Decomissonings that suprised you the most.

[OracleUsr]

NC 6 (Patterson St./TRFKALS)

*TRFKALS Stands for The Road Formerly Known as Lee St.

[bugo]

US 61 in Minnesota
US 75 in Texas
US 89 in Arizona
US 40 rerouting in Lawrence, Kansas

Nexus 5X

[mgk920]

INDOT's decomissoning all of the state routes through Lafayette and West Lafayette surprised me the most!! 

Lots of decommissionings in Indiana have been surprising. IN-44 in Franklin is another example. As far as Wisconsin goes the ones that surprised me the most were WI-149 and WI-163 leaving huge gaps with no state highways I don't get it.

Those didn't surprise me, they operated as glorified minor county highways.

There are other in the state that I am surprised that WisDOT still hangs onto (ie, WI 152).

One decommissioning in Wisconsin that did kind of surprise me was when US 41 was removed from S 27 St in Milwaukee and most of it was not reflagged as WI 241, instead being turned over to the city to be downgraded into a boulevard street.

Mike

[mgk920]

US 27 in Michigan and largely being replaced by US 127 surprised me.  In the Lansing Area US 27 northward was a big deal to get to the UP.  I still remember when the US 127 Freeway opened it got a ton of traffic off US 27 between I-69 and St John’s.  I lived about a tenth of a mile of US 27 at the time, people still refer to it by the route number or Old 27.

I was surprised that ADOT somehow managed to get AZ 153 over to the City of Phoenix.  What a failure that project turned out to be.  At least 143 turned out to be a somewhat adequate freeway connector to Sky Harbor.

MDOT reflagged that part of US 27 to US 127 for route number continuity purposes.  It was a totally logical northward continuation of US 127 while being completely disjointed from US 27.  US 27 to the south was also majorly supplanted by I-69 and cut back to Fort Wayne, IN.

I fully agreed with MDOT when they did that.

Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

US 27 in Michigan and largely being replaced by US 127 surprised me.  In the Lansing Area US 27 northward was a big deal to get to the UP.  I still remember when the US 127 Freeway opened it got a ton of traffic off US 27 between I-69 and St John's.  I lived about a tenth of a mile of US 27 at the time, people still refer to it by the route number or Old 27.

I was surprised that ADOT somehow managed to get AZ 153 over to the City of Phoenix.  What a failure that project turned out to be.  At least 143 turned out to be a somewhat adequate freeway connector to Sky Harbor.

MDOT reflagged that part of US 27 to US 127 for route number continuity purposes.  It was a totally logical northward continuation of US 127 while being completely disjointed from US 27.  US 27 to the south was also majorly supplanted by I-69 and cut back to Fort Wayne, IN.

I fully agreed with MDOT when they did that.

Mike

Yes in retrospect it makes sense given US 27 had huge overlaps with I-69.  That said I was in high school when US 27 was decomissioned and given that there wasn't a ton of press on it happening it definitely caught me off guard.

[bzakharin]

Non-freeway NJ 24 west of Morristown (to NJ 57). If they continued it as NJ 124, I would understand, though providing continuity of 24 proper via a brief multiplex with I-287 wouldn't hurt anyone either. But handing it over to the counties is a step too far. Also, the locals insist on the county routes "route 24" anyway.

[Big John]

One decommissioning in Wisconsin that did kind of surprise me was when US 41 was removed from S 27 St in Milwaukee and most of it was not reflagged as WI 241, instead being turned over to the city to be downgraded into a boulevard street.

Mike

Apparently the city balked at the state plans for reconstruction of that segment (didn't like the proposed lane widths, etc).  As a result it was decided to turn over that segment to the city, reroute US 41 and create WI 241 and 341 for the remaining segments where the state still maintained.

[SSR_317]

US 27 in Michigan and largely being replaced by US 127 surprised me.  In the Lansing Area US 27 northward was a big deal to get to the UP.  I still remember when the US 127 Freeway opened it got a ton of traffic off US 27 between I-69 and St John's.  I lived about a tenth of a mile of US 27 at the time, people still refer to it by the route number or Old 27.

