Interchanges between Conventional Roads

[vtk]

This thread should be a showcase of all those oddball, isolated interchanges that don't involve freeways or expressways*.  In many cases, the traffic levels no longer make an interchange necessary for one reason or another. 

There's a whole class of situations involving grade separation due to geographic convenience – these are so numerous that I'd like to exclude them from this thread.  I want to focus on situations where a simple at-grade intersection would have been easier.

So here are the examples that come to my mind:

US 33, OH 161, OH 257 – Just one ramp, but enough for ODOT to consider it an interchange.  Also, some left turns are prohibited; Dale Dr is the signed alternate, making it unofficially a second ramp.

US 40, US 42 – Clearly the need for this one went away when I-70 opened, but US 42 is getting so busy these days, the grade separation here is nice to have.  Note, this was reconfigured a bit in 2010—2012.

M-1, M-102 – No longer necessary due to population decline, but still better to have it than to demolish it.

*Freeway: a highway designed for high speed, with no at-grade intersections, traffic lights, or access to/from adjacent properties.  Expressway: a highway designed for high speed, with severely limited or no access to/from adjacent properties, but at-grade intersections and/or traffic lights may exist.  Conventional road: any other roadway.

[intelati49]

I can think of two right off the bat.

US 60 and MO 59 Replaced due to safety issues.

Zora Avenue and Main Street interchange New interchange to be built. in Joplin.

Grand and Forrest park road.

Big Bend road Not sure this one counts.

[roadman65]

US 1 and Fl 100 in Bunnell, FL where it is both an interchange and at grade facility.  Fl 100 crosses over US 1 on a bridge  from the west. and then loops around to meet it at grade from the east side.  To make a right turn onto US 1 south (or to continue on FL 100) you have to make a left turn and cross traffic you just missed.

The FEC Railway does have a lot to do with it as the overpass was made to bypass the trains, but a down ramp could have been made from the elevated roadway to the surface US 1 for movement in this direction.  The bridge was just replaced a few years ago and FDOT could have made this modification when this project occurred.

[Brandon]

This thread should be a showcase of all those oddball, isolated interchanges that don't involve freeways or expressways.  In many cases, the traffic levels no longer make an interchange necessary for one reason or another. 

There's a whole class of situations involving grade separation due to geographic convenience – these are so numerous that I'd like to exclude them from this thread.  I want to focus on situations where a simple at-grade intersection would have been easier.

So here are the examples that come to my mind:

M-1, M-102 – No longer necessary due to population decline, but still better to have it than to demolish it.

Bullshit.  It is still necessary due to the design of both Woodward and Eight Mile.  As is Telegraph and Eight Mile, Michigan and Telegraph, and a few others out there.

[InterstateNG]

People seem to forget Metro Detroit is the 12th largest metropolitan area in the country.  Detroit proper may have lost a lot of people, but the area as a whole was stable, and a lot of them use 8 Mile and Woodward.

[vtk]

I know there was some local discussion about possibly removing that interchange a few years ago. The issue may have been more about misuse by the homeless than traffic efficiency, however.

[xonhulu]

Oregon has quite a few interchanges between regular roads:

- US 26 at US 101, Cannon Beach Jct;
- OR 18 at US 101, Otis;
- OR 42 at US 101, near Coos Bay;
- unsigned OR 542 at OR 42, Myrtle Point;
- OR 47 at US 26, near Banks;
- OR 47 at OR 6, Banks;
- OR 6 at US 26, also near Banks;
- US 30 at the Wauna paper mill, near Westport;
- OR 35 at US 26, near Gov't Camp;
- OR 35 has an interchange for the road to Mt Hood Meadows ski resort;
- OR 58 at US 97, near Gilchrist;
- OR 422 at US 97, Chiloquin;
- OR 204 at OR 11, Weston.

I'm sure I've left some out.  This list would've also included the two Sunriver exits on US 97 except 97 has recently been upgraded to limited access expressway through here.

