"Simpsons" Routes - original routes that changed but reverted to original form

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Original routes that had changes, but by the end everything is back to normal and nothing changed, like a sitcom character.

Minnesota has at least three examples of routes that were extended beyond their original length, but later the extensions were turned back/renumbered so the route's current form is back to what it was originally.

TH 44 - originally running from US 52 near Harmony to US/MN 16 near Hokah, the route was extended west from US 52 to US 63 in the 1970s, but the extension was later turned back to Fillmore County returning the route to its original extent

TH 39 - originally a 1-mile route connecting TH 23 to the Oliver Bridge into Wisconsin in southwest Duluth, the route was later extended west along the Jay Cooke State Park road (replacing an earlier MN 210 designation on that road, likely to free up the MN 210 number to put on the road from Motley to Breckenridge) to Carlton where it ended at the US 61/210 intersection in downtown Carlton where US 61 made a 90-degree turn and US 210 probably ended. When US 210 was later downgraded, MN 210 also returned to being the Jay Cooke road now that the 210 out in central MN had been consolidated properly, and MN 39 went back being its original 1-mile long connector.

TH 3 - a reverse of the other two examples as its truncated north terminus at TH 110 (later TH 62) in Inver Grove Heights was re-extended over its original route along Robert St into St. Paul. This had been unsigned MN 952A for years that the state intended to hand over, but MnDOT apparently gave up on turning it back for now and went fully in the opposite direction.

[Max Rockatansky]

US 50 originally ended at Sacramento when plotted in 1926.  It was soon extended to San Francisco but ultimately was truncated back to Sacramento as part of the 1964 California State Highway Renumbering. 

[TheStranger]

Some more California examples:

Santa Monica Boulevard between Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica and US 101 in Hollywood was originally Route 2 in the mid-1930s, then became part of the extended US 66, then finally was given back to Route 2 in the 1964 renumbering.

Van Ness Avenue between Market Street and Turk Street in San Francisco was US 101 starting in the 1930s, then bypassed by the Central Freeway ca. 1954. When the Central Freeway north of Fell Street was closed and demolished in the early 1990s, 101 was realigned to return to this portion of Van Ness (using a connection on South Van Ness that had been briefly 101 in 1953-1954 during the Central Freeway's own buildout period).



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An out-of-state example that is recent:

I-680 in Omaha is in its pre-1970s extent again, after the former I-80N segment in Iowa that was part of an extended 680  was once again given an indepenent designation, this time making it the third I-880 to ever exist!

[DandyDan]

Iowa 183 began east of Mondamin when it was created, was extended south to Council Bluffs, and then had everything south of Iowa 127 decommissioned in 2003. It has always ended in Ute.

[jp the roadgeek]

CT 25 was kind of like this (save for the southern portion that was moved onto the freeway).  It ends at US 7 in Brookfield, but from 1960ish-1974, it extended to US 44 in Canton.  When US 202 was realigned to follow its current route, it took over CT 25 north of Brookfield and CT 25 was re-truncated. 

I-84 from East Hartford to Sturbridge.  Yes, it was originally CT 15, but when I-84 was built through most of CT, it was signed on its current Sturbridge route, with the proposed highway to Providence being I-82.  A few years later, the highway to Providence became I-84, and East Hartford-Sturbridge became I-86 (which at one time, was proposed to extend west to I-91 in Wethersfield).  When the NIMBY's cancelled I-84 to Providence, the I-84 designation was moved back to the current route, I-86 was decommissioned (and eventually reassigned to the Southern Tier/Quickway), and the stubs of what was built became I-384 and a relocated US 6. 

[kurumi]

Also in Connecticut:

US 44 and CT 74 were changed in 1948 to have US 44 overlap the Wilbur Cross Highway (CT 15, then I-84) to Willington, creating a US 44A (never recognized by AASH(T)O) on the old 44 alignment. In 1982, this was all reversed, and US 44A disappeared.

For 10 days in 1973, SR 614 in Groton became signed route CT 319 (I don't know if signs were put up). Significant local protest convinced the DOT to reverse the decision.

In 1952, possibly only on paper, CT 63 was extended along CT 126 to end at US 44. That was reversed in the next highway log.

[TheStranger]

Route 238 fits this in a strange sort of way:

The 1963 definition of the route is essentially the current definition: from I-680 in the Warm Springs area of Fremont, northwest to I-580, then west to I-880 (with an unbuilt segment to the unconstructed Route 61 shoreline corridor)

But from 1965 to about 1970, 238 signage extended southward along today's Route 262 and a portion of former Route 17/US 101E along Oakland Road to US 101 in San Jose, a temporary routing that existed only until I-680 was built on the eastern side of Fremont/Milpitas/San Jose.  (This was created after 680 was moved off 262 and the portion of today's 880 between 262 and 101)  When 680 was finished to US 101/I-280, signed 238 then was cut back to match the legislative definition.

