US-17A? US-17/SC-170 Split above Savannah

[MBHockey13]

I drove to Savannah last week Friday for the St. Patrick's Day weekend, and exited off of I-95 South to US-17 South.

I saw the beautiful sign below at the US-17/SC-170 split, and you can (almost) clearly see that US-17 at one time was shown as US-17 ALT and that they put an (old) SC-170 sign on top of where US-17 used to be.

I did see on Wikipedia where it does show SC-170 taking over US-17's former routing along "Alligator Alley", but nowhere could I find a description of an older US-17 ALT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Highway_170

Was this a temporary designation? Wiki describes the changes taking place around 1975.

I took both ways - and SC-170 turns into GA-25.

[emory]

I miss Savannah.

The original routing of US 17 was on SC 170 and all of old GA 25 through Chatham County. The original US 17/GA 25 ran down what is now GA 25, east to GA 25 Conn, east to MLK Blvd (US 17 S) and Montgomery St (US 17 N), south to Victory Drive, west to Ogeechee Road, and west to the I-516 interchange. In fact, the city still has not replaced several US 17 signs that exist on the old relinquished routing. When the freeways in Savannah were being built along with the Talmadge bridge, US 17 Alt was designated over what eventually became the modern US 17 routing, cosigning with I-516 and GA 404 Spur.

[emory]

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.078725,-81.102855,3a,75y,304.24h,73.54t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sen73kuW5-HQPU6Kk13-M0g!2e0

A old sign still on Boundary Street (old US 17A) directing motorists to US 17A north and US 17A south.

[Mapmikey]

US 17 ALT down there existed from 1954 or 1955 to 1995.

The 1975 extension in the wiki article is only SC 170 being extended to a new alignment of US 17 very nearby at Limehouse...not to the Savannah River.
https://www.google.com/maps?q=hardeeville,+sc&hl=en&ll=32.212728,-81.057429&spn=0.033441,0.066047&sll=45.139188,-117.796783&sspn=0.223043,0.528374&t=h&hnear=Hardeeville,+Jasper+County,+South+Carolina&z=15

Mapmikey

[WashuOtaku]

I did see on Wikipedia where it does show SC-170 taking over US-17's former routing along "Alligator Alley", but nowhere could I find a description of an older US-17 ALT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Highway_170

Was this a temporary designation? Wiki describes the changes taking place around 1975.

Yea, I wrote that brief history on wiki... I probably could have done it better, but oh well.  It was replaced in 1995; what happened in 1975 was a small piece of the road around Limehouse change is all.  Historic state maps are linked in section.

Here is US 17 Alt wiki section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannered_routes_of_U.S._Route_17#Savannah_alternate_route 
I didn't write this one.   

[MBHockey13]

Thanks for the feedback! I really do love that sign...

[Alex]

U.S. 17 Alternate was designated over the original Talmadge Bridge because it was tolled. Even though the tolls were dropped in 1975, it took until 1988 to realign U.S. 17 over the no longer necessary Alternate route.

[emory]

U.S. 17 Alternate was designated over the original Talmadge Bridge because it was tolled. Even though the tolls were dropped in 1975, it took until 1988 to realign U.S. 17 over the no longer necessary Alternate route.

And it was the first of two US 17 Alt alignments. The first alignment went over the Talmadge Bridge, to Oglethorpe Avenue, to Boundary Street, to Louisville Road, to Stiles Avenue, and ending at Ogeechee Road/US 17. When the bridge was re-built, they connected it to I-16 and re-routed US 17 Alt onto the interstates.