Proactive Bridges

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/9Q9UDFTd1PWB1HVc8
This one here in Lakeland is ready from conception that someday FL TOLL 580 will be widened.

Osceola Parkway over World Drive in WDW was built that way and since been used to widen the Parkway above.

[Rothman]

https://goo.gl/maps/9Q9UDFTd1PWB1HVc8
This one here in Lakeland is ready from conception that someday FL TOLL 580 will be widened.

Osceola Parkway over World Drive in WDW was built that way and since been used to widen the Parkway above.

Lots of bridges nowadays are rehabbed or built with the idea of expansion happening sometime in the future.

[Max Rockatansky]

When US 299 was realigned over the Whiskeytown Reservoir the bridge was built with room to expand to four lanes.  US 299 has been gone since 1964 and that bridge as part of CA 299 sits waiting to be expanded.

[Bruce]

The westbound I-90 floating bridge was built in 1988 with a center express lane that would be convertible to some form of transit use, as part of agreements between various governments. It is now being converted for light rail, set to open in 2025 or a bit later (depending on how fast the contractors can unscrew their screwup). The new Evergreen Point/SR 520 floating bridge has a similar design addition that would allow for light rail with a few additional pontoons, but I'm not clear on what exactly this would entail.

[Bitmapped]

I've seen a number of cases in the past 30ish years where PennDOT and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission have built bridge piers and/or abutments wider to facilitate potential future expansion. One example that comes to mind is the McClaren Road overpass of I-376 near the Pittsburgh airport: https://goo.gl/maps/QySK31zwg8UnSWwt7

You can also see this along the Southern Beltway (PA Turnpike 576) and portions of the Mon-Fayette Expressway (PA Turnpike 43). Here is an example from the portion of the Southern Beltway that opened last year: https://goo.gl/maps/adkYWWLVGx5otAHG8

PennDOT designed the piers and abutments at the northern end of the US 219 Meyersdale Bypass to facilitate widening the bridges when the the freeway was extended north. They took advantage of this when the extension to Somerset was built several years ago: https://goo.gl/maps/ZLNWCnmc8LinXgXc6

[epzik8]

Tydings Bridge (I-95 in Maryland) was wide enough for three lanes from the highway's opening in the '60s. The same can't be said for if and when a fourth lane needs to be added in each direction.

[rte66man]

When the Turner Turnpike (I-44) west of Tulsa was widened from 4 to 6 lanes a few years ago, all of the bridges and overpasses were built so a 4th lane could be added in both directions without having to rebuild the bridges.

[kurumi]

When I lived there as a wee lad in 1978, the Alternate A1A bridge over the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter was 6 lanes wide while the rest of the road was mainly 2 lanes. It seemed fairly new, but I don't know the opening date.

Now, most of Alt A1A is 6 lanes in the area: https://goo.gl/maps/DKocgr6zkEaGTRNG7

[kphoger]

When I lived there as a wee lad in 1978, the Alternate A1A bridge over the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter was 6 lanes wide while the rest of the road was mainly 2 lanes. It seemed fairly new, but I don't know the opening date.

Now, most of Alt A1A is 6 lanes in the area: https://goo.gl/maps/DKocgr6zkEaGTRNG7

Here in Wichita, Arkansas Ave widens from two lanes to four just for the bridge across the Little Arkansas River.

[abefroman329]

When I lived there as a wee lad in 1978, the Alternate A1A bridge over the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter was 6 lanes wide while the rest of the road was mainly 2 lanes. It seemed fairly new, but I don't know the opening date.

Now, most of Alt A1A is 6 lanes in the area: https://goo.gl/maps/DKocgr6zkEaGTRNG7

Here in Wichita, Arkansas Ave widens from two lanes to four just for the bridge across the Little Arkansas River.

Oh man, the awful commutes I had, temping in college, because the county I lived in had widened a road to four lanes, but not the neighboring county where I worked.

[abefroman329]

The Wilson Bridge has some extra-wide shoulders that can be converted to carry light/heavy rail, and presumably the design of the bridge had to be altered in some way in order to accommodate for hypothetical trains crossing the bridge.

The center reservation of the Dulles Airport Access Road sat empty for decades, built with an eye towards heavy rail of some kind.

The Congress Branch of the CTA Blue Line was built with an easement wide enough to accommodate 3 tracks and, in some places, 4 tracks, because they thought the Chicago Aurora and Elgin would also use this branch (they ended up ceasing service in the middle of a workday before the line was completed).  In fact, there are two unused tunnel stubs just east of the UIC-Halsted stop, and they're noticeably smaller than the two tunnels the CTA uses.

[formulanone]

When I lived there as a wee lad in 1978, the Alternate A1A bridge over the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter was 6 lanes wide while the rest of the road was mainly 2 lanes. It seemed fairly new, but I don't know the opening date.

Now, most of Alt A1A is 6 lanes in the area: https://goo.gl/maps/DKocgr6zkEaGTRNG7

Florida was pretty good at this through the '90s, many overpasses and bridges were widened before the rest of the roadways which carried them could be widened for a good 5-10 years. Cheap and mostly unused ROW.

Of course, there's a few 1950s relics on the Turnpike on some of those 40-mile corridors between exits.

[CoreySamson]

A couple examples that I'm aware of:

TX 35 crossing Austin Bayou between Danbury and Alvin. I believe this road is getting widened soon:
https://goo.gl/maps/73spRcovBT3UrGv68

TX 288 crossing Croix Road near Pearland:
https://goo.gl/maps/zHYzhNwiMhtjA7nQ7

The new White River bridge on I-40 in Arkansas is designed for 3 lanes each way:
https://goo.gl/maps/ZsyBqvAHZGN5GhhV8

I-40's bridge over Shell Lake, also in E Arkansas, is similar:
https://goo.gl/maps/jhksBA531qVq7gE19

[frankenroad]

Jeremiah Morrow Bridge (I-71 Ohio MM 35) was recently replaced and the new spans are wide enough for 3 lanes in each direction - that stretch of I-71 is still 2 lanes each way.

Several bridges on I-75 in Lima OH were rebuilt in the last few years, and, surprisingly they were NOT designed to expand that stretch to 3 lanes each way.  Lima (exits 120-127) lies in the only stretch of I-75 (MM 76 to MM 156) in Ohio that is not already 3 or more lanes in each direction.

[kurumi]

The I-280 bridge over the Stanford Linear Accelerator predates the rest of the freeway (top center of image)



(from thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/14kgwvr/280_880_101/)