This is kinda interesting. This gravel haul road is grade separated at all public roadway crossings. I'm guessing that it is/was used by large off-road dump truck in lignite coal mining operations.
I'm wondering if once mining operations are over if this will became a public county road.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.21126,-95.02779&spn=0.101684,0.199299&t=h&z=13 (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.21126,-95.02779&spn=0.101684,0.199299&t=h&z=13)
St View: https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.224108,-95.015006&spn=0.000018,0.012456&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=33.224108,-95.015006&panoid=baorPkBiFIW0nPKnVjOGmA&cbp=12,47.92,,0,0 (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.224108,-95.015006&spn=0.000018,0.012456&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=33.224108,-95.015006&panoid=baorPkBiFIW0nPKnVjOGmA&cbp=12,47.92,,0,0)
Quote from: Brian556 on January 06, 2014, 06:34:04 PM
This is kinda interesting. This gravel haul road is grade separated at all public roadway crossings. I'm guessing that it is/was used by large off-road dump truck in lignite coal mining operations.
I'm wondering if once mining operations are over if this will became a public county road.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.21126,-95.02779&spn=0.101684,0.199299&t=h&z=13 (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.21126,-95.02779&spn=0.101684,0.199299&t=h&z=13)
St View: https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.224108,-95.015006&spn=0.000018,0.012456&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=33.224108,-95.015006&panoid=baorPkBiFIW0nPKnVjOGmA&cbp=12,47.92,,0,0 (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.224108,-95.015006&spn=0.000018,0.012456&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=33.224108,-95.015006&panoid=baorPkBiFIW0nPKnVjOGmA&cbp=12,47.92,,0,0)
Looks like there
may have been an electric generating station here (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.188601,-95.088097&spn=0.004391,0.007929&t=h&z=17) (looks abandoned from Google Satellite View). Though when I followed the railroad spur that dead-ends at the site, there are hopper cars on the overpass that carries that spur over U.S. 67 here (https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.169555,-95.101819&spn=0.004392,0.007929&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=33.169547,-95.101713&panoid=1QF3oitPGQTQIH0YCNCVYA&cbp=12,271.74,,0,6.09).
It's similar to a grade-separated private railroad.
NBI calls it "TEXAS UTILITIES HAUL RD".
Very interesting. I'm trying to figure out what purpose the entire setup served. As cpzilliacus suggested, from both the satellite image and street view on FM 1734, the small industrial site looks dormant. As to the haulage roads, all of the spurs appear to peter out in meadows very close to the small lakes that dot the area. Yet it's odd to me that the roads fade away–rather than terminating solidly at a definite loading/unloading point, stockpile site, etc. Whether something was being collected and taken back to the industrial site or vice versa, I haven't the slightest idea what was going on here. If anyone has a solid idea, I'd be very interested to know.
Quote from: Brian556 on January 06, 2014, 06:34:04 PM
I'm wondering if once mining operations are over if this will became a public county road.
I would doubt it because, other than shaving a few miles off the US 67 to US 271 trip (which admittedly
is worth something), I don't see that the route has enough value to offset all of the costs of putting it in service.
Though not completely grade-separated (there's a few at-grades of local roads), there's a sugarcane haul road in/near Haleiwa, HI (on Oahu) that has a couple of overpasses/underpasses. As I recall (from trips there in 2007 and 2008), it was also configured with temporary traffic signals where it crossed the local roads at-grade, though these signals do not appear in Google Streetview.
I think there used to be strip mines at the terminating points of this road. This whole area has been strip mined and reclaimed. If you zoom out a little on Google satellite view, it becomes obvious the area that was mined.
These were former strip mines The abandoned site that cpzilliacus pointed out just seems to be a loading station for the train to take it to the Monticello generating station to the south.
There are a couple of (possibly former) mine haul roads that are grade-separated from Kentucky's parkway system. One on the WK Parkway near its halfway point, the other on the Hal Rogers just west of Exit 56.
I say possibly former because I think they are now publicly accessible.
Quote from: Sherman Cahal on January 07, 2014, 02:14:23 PM
These were former strip mines The abandoned site that cpzilliacus pointed out just seems to be a loading station for the train to take it to the Monticello generating station to the south.
Quote from: Brian556 on January 07, 2014, 02:07:42 PM
I think there used to be strip mines at the terminating points of this road. This whole area has been strip mined and reclaimed. If you zoom out a little on Google satellite view, it becomes obvious the area that was mined.
I see the big strip mining site to the south, but that appears to be completely cut off from the rest of the grade-separated road in question–with no passages above or below for the trucks to cross. Unless you're saying that the mining operation and haul roads predate I-30–but that would have been over 40 years by now.
It's far from the only grade separation for mines and quarries, but it is one of the longer roads I've seen for them. Here's a grade separation for a quarry in Romeoville, Illinois, that not only goes under IL-53 (fmr US-66), but also the river parallel to it. https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.618795,-88.073208&spn=0.009256,0.021136&t=h&z=16
Quote from: hbelkins on January 07, 2014, 08:05:01 PM
There are a couple of (possibly former) mine haul roads that are grade-separated from Kentucky's parkway system. One on the WK Parkway near its halfway point, the other on the Hal Rogers just west of Exit 56.
I say possibly former because I think they are now publicly accessible.
And KY 67 / Industrial Parkway was built on a garbage haul road that was mostly grade separated. It once served as a road that connected several large strip mines.
Also, TX-43 southwest of Marshall, northeast of Henderson crosses a massive dirt road. When I passed it, what I noticed was a giant earth mover running up the road.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=32.426585,-94.437554&spn=0.006095,0.013078&t=h&z=17
Zoom out. That's an active strip mine in several areas.
Roughly halfway between Ft. Calhoun and Desoto Nebraska on US 75 (the 'low' road') is a short stretch of parallel gravel haul road for the Martin Marietta quarries in the area. The parallel stretch follows the old abandoned railroad right of way.
(this area saw extensive flooding in 2011, although US75 remained open)
Grade-separated haul roads on coal mines were pretty common in eastern Ohio, even when they intersected 2-lane state routes. There was one or two roads in Harrison County that became a county road after the mining was done but most were just abandoned.
In cases where the haul road went over a public highway, I think the bridges were generally removed as part of reclamation. For where state routes went over the haul roads, ODOT is generally removing the bridges as they come up for major repairs/replacement.
quote from Sykotyk:
QuoteAlso, TX-43 southwest of Marshall, northeast of Henderson crosses a massive dirt road. When I passed it, what I noticed was a giant earth mover running up the road.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=32.426585,-94.437554&spn=0.006095,0.013078&t=h&z=17
Zoom out. That's an active strip mine in several areas.
Thanks. Interesting. Didn't know there were major mining operations in this area. A quick look at Streeview indicated that these mines are fairly recent, because GSV shows what was there before the mining.
Guess they needed a new area to mine since mining operations in the Mount Pleasant area wound down several years ago.
Those wide dirt roads look like they would be a blast to drive on, as long as the surface is smooth and the gravel is fresh.