[Super Mateo]

Two that I could come up with around here:

95th & Harlem (US 12/20 & IL 43), although the close proximity of I 294 may have something to do with that one
Mannheim & North (US 12/45 & IL 64), I have no idea why this one is set up this way

[hbelkins]

Kentucky has a few. Coming immediately to mind is KY 321 (formerly US 23/US 460) and KY 1428 (which, ironically enough, was the first routing of US 23 in the area) south of Paintsville. 321 crosses 1428 and a two-lane connector route links the two.

http://g.co/maps/auv77

[bulldog1979]

Chicago Drive and 28th Street in Grandville are grade-separated. It's not a full interchange because there is only a ramp from eastbound Chicago Drive to eastbound 28th Street and the remaining movements are accomplished using the 28th Street Cutoff.

[J N Winkler]

Kansas has a few examples.  Excluding ones associated with the Kansas model of "Super Two" progressive corridor development, we are left with:

*  US 36 and US 81 in Belleville

*  US 36 and US 75 in Holton

*  US 54, US 400, and US 77 in Augusta

*  US 75 and US 166 just north of Caney

*  US 166 and US 169 just east of Coffeyville, en route to the municipal airport (currently under construction; neither Google mapping nor StreetView shows the as-constructed configuration yet)

*  US 400 and US 59 near Parsons

There are additional examples which are not listed.  Grade-separated junctions of conventional-road state highways are, frankly, not uncommon in Kansas.  The problem with identifying them is not finding them so much as it is deciding whether they exist independently of a length that has now, or is planned to have at some point in the future, comprehensive grade separation.

For instance, the first two examples I listed above are both on US 36, but in actuality US 36 has many more additional grade separations east of the US 75 corridor.  The others not listed are part of a Super Two length of US 36 which runs between Missouri I-229 and ends just past US 159 in Hiawatha.  US 54-400/US 77 near Augusta is frankly a marginal case; further west, in Wichita, US 54-400 becomes the Kellogg Avenue freeway, for which eastward expansion is planned but not necessarily all the way to Augusta.  US 75/US 166 is another marginal case because US 75 is Super Two nearly all the way from Topeka south to Independence; counting US 75/US 166 as an isolated grade separation implicitly assumes that no plans exist to upgrade US 75 south of Independence.  Similarly, US 169 is another well-known Super Two corridor between Kansas City and Chanute and inclusion of the US 166/US 169 interchange east of Coffeyville implicitly assumes that US 169 won't become a high-type corridor south of Chanute through Cherryvale.  (In actuality US 169 poses other headaches because it does not maintain Super Two standard all the way from Kansas City to Chanute.  There are plenty of at-grade intersections with state highways in the vicinity of Garnett, while grade separation is provided extensively in the vicinities of Iola and Chanute.)  On the other hand, the grade separations on the K-4 Oakland Expressway in east Topeka are not listed since they are obviously part of a Super Two corridor with comprehensive grade separation, designed for easy upgradability to full freeway.

Put simply, it is hard to formulate criteria which can be rigorously applied and depending on the criteria you choose, you can end up with a very short or very long list.

Edit:  US 400 in western Kansas also has grade-separated intersections, including the US 54/US 400 split (former K-154 eastern terminus) near Mullinville.  US 400 in western Kansas is due for upgrades, but there is genuine uncertainty as to the projected ultimate configuration and in fact there is a planning effort underway to make a choice among the options of freeway (unlikely), upgradable expressway (marginally likely), or plain expressway (fractionally more likely given the improbability that Congress will agree to maintain level funding for highways).  So does, e.g., US 54/US 400 near Mullinville count as an isolated grade separation, or as part of a future freeway?

[3467]

There is one intersting one in Iowa at US 34 and US 71 both 2 lanes in Western Iowa.
In Illinois US 50 has a couple but that section was originally planned as an expressway or freeway and in fact has the ROW
There are several non interstate in Metro Chicago on IL 83 and Lake -Cook for example. All are very needed. For some reason IDOT demolished an interchange as US 30 and 34 near Aurora which is very busy.

[pianocello]

Two that I could come up with around here:

95th & Harlem (US 12/20 & IL 43), although the close proximity of I 294 may have something to do with that one
Mannheim & North (US 12/45 & IL 64), I have no idea why this one is set up this way

Don't forget LaGrange and Archer (US-12/20/45 & IL-171). This is also due to close proximity to I-294. Also, this is the only way to get from NB 294 to NB I-55.

