State Maintenance Ends where Pavement Begins

[NE2]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

What do the pavement condition logs say about the pavement condition?

http://legis.sd.gov/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=31-4-14.5

The Transportation Commission may designate, by rules promulgated pursuant to chapter 1-26, a segment of the state trunk highway system as a minimum maintenance road if the commission determines that the segment is used only occasionally or intermittently for passenger or commercial travel. The commission shall publish a list of the state highway segments proposed to be designated as minimum maintenance segments each year and provide an opportunity for public input pursuant to chapter 1-26 before making the final designations.

I can't find this list.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

There might be a few cases where an unpaved state highway becomes a paved road at a state line. For that matter, how many unpaved state highways are there? (primary only in NC-SC-VA-WV) Even out west there can't be too many.

There are several in Louisiana (at least that I know of):

LA 975 - entirety, from I-10 to US 190 east of Krotz Springs
LA 10 - from the east landing of the former Melville ferry to LA 77
LA 1003
LA 1004
LA 1013
LA 645 - all except the first block south of LA 1
LA 944 - all except the tree line section passing through Palo Alto Plantation
LA 69 - segment from west terminus at LA 1 to LA 405 (near Bayou Goula)

[roadman]

Connecticut I know for a fact has no unpaved state highways. As far as I'm aware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts don't, either. Vermont does have a few, though.

New York I don't think does, but I could be wrong. Pennsylvania I'm going to assume must have some unpaved quadrant route somewhere just because there are so many of them of so little significance.

I've never come across anything in RI, MA, NY, or PA. PA really paves every little road.

You are both correct in that Massachusetts does not have any unpaved state highways.  There are some towns (like my current hometown of Wakefield) that have a few unpaved streets, but they are generally uncommon, even in the western part of the state.

[hotdogPi]

Connecticut I know for a fact has no unpaved state highways. As far as I'm aware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts don't, either. Vermont does have a few, though.

New York I don't think does, but I could be wrong. Pennsylvania I'm going to assume must have some unpaved quadrant route somewhere just because there are so many of them of so little significance.

I've never come across anything in RI, MA, NY, or PA. PA really paves every little road.

You are both correct in that Massachusetts does not have any unpaved state highways.  There are some towns (like my current hometown of Wakefield) that have a few unpaved streets, but they are generally uncommon, even in the western part of the state.

What about New Hampshire?

[hbelkins]

There's a good chunk of KY 199 in Pike County that's gravel.

Holy crap. The Goog doesn't even show the road, but it's on the aerial and signed where it meets KY 632.

Apparently KY 1679 (Little Shepherd Trail) was recently paved.

I drove across KY 199 back in late summer.

Right after you turn off KY 632, the road is paved but there's this sign:



After a couple of residences not far off 632, the road looks like this:



This is pretty much the condition of the road all the way down to the other side of the mountain where it becomes paved again. There is no signage in the other direction where the narrow mountain road turns off of the paved road near the McVeigh community. Right at the end of the gravel portion, there is a switchback so tight that I could not navigate it without backing up a bit. There are no homes along the gravel portion and only a couple of private drives.

I don't know why this road is in the state system, but it has been designated KY 199 since the 1930s. I can't imagine this road gets any winter maintenance. I don't remember seeing any signage along the gravel portion except for possibly one mileage marker.

As for Little Shepherd Trail, my dad and I drove the length of it back in the late 1990s in a 4WD with decent ground clearance. At that time, the road was paved only from its southern terminus at US 421 to where it intersects a small road that crosses Pine Mountain (KY 2010, I think.) From that point on it was gravel, except for a short portion around Kingdom Come State Park. The gravel portion was in such poor condition that it took us four hours to drive the entire 40-mile route.

I know a portion in Letcher County extending southwest from US 119 was paved a few years ago, but I don't know if the entire road was blacktopped or not. There was some controversy over the paving; some locals liked it being a rutted gravel road so they could ride horses and ATVs on it without being inconvenienced by passenger car traffic.

One other state highway that was gravel for years was KY 1098 in Breathitt County. It has since been paved.

EDIT: Pike County maps showing KY 199.

Current Pike County map
1937 Pike County maps showing KY 199 running all the way to Phelps

[SD Mapman]

http://legis.sd.gov/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=31-4-14.5

The Transportation Commission may designate, by rules promulgated pursuant to chapter 1-26, a segment of the state trunk highway system as a minimum maintenance road if the commission determines that the segment is used only occasionally or intermittently for passenger or commercial travel. The commission shall publish a list of the state highway segments proposed to be designated as minimum maintenance segments each year and provide an opportunity for public input pursuant to chapter 1-26 before making the final designations.

I can't find this list.

All I found was the bill from '99 that put that in the laws.

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

[TCN7JM]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

Here is the list of logs. That portion of SD 1804 is in the Pierre Region, and I assumed that "East Whitlock Access" is the road that leads to the West Whitlock Recreation Area.

[NE2]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

Here is the list of logs. That portion of SD 1804 is in the Pierre Region, and I assumed that "East Whitlock Access" is the road that leads to the West Whitlock Recreation Area.

I'm having trouble matching up the mileage, but it seems to end less than a mile north of the bridge (the 0.097 mile piece), which puts the end right around the minimum maintenance sign. "East Whitlock Access" is probably old US 212, which goes to the "East Whitlock Lakeside Use Area" (derp).

