Worst Stretch of Highway

[agentsteel53]

81 near Scranton is terrible.

I've never understood why the 80/81 junction - two very important truck routes! - is one of the tightest cloverleaves I've ever seen.  It's in the middle of nowhere - not like there is a space issue!

[Ian]

The worst stretch of highway that I was ever on, was probably either:

-CT 15/US 5 near Hartford: missed the way to go onto I-91 to avoid signals=TRAFFIC HELL
-CA 236 near Big Basin State Park in California: very curvey and on a cliff!
-CA 9 outside of Saratoga, CA: very curvey and made me siiiiiiiick 
-US 202 in northern Delaware: traffic nighmare after 3. (dont EVER go there for shopping+ traffic signals arent timed well a.k.a. 3 minute red lights)
-Darby-Paoli Rd in Radnor Township, PA: most curvey road in Delaware County with blind curves and dangerous intersections. Its also home to the infamous "dead man's curve" (the PA one, not the I-90 one)
-New Jersey Turnpike: your doomed if you get stuck in traffic

So these are just a handful of the roads I find one of the worst!
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[travelinmiles]

This is true, coming from Texas where most were built highways were built in the last 30 years or have recently been reconstructed, the road of PA are a mess. The only freeway I can bare to drive on is 95 its somewhat modern and the Turnpike (276 and 76) too bad.  But the rest of the are horrible. The Roosevelt Blvd is one of the scariest I have driven and it would be relatively easy to upgrade it to a freeway with transit in the center, the right of way is definitely wide enough and Im sure the accident rate would plummet.

[Voyager]

Speaking of the Saratoga area, highway 17 in CA is terrible between San Jose and Santa Cruz.

[Ian]

Speaking of the Saratoga area, highway 17 in CA is terrible between San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Thanks for mentioning that. That highways is also very curvey and at a high speed at-grade "freeway"! I had to travel it 4 times total: went to Santa Cruz twice, so 2 times to and from there.

i.c.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

US 2 between Smyrna and Houlton, ME was my vote for worst. I was in Houlton on US 1, headed for Calais and eventually Lubec, needed gas, then for some reason had a brain fart and got on I-95 South. (Next exit 10 miles).

Said exit was US 2 at Exit 291 (Smyrna), so I decided to follow US 2 East back to Houlton. Except the road was full of potholes, missing huge chunks in places, had faded lines, and was so rocky that after about a mile, I turned back to get on I-95 instead. I personally love country roads and thought US 2 would be a nice drive, but ostensibly Maine's DOT ignored US 2 because most traffic would use faster, safer I-95.

[agentsteel53]

when was this?  I drove that section of US-2 in 2006 and I remember it being fine.

[tankerdave]

What about CA-173 North of Lake Arrowhead o the Mojave River Forks?  That stretch of road is not even PAVED!

[Voyager]

Reminds me of CA-162 near Lake Oroville.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

when was this?  I drove that section of US-2 in 2006 and I remember it being fine.

I drove it in August of 2007.

[Snappyjack]

What ever happened with the rumor proposal that New York would renumber its Interstates to mileage-based exit numbers.

So far as I can tell, that was a completely baseless rumor. Officialy, NYSDOT has stated that it favors sequential numbering since milepost numbering creates multiple exits with the same number when they're spaced less than a mile apart, which occurs a lot in the state's urban areas... and they don't like that. But they don't seem to mind duplicate numbers that are actually duplicates (not with different letter suffixes) resulting from piecemeal renumbering. Go figure.

Actually, some of the credit for that can go to the Thruway Authority for not being cooperative with the state DOT's numbering.

Thus, New York has some of the most messed up exit numbering in the country. We've already mentioned the Cross Bronx and I-278. Then we've got:

- I-87's exit numbers start over from 1 twice. It also, on the Thruway, features exits 21, 21B, 21A, and 22... in that order.
- I-90, due to the Thruway, has decreasing numbers going east most of its length in the state. Then it has exits 1-12. Then B2 and B3.
- Upon entering Westchester county, the Henry Hudson Parkway becomes the Saw Mill (River) Parkway, and its numbers start over... from 3. No exit 1 or 2.
- The Hutch has no exit 11 or 21, for no apparent reason. It then, at the state line, becomes the Merrit and spontaneously drops from exit 30 to exit 27, rather than starting over from 1. Okay, so Connecticut can take most of the blame for that one.
- Some highways (like the Sprain Brook Parkway) lack exit numbers completely.
- I-495 (the LIE) starts at exit 14.
- I-678's exit numbers start at the Belt Parkway. The exits south of there, in JFK airport, have letters.

Last I heard, two senators here in NY were trying to pass a bill that would have the state adopt mileage based numbering by 2011. Their names escape me at the moment, but if you head over to http://www.upstatenyroads.com, there is a page about it.

And yes, the Thruway is the major cause of problems for this. They are unwilling to change their numbering format because of the fact the Thruway Authority believes it to be one road, when while it technically is, it's not. I personally think, and hope, that they would lose the battle on that.

[PAHighways]

Not much of a median on that there interstate!  I'd be a little afraid to go very fast on it.

Most of the drivers on that section of I-70 seem to disagree with you.  Most of the drivers seem to do at least 65.

When I would do 65 on it, I would get passed.  The only time most people go the limit is during inclement weather when the left lane becomes a Slip 'n Slide.

[Voyager]

I also nominate I-81 in VA.

[njroadhorse]

I also nominate I-81 in VA.

That one's not bad at all, but maybe you're seeing it differently.

As for me, I'd like to throw in I-78 around Allentown and Bethlehem.  A trucker's haven, and huge hills, two lanes, and bad curves.  That road..... is actually typical PA.