Off the top of my head, US-6 and IL-251 come to a cloverleaf in the middle of La Salle, IL

In Cedar Rapids, IA (or Marion or Hiawatha, don't really know which), the IA-100/I-380 volleyball ties in with Collins Rd's interchange with Center Point Rd. This is debatable, though, because Collins is a quasi-freeway from I-380 west until it ends at Edgewood Ave (2 lanes each direction, no intersections, jersey barrier in the middle).

There are several non interstate in Metro Chicago on IL 83 and Lake -Cook for example.

You mean to say US-45 and Lake-Cook, right?

One more: Dempster (US-14) & Milwaukee (IL-21) in the NW suburbs of Chicago is along the same lines of the aforementioned Woodward and 8 Mile.

[3467]

Yes Lake-Cook and US 45
I took US 34 to I-35 in Iowa many years ago and recall one at US 65 but it is not on current maps. I know I am not remembering the US 71. I have not been on 34 that far west

[empirestate]

http://empirestateroads.com/week/week30.html
http://empirestateroads.com/week/week35.html

[WNYroadgeek]

http://empirestateroads.com/week/week30.html
http://empirestateroads.com/week/week35.html

And to add to those:

NY 78/NY 324: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=42.97758,-78.696452&spn=0.004529,0.006899&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6

NY 77/NY 354: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=42.836899,-78.398888&spn=0.004571,0.006899&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6

US 20/NY 98: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=42.904254,-78.252879&spn=0.004566,0.006899&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6

US 20/Genesee CR 15: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=42.903421,-78.133671&spn=0.004566,0.006899&t=m&vpsrc=6&z=17

NY 15/NY 252: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=43.087727,-77.635869&spn=0.002261,0.003449&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6

NY 441/NY 153 (Not sure if this one counts): http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=43.12675,-77.495477&spn=0.004518,0.006899&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6

[Sykotyk]

US59 in southwest Iowa has one with US34. Downtown Steubenville, Ohio has a SB off ramp for OH43 going to Market Street, while Adams Street NB crosses over everything to OH43 NB. Also, OH43 and Old US22 have an odd grade separation by the middle school.

Texas has a ton of these. US83 has them at US62 in Guthrie, TX70, amongst others. There's another further south with a state route near Eden that US83 exits, rather than is the new mainline.

[iowahighways]

Yes Lake-Cook and US 45
I took US 34 to I-35 in Iowa many years ago and recall one at US 65 but it is not on current maps. I know I am not remembering the US 71. I have not been on 34 that far west

There isn't an interchange at US 34 and 65, but there is one at US 34 and IA 14 in Chariton. There is also a full interchange at US 34 and US 71.

[1995hoo]

This set of ramps between Van Dorn Street and Metro Road can be found in Alexandria, Virginia. I use the ramps just about every day going to and from the subway station. While in one sense this is a "geographic convenience" spot (Van Dorn goes up onto a bridge to cross over the railroad tracks, making a conventional intersection difficult), I've listed it here because arguably the ramps weren't really necessary at all because people could just use Eisenhower Avenue to make the same movements, and indeed many people do. (I sometimes do as well if I hit the light on northbound Van Dorn as it turns red.)



Or how about a situation where there used to be two intersections controlled by traffic lights that were recently upgraded to become partial interchanges? The traffic lights at the corners of Telegraph and Kings Highway, and Telegraph and Huntington, are still there, but they control far fewer movements than they did before. This reconstruction is part of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project and has been an improvement, though some people have been resisting the new traffic patterns. (The satellite image is somewhat out-of-date, as another ramp has opened within the past year.) No doubt it would have been "easier" (and certainly it would have been cheaper) to leave it as it was, but since they're rebuilding the Beltway anyway, it was a good opportunity to do something about the traffic lights through there.


