Worst Stretch of Highway

[Voyager]

We all have horrible highways, whether they're full of potholes or they're just not very safe to drive on. What is the most unsafe, pothole-filled highway you know of?

[Shadow Assassin]

M4 motorway, between the Silverwater toll plaza and its terminus at Concord.

[Wikigav]

The M4 tunnel near the airport for closing becuase one computer wouldnt turn on. Much more annoying than the whole other parts of the highway. Mainly becuase it put traffic on to my route. The fact that those who use it can reclaim the toll while other toll roads you cant and the tunnel being to narrow in general.


to the planning for the tunnel

[ctsignguy]

It was repaired after i moved out of town, but US 20 through Ashtabula County in Ohio was one of the worst...it was full of patches and unfilled potholes (the consequence of the hard NE Ohio winters, i guess, although Geauga Co's stretch was pretty smooth and they had the same winters....

i called it the Dentist's Highway because if your teeth were still rattling after you got off that road, it was time to see the dentist

[Voyager]

Interstate 80 in CA used to be terrible, but it's now being repaved. Must have gone over 20 years without being paved.

[Scott5114]

I-35 through Norman, OK is pretty irritating. Third largest city in the state and its interstate has four lanes.  Thankfully ODOT is working on widening it.

I hate the Oklahoma turnpikes. Poorly maintained, not up to standard (the H.E. Bailey has a few curbs, even) and to top it off, OTA is even worse than ODOT when it comes to laying out signs in an attractive manner... (Eric, want to post your picture of the US-270/OK 1 exit sign on the Indian Nation Turnpike to show what I mean? One of the worst signs I've ever seen)

[okroads]

This one?

[Voyager]

I hate slab pavement! Interstate 80 was that before it was repaved, and my truck hates it.

[okroads]

There is also this gem on the Indian Nation Turnpike...

[algorerhythms]

The worst I think I've been on is the US 219 freeway in PA before it was repaved. Other than that, I-40 is pretty bad in parts of Oklahoma. Oh, and the Mon-Fayette expressway north of Brownsville, PA...

[Alex]

Interstate 10 was horrible in St. Tammany Parish with its bone-jarring concrete, but that's been remedied now with asphalt (not that I like asphalt freeways over concrete freeways). Its still a roller coaster ride from New Orleans East through to Irish Bayou though!

[deathtopumpkins]

I-64 in the northern part of Norfolk. Old concrete slabs with holes your whole wheel will fall into. Though they did just start a widening project there.

[haljackey]

There's some pretty disgusting ones in Michigan, mainly around Detroit. 

Not just the cracked, terrible road conditions, but the utter lack of beautification.  The surroundings look so ugly and depressing.

The USA should really spend more on beautification.

[agentsteel53]

the Van Wyck Expressway in New York City once had four inch bolts sticking out of the surface, but those have been fixed, I think.

for pure crappiness and inability to meet standards, the 278 interstate right now takes the cake.

Many old abandoned alignments are in pretty miserable shape. 


old Conway Pass in Nevada.  US 6.  So far so good?


there's no way to get past that boulder using my crappy rental car, and no place to turn around, so time to drive 1 1/2 miles back out... in reverse!

I won't get into details about the Puffin Road in Iceland, since that is just a small 4x4 trail.  43% incline and two rivers to ford - always fun.  Insult to injury; the puffins were gone for the winter when I got there.

but major highways in Iceland are not much better.  This is highway 60.


Highway 531 if I recall correctly.


even highway 1, the nation's main ring road, has its sections that haven't been touched since the 40s

[ComputerGuy]

I-5 at Blaine

Border nightmares!

[Greybear]

Before it was re-built and re-surfaced, Interstate 30 in Arkansas between Prescott (M/M 46) and Malvern (M/M 98) was like running across a rub board.

[vdeane]

I-390 south of Dansville is really bad too, except for a seven-mile stretch south of Cohocton that was recently repaved.

[agentsteel53]

I-5 at Blaine

Border nightmares!

from that perspective, I-8 is a total Hellhole.  Where the Fourth Amendment goes to die.

[rawr apples]

^ lol

The Pennsylvania Turnpike virtually the entire length, minus a few parts.
Also 90% of Detroits freeways pre-Super Bowl

now I'd say about 50% of the freeways there are bad

[Darkchylde]

I-110 in Baton Rouge. Fairly cramped, and obsolete too! Got to love all the left exits, the lack of shoulders, the sharp and blind curves and the bone-jarring surface at ground level. Mercifully, it's short enough.

