Interchanges, but barely

[Flint1979]

US-35 @ OH-32/124. Full size, but who's considered the freeway?

Neither one. They are both divided highways with at grade interchanges in places.

[DJ Particle]

US-6 in Truro MA - Exit 106

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Truro,+MA/@41.9927938,-70.0481562,907m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89fb5f8d605190e5:0x70889a56ace16faa!8m2!3d42.0031966!4d-70.053449

[lepidopteran]

In Bensalem, PA, the interchange between SR-132 (Street Rd.) and US-1 used to be like this.  But reconstruction is nearing completion to make US-1 freeway grade starting from just south of there, with signalized intersections on 132.  The proximity to the Turnpike interchange only confounded the situation, so a parclo was built on the opposite side.  Google Maps shows the old setup with the new configuration overlaid.

How about this puzzling specimen on the US-206 bypass in Hillsborough, NJ?

[CapeCodder]

US-6 in Truro MA - Exit 106

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Truro,+MA/@41.9927938,-70.0481562,907m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89fb5f8d605190e5:0x70889a56ace16faa!8m2!3d42.0031966!4d-70.053449

A friend lives about 1/2 mile from that "complex." Didn't know it was numbered, as no number is posted.

[DJ Particle]

A friend lives about 1/2 mile from that "complex." Didn't know it was numbered, as no number is posted.

It's not actually numbered.  But if it was, it would be Exit 106.

[pderocco]

These things crop up most often when there's a freeway or railroad that must be grade-separated from major cross streets, but also has a parallel street that must connect to the cross streets. That's pretty common, sometimes in multiple places along the parallel street. Here are a couple of pretty cool examples from Portland, OR:
https://goo.gl/maps/JtVNhCrcGR9pKTMi6
https://goo.gl/maps/1TRDgZjgioFWbFcK9

[Tom958]

I'm not sure if US 80 at AL 17 qualifies since they didn't bother with a westbound offramp, providing an at-grade left turn onto the westbound offramps instead. Despite both ramps being to the east of AL 17, I don't see any evidence that there was ever a railroad there. On the contrary, the original interchange bridge had no span over any abandoned railbed. It must've been built because the topography made an at-grade intersection inadvisable.

[froggie]

I'm not sure if US 80 at AL 17 qualifies since they didn't bother with a westbound offramp, providing an at-grade left turn onto the westbound offramps instead. Despite both ramps being to the east of AL 17, I don't see any evidence that there was ever a railroad there. On the contrary, the original interchange bridge had no span over any abandoned railbed. It must've been built because the topography made an at-grade intersection inadvisable.

Speaking from personal experience, it's very rolling topography.

BTW, the original configuration was even weirder.

[zzcarp]

We have a bunch of examples here in Colorado.

Perhaps the worst offender IMHO is Exit 106 on I-25 north of Pueblo. Northbound, Southbound

I-25 Exit 122 at the Pike's Peak International Raceway seems to fit as well.

I-25 Exit 59 is similar.

I-25 Exit 8 is another, along with Exit 6 and Exit 2.

US 6-85 in Commerce City has one.

The US 285 expressway as it travels generally southwesterly from Denver to Park County has several examples; here are a few.

North Turkey Creek Road
South Turkey Creek Road
Barkley Road (SB)/Main Street (NB)
Foxton Road/Kennedy Gulch Road

[CtrlAltDel]

What about this?



It's North Avenue and Mannheim Road in Melrose Park/Northlake/Stone Park, Illinois.

[Tom958]

BTW, the original configuration was even weirder.

Indeed. From the air, it looks as though an at-grade left turn was required to get from eastbound US 80 to AL 17, which is the reverse of the current situation. This blurry 2009 Streetview confirms it.

Alabama has a good many random interchanges, but I think this is the weirdest.

I wish I could find an older map than the 1953 USGA topo of the area. US 80 between Cuba and Demopolis must've been built relatively recently if it included an interchange, and I don't see any obvious prior route.

