road/6th Street.

There are future plans to complete AZ 210 in SE Tucson from Golf Links Road & Alvernon Way
Routing I: South on Alvernon Way to I-10 at Exit 265
Routing II: East on Golf Links Road and South on Houghton Road to I-10 at Exit 275

[tcorlandoinsavannah]

This is just a local street, but it is a pretty strange ending:
SylviaLn 

[bugo]

IL 16 ends at a junction with a small private driveway on the west end.

[The Nature Boy]

Saginaw Hwy (a major road through Ingham County, Michigan) just kind of ends as a rural dirt road once you pass Grand Ledge.

[Dr Frankenstein]

The northern end of NY 14 is a cul-de-sac: http://goo.gl/maps/pE9Ln

True, but then so is the eastern end of NY 27.

And the northern end of U.S. 9.

I've always found highways that appear/vanish in the middle of a multiplex sort of bizarre. Why not truncate it to the end of the multiplex? I can think of three examples here in Quebec:

A-10 ends at A-610 in Sherbrooke, in the middle of a multiplex with A-55. It looks like it's sort of there to legitimize A-610's number, which is wrong anyway because it's not a loop. Historically, A-610 used to be A-10, but if they were going to truncate A-10, they could as well have done it all the way back to the other end of the multiplex. Perhaps it's like this so that drivers can "follow A-10" to Sherbrooke instead of switching to A-55 just short of getting there. *shrug* Personally, I would just not have renumbered A-10 to A-610.

In nearby Magog, R-108 begins at R-141, in a multiplex with R-112. (Proof since Google is wrong.) It could have begun a couple of blocks further, when R-112 turns onto Rue Sherbrooke.

R-158 begins at Avenue Béthany in Lachute, on top of R-148 (which it follows for 13 km). It doesn't even begin at an intersection with another numbered highway, it just pops out of nowhere (Avenue Béthany does carry R-329 for a short distance, which then veers north to multiplex with 148/158 for another short distance...wat). Worse, R-148 is mostly unsigned through the multiplex, so it sort of vanishes and comes back. How about just restoring R-148 and cutting that 13 km out of R-158?

(EDIT: Typo)

[bzakharin]

The northern end of NY 14 is a cul-de-sac: http://goo.gl/maps/pE9Ln

True, but then so is the eastern end of NY 27.

And the northern end of U.S. 9.

I've always found highways that appear/vanish in the middle of a multiplex sort of bizarre. Why not truncate it to the end of the multiplex? I can think of three examples here in Quebec:

A-10 ends at A-610 in Sherbrooke, in the middle of a multiplex with A-55. It looks like it's sort of there to legitimize A-610's number, which is wrong anyway because it's not a loop. Historically, A-610 used to be A-10, but if they were going to truncate A-10, they could as well have done it all the way back to the other end of the multiplex. Perhaps it's like this so that drivers can "follow A-10" to Sherbrooke instead of switching to A-55 just short of getting there. *shrug* Personally, I would just not have renumbered A-10 to A-610.

In nearby Magog, R-108 begins at R-141, in a multiplex with R-112. (Proof since Google is wrong.) It could have begun a couple of blocks further, when R-112 turns onto Rue Sherbrooke.

R-158 begins at Avenue Béthany in Lachute, on top or R-148 (which it follows for 13 km). It doesn't even begin at an intersection with another numbered highway, it just pops out of nowhere (Avenue Béthany does carry R-329 for a short distance, which then veers north to multiplex with 148/158 for another short distance...wat). Worse, R-148 is mostly unsigned through the multiplex, so it sort of vanishes and comes back. How about just restoring R-148 and cutting that 13 km out of R-158?

US-46 does this at the NJ/NY state line (up until that point it's concurrent with US-1, US-9, and I-95)

[NE2]

The northern end of NY 14 is a cul-de-sac: http://goo.gl/maps/pE9Ln

True, but then so is the eastern end of NY 27.

And the northern end of U.S. 9.

US 9 ends at the I-87 ramps; the frontage road beyond is 971B.

[bing101]

I-70 in Baltimore ending at a park and ride.

[PHLBOS]

Rhode Island Route 7. It just ends at the MA border (US 7 goes through mass.) There are no END signs for RI 7. the same goes for RI 100. It just ends at the MA. border (Google for years insisted that 100 continued into MA.

When PennDOT decided to reroute & truncate PA 100 to just east of West Chester over a decade ago (it previously went further south to the DE State line and continued as DE 100); such resulted in DE 100 just flat out ending at the State line.

When US 1 between Boston & Dedham was rerouted onto I-93 & 95 circa 1989-90; such left MA 109's eastern terminus & MA 203's western terminus somewhat disjointed due to their endings on an unnumbered road.  Nobody thought to extend either route to one another or consolidate the two (i.e. make MA 203 an eastern extension of MA 109).

For weirdest end in RI, I think both ends of RI-238 would win the prize.

The southern terminus of RI 138A would probably be a runner-up.  Personally, RI 238 should just become an extension of RI 138A and be done with it.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Near the eastern edge of the Mountain Time Zone, in Sherman County, Kansas, is K-267.  It starts at a diamond interchange with I-70, heads north until it encounters Old U.S. 24, then west until it reaches the southern edge of Kanorado, where it just ends for no particular reason, except perhaps to provide a state-maintained highway between Kanorado and the freeway.

Old U.S. 24 continues west across the state line into Colorado toward Burlington.

There is a hanging end of U.S. 24 that is associated with this. Talking eastbound now, U.S. 24 goes through Burlington, then angles northeasterly just before it would run into I-70. It then terminates with no signage to indicate the spot near the east city limits, and then you're on a state-maintained frontage road not designated as a state highway that parallels the interstate and intersects the county road CP mentioned coming out of Kanorado. Coming west into Colorado, there is a mileage sign on this frontage road, dated 2001, that is evidently a replacement-in-kind for the pre-interstate mileage sign on U.S. 24. It gives mileage to Burlington, Limon and Colorado Springs.

One of several weird hanging ends of U.S. highways in Colorado.

[cl94]

Ohio SR 16 ends at the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. Its first 5.75 miles heading east are concurrent with US 40. I know US 40 once followed Main Street into downtown, but why they didn't truncate at Drexel Avenue is beyond me.

Another odd one is NY 266. Used to end at NY 5 a few blocks south of the current ST. Now it ends at I-190 Exit 8. Entire stretch in Buffalo is city-maintained. (map: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8928166,-78.8842238,15z )

NY 8 and NY 10 end concurrently at NY 17 after a 2 mile concurrency. NY 10 should probably end at NY 8.

US 44 is kinda like SR 16: instead of ending at US 9 in Poughkeepsie, it has a 33-mile concurrency east of US 209 with NY 55. About half of its length in New York is contained within that concurrency.

Oh, and I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, but NY 421. Ends at a dead end in the middle of nowhere and serves little purpose whatsoever.

[vdeane]

NY 421 has an AADT of about 136 and is easily the least traveled touring route.  I have no idea why it exists other than it used to end not far from a station on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad... but then there are other such stations that have no road connection whatsoever.

Frost heaves were an issue on NY 421 the last only time I drove on it.