I was surprised that ADOT somehow managed to get AZ 153 over to the City of Phoenix.  What a failure that project turned out to be.  At least 143 turned out to be a somewhat adequate freeway connector to Sky Harbor.

MDOT reflagged that part of US 27 to US 127 for route number continuity purposes.  It was a totally logical northward continuation of US 127 while being completely disjointed from US 27.  US 27 to the south was also majorly supplanted by I-69 and cut back to Fort Wayne, IN.

I fully agreed with MDOT when they did that.

Mike

Yes in retrospect it makes sense given US 27 had huge overlaps with I-69.  That said I was in high school when US 27 was decomissioned and given that there wasn't a ton of press on it happening it definitely caught me off guard.

It should have had an even longer overlap, IMHO, as I-69 should have continued north along the path of US (1)27 to its logical terminus at I-75 south of Grayling. The east-west freeway from Lansing to Port Huron via Flint should've either been called I-98 or have been given a 3-di (perhaps I-694 to blend 69 with 94). Having an odd 2-di change cardinal directions from N-S to E-W should have never been permitted!

[dvferyance]

INDOT's decomissoning all of the state routes through Lafayette and West Lafayette surprised me the most!! 

Lots of decommissionings in Indiana have been surprising. IN-44 in Franklin is another example. As far as Wisconsin goes the ones that surprised me the most were WI-149 and WI-163 leaving huge gaps with no state highways I don't get it.

Those didn't surprise me, they operated as glorified minor county highways.

There are other in the state that I am surprised that WisDOT still hangs onto (ie, WI 152).

One decommissioning in Wisconsin that did kind of surprise me was when US 41 was removed from S 27 St in Milwaukee and most of it was not reflagged as WI 241, instead being turned over to the city to be downgraded into a boulevard street.

Mike

That's not true at all most of it became WI-241 except the the mile gap between Forest Home and National which made no sense to have that gap the whole thing plus the 27th street portion of WI-57 should have all become WI-241 At least WI-152 serves mt Morris a popular resort community I think WI 127 and WI 134 are more surprising especially that latter the town it's serves as spur London is not even incorporated and who even goes there? Yet they agreed to the idiotic request by Menomonee Falls to decommission 74 despite it being a major route connecting Brown Deer Rd the main E W route in northern Milwaukee County to the Sussex Pewaukee area. That is going to cause major problems as semi trucks now have to take long detours to get to that area which is a major industrial area in Waukesha County including the big Quad Graphics plant all just so we could make the downtown falls more pedestrian friendly so dumb communities make such laws all in the name of appeasement.

[Takumi]

The original VA 167. Of all the long-standing state primary routes in Hampton Roads, why was it the only one to be decommissioned? (Yeah, I know 408/409/410/411/414 were a few years later...)

[Mapmikey]

The original VA 167. Of all the long-standing state primary routes in Hampton Roads, why was it the only one to be decommissioned? (Yeah, I know 408/409/410/411/414 were a few years later...)

Per pdf pg 6 of http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-11-1995-01.pdf, VA 167 was deleted at the request of the Cities of Hampton and Newport News (but did not get into why they wanted that)

[ftballfan]

M-107 in Michigan (entrance into Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park) -- that decommissioning came out of nowhere.

That area of the state is dying. MI has decommissioned some state park highways (M-110 and M-209 come to mind), but has kept others such as M-211 and M-212. Michigan hasn't really had that many surprising decommissionings (except possibly the western section of M-42)

[plain]

VA 167 was deleted at the request of the Cities of Hampton and Newport News (but did not get into why they wanted that)

If I remember correctly it was specifically the residents along Chesapeake Ave in Hampton that drove the city to drop the designation, they wanted it to become a minor street. Naturally Newport News went along with it as there would've been no point hanging on to their little piece.

[webny99]

Does the Robert Moses State Parkway being changed to Niagara Scenic Parkway count as decommissioning? 

[Rothman]

That change surprises you?  A whole carriageway sat in disuse for years.