Also there is this one in the City of Alexandria. The map is a little unhelpful here. You see Ben Brenman Park and the neighborhood just west of it (Cameron Station)? All that used to be a Defense Logistics Agency facility called Cameron Station. It ceased operations as a military base in 1995 and was redeveloped into a residential area after environmental remediation. The ramps are utterly unnecessary today. I don't remember whether they were ever really necessary at all or whether a simple traffic light would have done the job, but it certainly appears that a conventional intersection would have been sufficient. I just don't remember it well enough–I know I was on the base there a couple of times when I was a very little kid and my mom went to the commissary to buy groceries, but that was a REALLY long time ago and I had to have been a REALLY little kid because my father got out of the Army when I was two years old. All I remember is that my mom said she hated going to the commissary because it was crowded and dirty but the prices were so much better than the regular stores that she couldn't not go.

[jwolfer]

This thread should be a showcase of all those oddball, isolated interchanges that don't involve freeways or expressways.  In many cases, the traffic levels no longer make an interchange necessary for one reason or another. 

There's a whole class of situations involving grade separation due to geographic convenience – these are so numerous that I'd like to exclude them from this thread.  I want to focus on situations where a simple at-grade intersection would have been easier.

So here are the examples that come to my mind:

US 33, OH 161, OH 257 – Just one ramp, but enough for ODOT to consider it an interchange.  Also, some left turns are prohibited; Dale Dr is the signed alternate, making it unofficially a second ramp.

US 40, US 42 – Clearly the need for this one went away when I-70 opened, but US 42 is getting so busy these days, the grade separation here is nice to have.  Note, the loop ramps were demolished last year.

M-1, M-102 – No longer necessary due to population decline, but still better to have it than to demolish it.

It seems many of these type of interchanged involve railroad tracks ( or abandoned tracks)

[jwolfer]

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority has some interchanges along Beach Blvd( US 90/SR 212) and Atlantic Blvd (SR 10) at some of the major intersections between the city and the beaches.  Those roads are 6 lane urban arterial with lots of commuter traffic and businesses.  There are plans for more grade separations planned

[myosh_tino]

El Camino Real/Coleman Rd/De La Cruz Blvd in Santa Clara, CA near Santa Clara University.  While El Camino Real is CA-82, none of these roads are freeways or expressways.  El Camino Real and De La Cruz are a 6-lane boulevards while Coleman is a 4-lane road.

[huskeroadgeek]

US 1 and Fl 100 in Bunnell, FL where it is both an interchange and at grade facility.  Fl 100 crosses over US 1 on a bridge  from the west. and then loops around to meet it at grade from the east side.  To make a right turn onto US 1 south (or to continue on FL 100) you have to make a left turn and cross traffic you just missed.

The FEC Railway does have a lot to do with it as the overpass was made to bypass the trains, but a down ramp could have been made from the elevated roadway to the surface US 1 for movement in this direction.  The bridge was just replaced a few years ago and FDOT could have made this modification when this project occurred.

There are several places in Nebraska that have a similar setup, particularly along US 30 which parallels the UP railroad tracks. For instance, at the jct. of US 283 and US 30 in Lexington, US 283 has a bridge over US 30(the bridge is part of the viaduct over the railroad tracks)-then US 283 turns 1 block east and then 2 blocks south to meet US 30 at grade. This is also the northern terminus of US 283, which means that US 283 is actually facing south at its northern terminus.
Another similar setup above occurs in Kinsley, KS where US 56 meets US 50 from the northeast-US 56 crosses under US 50, then continues on for about 1/2 mile and then meets US 50 on the south side of the road.

[andrewkbrown]

http://maps.google.com/?ll=39.361784,-83.866544&spn=0.002095,0.005284&t=h&vpsrc=6&z=18

How about this one between US 68 and OH 350 in Cuba, Ohio?

Interesting in the fact that both ramps are two-lane roads similar in width to the state highways they serve.

[okroads]

Avenue A & Woodie Seat "Freeway" in Hutchinson, KS

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hutchinson,+KS&hl=en&ll=38.050727,-97.937&spn=0.004807,0.010525&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.507908,86.220703&vpsrc=6&hnear=Hutchinson,+Reno,+Kansas&t=k&z=17