[froggie]

State highway maps of the era suggest that it was built ca 1954-55....the 1954 map still shows US 80 through Livingston but the 1955 map shows its present alignment.  Per NBI, the original bridge (the one being dismantled in your GMSV link) was built in 1954.

There was also a short-lived state route (AL 162, from the late 1940s) that ran from AL 17 to Bellamy which was subsumed into US 80...I believe the original access road between AL 17 and US 80 was part of this old AL 162...the wye it had at AL 17 makes sense in that regard.

[mgk920]

https://goo.gl/maps/rZjS6ZwdxUnHxkZ67

This is I-80 at Hainesburg River Rd in the Del Water Gap in New Jersey.  It is a local road access 'RIRO' that I have brought up many times before here in these forvms (note the STOP line on the on ramp).



Mike

[Tom958]

State highway maps of the era suggest that it was built ca 1954-55....the 1954 map still shows US 80 through Livingston but the 1955 map shows its present alignment.  Per NBI, the original bridge (the one being dismantled in your GMSV link) was built in 1954.

Embarassingly, I couldn't find the old state maps at ALDOT's site. However, the 1953 USGS map I found appeared to show US 80 in its current location west of AL 28 and (OT) crossing the Tombigbee via thw 1925 Old Rooster brifge. On an unrelated matter that's now rather coincidental, today I discovered that the 1959 USGS map of the northernmost bit of I-75 in Georgia and crossing into Tennessee shows them as completed, but bridgereports.com says the bridges weren't done until 1960 or later. Either USGS jumped the gun or the other sources lagged. I'm guessing the former.

There was also a short-lived state route (AL 162, from the late 1940s) that ran from AL 17 to Bellamy which was subsumed into US 80...I believe the original access road between AL 17 and US 80 was part of this old AL 162...the wye it had at AL 17 makes sense in that regard.

Indeed it would. That's good to know. That wye reinforces the point that, as desirable as a highway running due west from there might've been it wasn't regarded as enticingly feasible enough to actually build until they could afford to build a bridge over AL 17 there!

[froggie]

State highway maps of the era suggest that it was built ca 1954-55....the 1954 map still shows US 80 through Livingston but the 1955 map shows its present alignment.  Per NBI, the original bridge (the one being dismantled in your GMSV link) was built in 1954.

Embarassingly, I couldn't find the old state maps at ALDOT's site.

They're on UA's website

[PurdueBill]

So I've been doing a lot of driving through northern Lake County, Indiana for my internship, and I couldn't help but notice a parclo "interchange".

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6101002,-87.4605571,134m/data=!3m1!1e3

US 20 is grade separated from Kennedy Avenue, but the "ramps" look to be the same quality of side streets and have stop signs at each end. They have no medians, or even centerlines, but with no right turn signs, access control is pretty much the same as on a normal interchange of this configuration.

Are there any other examples of this, or is this just a weird Indiana-ism?

Indiana seems to like them a lot even though other states have some.  IN 25 and US 24/35 had a relatively heavily-trafficked one (with 25 NB to 24 EB and vice versa being heavy) until the 25 bypass opened almost 10 years ago, with that being the thru movement and interchange ramps (in a split diamond) for the turn-off-to-stay-on movements for 25, 24, and 35. 
https://goo.gl/maps/RfXnn8N9R84Mgtni7
They removed the 25 shields and destinations of Lafayette and Delphi from the BGSs on 24/35, but otherwise left them, leaving very awkwardly tall signs for just Logansport with the yellow TWO WAY RAMP warning. 
https://goo.gl/maps/g474dJZQcRJv3sGJ6

[Tom958]

They're on UA's website

Thanks!

How could I forget the five off-the-wall interchanges on US 412 between Dyersburg and Jackson, Tennessee, as expounded upon in this thread?

In its 42 mile length, there are thirteen interchanges. Seven are of normal design, built on that mid-'80s extension or on segments that were relocated instead of widened in situ in the early '90s. Five of them are decidedly unorthodox; here are all five of them.

The first one's the diciest, with the ramps consisting of a section of former state highway that also provides access to several houses.