[dvferyance]

The original VA 167. Of all the long-standing state primary routes in Hampton Roads, why was it the only one to be decommissioned? (Yeah, I know 408/409/410/411/414 were a few years later...)

My guess is there were enough state routes in Newport News. The mystery to me is why was VA-104 decommissioned? The US 17 reroute makes no sense at all.

[texaskdog]

Having lived in Minnesota, any road that just ends at the county line (US 52, MN 65, MN 101, MN 88 at one time); MN 7; MN 5; MN 50 near Farmington; US 169 becoming MN 252 when the road got a lot bigger

More surprised about how many have not.  I've heard US 61 north of St Paul, MN 120, MN 65 south of 694 for over 10 years and they are still there; 

[froggie]

The mystery to me is why was VA-104 decommissioned? The US 17 reroute makes no sense at all.

Makes perfect sense when you consider (or were aware of) the PITA that the Deep Creek Drawbridge is.

US 169 becoming MN 252 when the road got a lot bigger

169 was moved off of 252 several years before 252 got widened.  169 was moved to what was then a concurrency with US 52 in 1981.  Widening of 252 (and the reroute to connect to 610) didn't occur until 1987.

More surprised about how many have not.  I've heard US 61 north of St Paul, MN 120, MN 65 south of 694 for over 10 years and they are still there; 

Doesn't surprise me.  MnDOT only has the funding to upgrade a few miles of state highway a year that they want to turn back.

[dvferyance]

MN 120 decommissioning rumors are like 15 years old now.

[webny99]

That change surprises you?  A whole carriageway sat in disuse for years.

Not really, but it is rare for someone's name to be taken off of a roadway. Usually it's vice versa.

[MNHighwayMan]

MN 120 decommissioning rumors are like 15 years old now.

They're not really rumors. The state legislature has repealed the LR for MN-120, which becomes effective upon agreement of turnback–it's this agreement that still hasn't been reached. Part of the problem, I suspect, is the fact that it runs along a county line, in addition to the funding problem.

Edit: I also wouldn't be surprised if upgrades to the road aren't in the mix somewhere, for a turnback agreement–MN-120 is a pretty busy two-lane road nowadays–or possibly even the construction of an interchange at MN-36. Neither of those are cheap propositions.

[bulldog1979]

M-107 in Michigan (entrance into Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park) -- that decommissioning came out of nowhere.

That area of the state is dying. MI has decommissioned some state park highways (M-110 and M-209 come to mind), but has kept others such as M-211 and M-212. Michigan hasn't really had that many surprising decommissionings (except possibly the western section of M-42)

MDOT can't unilaterally decommission a highway though. The county road commission, or a city/village, has to accept the transfer. The department wanted to extend M-553 and divest itself of M-554, but until the City of Marquette agreed, MDOT was stuck. At the same time, Marquette wanted control over the business loop back, so Bus. US 41 was transferred and decommissioned. So the question is, who wanted M-107 transferred and initiated the negotiations that resulted in the transfer? Did the county want it, or did the state entice the county to take it?

[roadman65]

VA 168 north of the HRBT!  VDOT went through the trouble of renumbering it to VA 143 when the put it on I-64, but as soon as the arterial section of it got upgraded to freeway in the early 80's, they truncated it to Willouby Spit in Norfolk.

It made no sense to transfer the route to only decommission it later.

US 113 in Delaware, especially that it does not connect anymore to its parent and dangles not connecting at all to the rest of the US highway network at its north end.  This was all so DelDOT did not have a concurrency between Milford and Dover with DE 1.   IMO being US 301 is being tolled when its freeway is completed, US 113 could have been the DE 1 Turnpike instead.

[texaskdog]

Still US 99 in California is probably the biggest surprise overall.

[MantyMadTown]

INDOT's decomissoning all of the state routes through Lafayette and West Lafayette surprised me the most!! 

Lots of decommissionings in Indiana have been surprising. IN-44 in Franklin is another example. As far as Wisconsin goes the ones that surprised me the most were WI-149 and WI-163 leaving huge gaps with no state highways I don't get it.

Those actually ran close to my hometown. Both of these routes existed in Manitowoc County.