[TCN7JM]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

Here is the list of logs. That portion of SD 1804 is in the Pierre Region, and I assumed that "East Whitlock Access" is the road that leads to the West Whitlock Recreation Area.

I'm having trouble matching up the mileage, but it seems to end less than a mile north of the bridge (the 0.097 mile piece), which puts the end right around the minimum maintenance sign. "East Whitlock Access" is probably old US 212, which goes to the "East Whitlock Lakeside Use Area" (derp).

That makes more sense. I had to zoom in on Google Maps almost all the way to find out East Whitlock even existed (I assumed this was a stupid abbreviation practice or something and "East Whitlock" meant "accessing Whitlock from the east"). But if I'm wrong on that, that means I may have been right to say the highways weren't unpaved. 

[SD Mapman]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

Here is the list of logs. That portion of SD 1804 is in the Pierre Region, and I assumed that "East Whitlock Access" is the road that leads to the West Whitlock Recreation Area.

I'm having trouble matching up the mileage, but it seems to end less than a mile north of the bridge (the 0.097 mile piece), which puts the end right around the minimum maintenance sign. "East Whitlock Access" is probably old US 212, which goes to the "East Whitlock Lakeside Use Area" (derp).

That makes more sense. I had to zoom in on Google Maps almost all the way to find out East Whitlock even existed (I assumed this was a stupid abbreviation practice or something and "East Whitlock" meant "accessing Whitlock from the east"). But if I'm wrong on that, that means I may have been right to say the highways weren't unpaved. 

Now that we've got that cleaned up, is part of SD 63 currently unpaved? I know there was an unpaved portion a few years ago but I don't know if they've paved it.

[SD Mapman]

Although there's no indication in that picture that the road north of that intersection is still signed as SD 1804, the pavement condition logs say it is

Where'd you find that? All I found was the law designating 1804. Please see if you can make more sense out of that than I can.

Here is the list of logs. That portion of SD 1804 is in the Pierre Region, and I assumed that "East Whitlock Access" is the road that leads to the West Whitlock Recreation Area.

I'm having trouble matching up the mileage, but it seems to end less than a mile north of the bridge (the 0.097 mile piece), which puts the end right around the minimum maintenance sign. "East Whitlock Access" is probably old US 212, which goes to the "East Whitlock Lakeside Use Area" (derp).

That makes more sense. I had to zoom in on Google Maps almost all the way to find out East Whitlock even existed (I assumed this was a stupid abbreviation practice or something and "East Whitlock" meant "accessing Whitlock from the east"). But if I'm wrong on that, that means I may have been right to say the highways weren't unpaved. 

Hold on there... you're still wrong.
SD 1806 south of SD 44

1806 42.78 0.000 Gregory 07 1990 4255 26 3.0 1 1 2.007 17.018 Rural 6 2 183
* GRAVEL CHANGES TO ASPHALT

Here's the link: http://sddot.com/transportation/highways/planning/pavement/docs/Mitchell_Region.pdf. (page 169)

[StretchLongfellow]

Montana is a smorgasbord of unpaved state highways- a huge chunk of secondaries don't have pavement, and even at least one primary (38) is totally unpaved. I think NM has a bunch of dirt ones too. Wyoming is totally paved.

Other states I know of:
WA- the end of SR 165
AZ- parts of 288, 366, i know I'm missing at least one more that isn't coming to me off the top of my head
UT- a few, namely the Moki Dugway
ID- I'm 97% sure it's only that part of SH 7 and SH 64
NE- there's two highways whose numbers I don't know off the top of my head
SD- the first few miles of SD-20, probably more too

Nebraska's unpaved state roads are N-67 between N-2 and US-34 in Otoe and Cass Counties, N-65 going south from Pawnee City to the Kansas border, the easternmost segment of N-18, which ends at US-283, and the S67C spur, which goes west from the gravel portion of N-65 and bizarrely exists as state highway.

N-65 is paved for a couple miles south of Pawnee City, but then becomes gravel.  Once it crosses the state line into Kansas, it loses state highway designation but does become paved again.  Nebraska was also able to boast the last unpaved section of U.S. highway: U.S. 183 near Taylor was unpaved for a long time.

Fun fact: that bizarre section of highway that is 67C Spur is the remnant of the original plan for N-3S (now N-8) that was never completed: http://www.transportation.nebraska.gov/maps/historical/pdf/st_hwy55-hi-res.pdf What I don't understand is how it survived the renumbering of 1971.

[duh]

There might be a few cases where an unpaved state highway becomes a paved road at a state line.

Of course, the opposite is very true. Tennessee SR 32, as it creeps toward North Carolina past Cosby TN, becomes quite hilly and curvy reminiscent of many famous roads of the area. The reason it's not as popular as the Dragon, NC 80, and so forth (especially with motorcyclists) is because when it hits the NC state line, the very well-maintained pavement stops dead, and it becomes a NC secondary gravel road. It also has far more driveways than many of those other well-known roads, so pushing the envelope around curves is not really recommended there.

There are no paved access points on or near the east end of TN 32, only the unpaved state line transition and a gravel local cut-through road (Tobes Creek Road). So if you want to take TN 32 for challenging driving/riding, you have to be prepared either to turn around, or to take a mile and change of hilly and curvy gravel to/from I-40.