Close second: All of I-12. Carries way too many vehicles. If you travel it during the day, be aware that you're tempting fate. It's being resurfaced, but what it really needs is to be exapnded to at least six lanes the whole way. Maybe even eight.

[agentsteel53]

really?  last time I traveled I-12 (on a sunny Tuesday around noon in April 2006) it seemed perfectly fine to me.

then again, maybe I'm just used to the freeways of Southern California.

[Alex]

I-110 in Baton Rouge. Fairly cramped, and obsolete too! Got to love all the left exits, the lack of shoulders, the sharp and blind curves and the bone-jarring surface at ground level. Mercifully, it's short enough.

Close second: All of I-12. Carries way too many vehicles. If you travel it during the day, be aware that you're tempting fate. It's being resurfaced, but what it really needs is to be exapnded to at least six lanes the whole way. Maybe even eight.

I've been saying this for awhile now too, that Interstate 12 should be six-laned in its entirety. Throw in several cops shooting radar along the busy four-lane freeway, a couple of new sprawl interchanges, and its that much worse of a drive!

[agentsteel53]

I-110 in Baton Rouge. Fairly cramped, and obsolete too! Got to love all the left exits, the lack of shoulders, the sharp and blind curves and the bone-jarring surface at ground level. Mercifully, it's short enough.

the freeway totally looks to be from the early 50s, but alas all the signs are brand new.  For all the demented old concrete and harsh curves, they couldn't have thrown us a bone and left up a 1960s-era Louisiana I-110 shield or two??

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

I-110 in Baton Rouge. Fairly cramped, and obsolete too! Got to love all the left exits, the lack of shoulders, the sharp and blind curves and the bone-jarring surface at ground level. Mercifully, it's short enough.

the freeway totally looks to be from the early 50s, but alas all the signs are brand new.  For all the demented old concrete and harsh curves, they couldn't have thrown us a bone and left up a 1960s-era Louisiana I-110 shield or two??

Knew someone would mention the abysmal I-110, my noisy close neighbor. Louisiana freeways at their finest: 50 MPH curves, suicide merges, left exits, and all. (/sarcasm).

Those particular sines were replaced in the 2007/08 timeframe. Admittedly they are 110's most redeeming feature.

In addition to I-110, I would have to throw in the adjacent stretch of I-10 from the 110 jct to around Acadian/College to include in the worst freeway category. Along with I-110 from its south terminus to around Chippewa, this has got to be the most substandard and outdated urban freeway in Louisiana (and yes, I'm counting the freeways of New Orleans). No surprise, since it's also one of the oldest.

I hate suicide merges.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

I-110 in Baton Rouge. Fairly cramped, and obsolete too! Got to love all the left exits, the lack of shoulders, the sharp and blind curves and the bone-jarring surface at ground level. Mercifully, it's short enough.

Close second: All of I-12. Carries way too many vehicles. If you travel it during the day, be aware that you're tempting fate. It's being resurfaced, but what it really needs is to be exapnded to at least six lanes the whole way. Maybe even eight.

I've been saying this for awhile now too, that Interstate 12 should be six-laned in its entirety. Throw in several cops shooting radar along the busy four-lane freeway, a couple of new sprawl interchanges, and its that much worse of a drive!

I-12 is always fun. Large tractor trailers speeding like Maseratis, passing you at breakneck speeds.  Not good.

Another fun place to catch heavy truck volume on a La. interstate is I-10 between BR and Lafayette. By volume, I believe about 30-40% of traffic on this segment is comprised of trucks. Observe the composition of the traffic on the "new" river bridge here in BR if you want to see for yourself.

I-10 from BR east to Gonzales could use an extra lane. I cannot believe that I-10 remains 4 lanes east of I-12 in EBR Parish to this day. Slowly this improvement is coming to pass. Maybe the entirety will be finished when my grandchildren are learning to drive.

Last but not least, I nominate I-10 in Calcasieu Parish (Lake Charles to the east in particular) for worst freeway status. That is the roughest highway I have ever experienced. The pavement is so rough there, the concrete has already turned to cobblestone.