Also, 95 through Jacksonville can get crazy, and I'm not thrilled with its layout.

[Alex]

Also, 95 through Jacksonville can get crazy, and I'm not thrilled with its layout.

Interstate 95 from the Trout River Bridge north to Interstate 295/FL 9A was improved dramatically recently with a new bridge and a widened freeway with fresh concrete. Improvements are also underway at the Interstate 10 interchange and the stretch leading north.

[mediaguru]

Also, 95 through Jacksonville can get crazy, and I'm not thrilled with its layout.

I used to think that.... until I had to start driving on roads in eastern Tennessee.  My current pick in the worst roads category is the US-27 expressway (secret I-124) between I-24 and US-127 in Chattanooga.  Horrendous curves, 1/4 mile-spaced exits, no shoulders, pitted and cracked pavement, faded and substandard pavement markings, dilapidated signs, etc.

[Sykotyk]

81 near Scranton is terrible.

I've never understood why the 80/81 junction - two very important truck routes! - is one of the tightest cloverleaves I've ever seen.  It's in the middle of nowhere - not like there is a space issue!

I have no idea, as well. When I last was there, there was a truck that had rolled on the cloverleaf (southbound I-81 to I-80 east). Way too tight of a turn for a downgrade cloverleaf.

The PA Turnpike from Monroeville to Harrisburg, I-70 from Washington to New Stanton and the Kansas Turnpike are bad designs (rest areas in the middle of the high way with left turn and reentry ramps?!)

For aesthetics, NY's exit numbering system is horrendous (as mentioned). If you go east on I-90, you start at exit 61, work yourself down into the 20s, start again 1 through 12, and then wind up with exit B2 and B3.

New York is too big of a state for individual exit numbers, they should be signed based on the mileposts (like Pennsylvania had done previously). VT, NH, MA, CT, and RI (and the NJ Turnpike) are all guilty of this, but with such a smaller state it's less of an issue.

Sykotyk

[vdeane]

Well, NYC probably prefers sequential numbering, and they dictate all policy in NY; upstate has little or no say at what goes on.

[PAHighways]

The PA Turnpike from Monroeville to Harrisburg

The rebuilt sections are a lot nicer than the ones which haven't been rebuilt.  The wider median is a great addition as well as re-aligning the route near Donegal and the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel.

[Marc]

For outdated design/desperate need of widening, I'd have to say I-77 through south Charlotte, NC.

For rough pavement I'd have to say I-10 through east New Orleans. Also, there are parts of I-20 just east of Vicksburg that are in pretty bad shape. Mississippi has used some kind of technique on I-55 in Tate County where they basically scraped/leveled the top of the concrete. Saved them from having to asphalt it, which leads to problems later as the asphalt wears and the concrete beneath starts to break through.

[Alex]

For outdated design/desperate need of widening, I'd have to say I-77 through south Charlotte, NC.

For rough pavement I'd have to say I-10 through east New Orleans. Also, there are parts of I-20 just east of Vicksburg that are in pretty bad shape. Mississippi has used some kind of technique on I-55 in Tate County where they basically scraped/leveled the top of the concrete. Saved them from having to asphalt it, which leads to problems later as the asphalt wears and the concrete beneath starts to break through.

Georgia uses the same technique, it smooths out the pavement to extend the life of the existing concrete. Its called diamond grinding, and the process of leveling the road cuts down on downward force by trucks and other heavy vehicles, which is what causes ruts, dips, and other damage along the road. FDOT does the same process along the concrete section of Interstate 275 in Pinellas County.

[Scott5114]

Speaking of weird exit numbering, I-444 (the secret Interstate in Tulsa) used to start its exit numbers at 94! ODOT apparently mulled it over and realized this made little sense, so they scraped all the button copy "94"s off and left the "exit numbers" as A, B, C, and D. But by that time someone had posted a direct-applied copy sign for Exit 94D which couldn't be altered without greenout. So then the exit numbers went A, B, C, 94D.

Eventually they replaced all the signs and now none of the exits have numbers.

[Alex]

Speaking of weird exit numbering, I-444 (the secret Interstate in Tulsa) used to start its exit numbers at 94! ODOT apparently mulled it over and realized this made little sense, so they scraped all the button copy "94"s off and left the "exit numbers" as A, B, C, and D. But by that time someone had posted a direct-applied copy sign for Exit 94D which couldn't be altered without greenout. So then the exit numbers went A, B, C, 94D.

Eventually they replaced all the signs and now none of the exits have numbers.

I wondered about that when I saw that in 1995. Then one of the signs had cardinal direction tabs instead of exit numbers:

[SSOWorld]

Nice improvisation there 

[Ish]

Right now the worst road is one I travel every day.  ME 101 from the Eliot/Kittery town line in southern Maine about 5 miles to the New Hampshire border thanks to the frost heaves.  A lot of the roads around here are terrible now, but 101 is the worst.  There are sections where there are 1-2 inch-high cracks and there are now several places where I have to slow down to 20-25 mph because of how bad they are.

As far as major roads go, I cannot stand the Maine Turnpike.  The road surface is very abrasive, the dotted lines have that classic turnpike length to them - not as long as NJ Turnpike but longer than normal highways, and there are pot holes in the middle lane right where your tires want to be.  I think the idea of the Maine Turnpike being a single entity, independent of the Maine DOT is beyond stupid as well.  It's a money pit.

When Maine switched to mileage based exit numbers about four or five years ago, all the Turnpike Authority did was bolt small numbers over the old ones, and they still haven't changed them! 

Most roads in and around Boston... I don't know how people can drive down there everyday.  How can their cars handle it?  In the winter you'll hear on the news about how there was a large pothole that has opened up on one of the roads down there and had punctured the tires of a dozen cars.