[webny99]

https://goo.gl/maps/rZjS6ZwdxUnHxkZ67

This is I-80 at Hainesburg River Rd in the Del Water Gap in New Jersey.  It is a local road access 'RIRO' that I have brought up many times before here in these forvms (note the STOP line on the on ramp).



Mike

I'm pretty sure I took that interchange once on a trip home from NJ. It's a really handy spot to bail at the last second if there's congestion (as there often is here). We took PA 611 instead, and were rewarded with scenic views where we could see the stopped traffic across the river.

[lepidopteran]

The US-127 bypass around Greenville, OH.  Granted, there is a mixture of at-grades, overpasses, and interchanges on this highway.

[WestDakota]

US 12 and ND 67 in Scranton, ND. I'd say this is about the least "barely" you could get, and it is the equivalent of half of the original post that started this thread.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Scranton,+ND/@46.1447184,-103.145239,461m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x532f25b75ed50e57:0x3da59a4fd6bf4f3e!8m2!3d46.1480618!4d-103.14295

[jay8g]

The "Deer Park Loop" interchange on US 101 east of Port Angeles fits this well. The "ramps" are just the original alignments of Deer Park Rd and Buchanan Dr from before the underpass (which is more like a giant culvert; I've never seen anything like it elsewhere in Washington) was built (Old Deer Park Rd was cut off from 101 long before the underpass project). And then there's the weird rest area ramp in the northwest corner adding to the confusion (also predating the underpass, but a relatively new addition).

I-5 and SR 506 is just a couple of (fairly low standard) RIROs, with a long loop road connecting them by crossing under the nearby Cowlitz River bridge.

Not quite what the original post was asking about, but SR 16 at Wollochet Dr in Gig Harbor is shockingly bad, with both onramps being 10 MPH U-turn ramps with a weird elevation change and relatively short acceleration lanes -- I've been on these ramps once or twice, and you really just have to hope there's no one coming in the right lane, since you'd have to have a very powerful car to get up to speed in the provided space. I've always wondered what the history is there -- it really looks like the interchange was designed to only have the two off ramps and the on-ramps were tacked on later, but I can't find anything showing a stage between the original at-grade intersection and the current configuration.

And then there's whatever the heck this is.

[TheStranger]

Since someone mentioned "crappy cloverleaves created by using local streets", here's one from the 1960s still in place today: Route 84 (Woodside Road) at Route 82 (El Camino Real/former US 101), Redwood City

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4769164,-122.2242849,901m/data=!3m1!1e3

Based on the 1963 and 1964 California state highway maps, the portion of Main Street northwest of here was part of an early alignment of 84 before Woodside was extended north of here.

[Ned Weasel]

Wasn't there one in Kansas, a one quadrant interchange or something like that, that seemed pretty much to be of inexplicable utility?

Are you thinking of this one in Butler County, that intentionally uses a U-turn instead of a left turn?  https://goo.gl/maps/tdFLisGFFgUpDxeAA

Here are a couple of others in Kansas that kind of fit this category:

US 50 and K-177: https://goo.gl/maps/XiJHjFmxWX8K9Xx5A
US 69/Metcalf Avenue and Johnson Drive: https://goo.gl/maps/dVTMAmbfjfyaSDsT7

[CtrlAltDel]

Wasn't there one in Kansas, a one quadrant interchange or something like that, that seemed pretty much to be of inexplicable utility?

Are you thinking of this one in Butler County, that intentionally uses a U-turn instead of a left turn?  https://goo.gl/maps/tdFLisGFFgUpDxeAA

That's the one. Thanks.

[Dirt Roads]

US 12 and ND 67 in Scranton, ND. I'd say this is about the least "barely" you could get, and it is the equivalent of half of the original post that started this thread.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Scranton,+ND/@46.1447184,-103.145239,461m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x532f25b75ed50e57:0x3da59a4fd6bf4f3e!8m2!3d46.1480618!4d-103.14295

This theme keeps coming up, so I should mention that the presence of a highway parallel to a railroad line complicates grade separations.  In most cases, these "Just Barely" interchanges are just sufficient enough to carry all of the traffic between both roads.