[roadman65]

VA 162 in Williamsburg, VA did sort of.  It used to be the designation for Second Street to be as a connector between VA 143 and VA 5/ Us 60. Then it got extended into Downtown Williamsburg to be a de facto business route for US 60 to end at Richmond Road and Bypass Road using VA 5 along Page and Lafayette Streets and take over former VA 132 along Lafayette Street and Richmond Road.

Then much later got truncated almost back to its original alignment as the second time around it's not commissioned along the city maintained part of Second Street thus it being only now a spur of VA 143.

[PHLBOS]

I-95 & US 1 in MA from the Danvers/Topsfield line to the NH border.

The highway was originally built in the early 1950s as Relocated US 1 & the old 2-lane US 1 became MA 17.

When the Interstate Highway Act became law in 1956; roughly a year later, Relocated US 1 became I-95 and MA 17 reverted back to US 1.

[TheStranger]

One that I have driven on but forgot about until now:

When the Watterson Expressway was first constructed in Louisville, US 60 was moved from its through-town routing onto the new route.  In fact, per Wikipedia, US 60 used that corridor from 1948-1984!  (This includes a period where the I-264 designation already existed along the road)  From 1985 onwards, US 60 was restored to its pre-1948 surface street routing in downtown, which had been a business route in the interim.

[Phoenix1867]

Arroyo Seco Parkway became the Pasadena Freeway in 1954 then reverted back to Arroyo Seco Parkway in 2010. In a season 2 episode of The Big Bang Theory, that premiered just one year before the name change, Sheldon tells Leonard that he missed his exit on Pasadena Freeway and drove off an overpass in Howard's Driving Simulator.

[TheStranger]

An obvious example from recent times:

The switcheroo between US 117 and I-795 in North Carolina, where 117 at one point ran on the now-Interstate, then got placed back on its surface road routing.

[hbelkins]

KY 40 between Salyersville and Paintsville.

Originally, KY 40 extended from Frankfort east to the West Virginia state line at Warfield/Kermit.

When US 460 was commissioned in Kentucky, it took the route of KY 40 from Salyersville to Paintsville, whereupon it was routed along US 23 south to Pikeville. Only the section from Paintsville through Inez to Warfield remained KY 40.

When a new routing of 460 was built between Salyersville and Paintsville in the mid-1970s, the old route became KY 40 again.

[Dirt Roads]

US-70 between Greensboro and Raleigh.  In the late 1950s, US-70 got relocated from its previous route between Greensboro and Hillsborough when the new Super 2 was constructed along "The Spine of North Carolina" and US-70A took its place.  When I-85 was completed in 1963, US-70 replaced US-70A. 

Some more oddities:  Back in the old days, the original US-70/NC-10 multiplex originally went through Gibsonville and (the town then called) Elon College, with NC-100 taking the southerly bypass.  Those routes got flip-flopped a few years later.  In the early 1940s, Hillsborough got a bypass posted as US-70A.  About six years later, US-70 and US-70A were flip-flopped.  Then in 1960, US-70A in Hillsborough got reposted as Bus US-70.  Then between Durham and Raleigh, US-70 originally ran on South Miami Boulevard and what's now NC-54 between what's now RTP and Cary (and then multiplexed on Old US-1 into Raleigh).  US-70A got routed on the Glenwood Avenue extension in the late 1930s.  Those two were (for the most part) flip-flopped in 1948.

Just in case you weren't looking:  US-70A in Efland and US-70A in Hillsborough coexisted for a few years, but never touched.  They were about 1.8 miles apart.

[bugo]

I-540 in Arkansas.

[Some one]

US 90 was extended from its current western terminus to US 62(180) before getting truncated back to its current terminus less than a year later.

[Henry]

US-70 between Greensboro and Raleigh.  In the late 1950s, US-70 got relocated from its previous route between Greensboro and Hillsborough when the new Super 2 was constructed along "The Spine of North Carolina" and US-70A took its place.  When I-85 was completed in 1963, US-70 replaced US-70A. 

Some more oddities:  Back in the old days, the original US-70/NC-10 multiplex originally went through Gibsonville and (the town then called) Elon College, with NC-100 taking the southerly bypass.  Those routes got flip-flopped a few years later.  In the early 1940s, Hillsborough got a bypass posted as US-70A.  About six years later, US-70 and US-70A were flip-flopped.  Then in 1960, US-70A in Hillsborough got reposted as Bus US-70.  Then between Durham and Raleigh, US-70 originally ran on South Miami Boulevard and what's now NC-54 between what's now RTP and Cary (and then multiplexed on Old US-1 into Raleigh).  US-70A got routed on the Glenwood Avenue extension in the late 1930s.  Those two were (for the most part) flip-flopped in 1948.

Just in case you weren't looking:  US-70A in Efland and US-70A in Hillsborough coexisted for a few years, but never touched.  They were about 1.8 miles apart.

Most recently, I-40, which was relocated from downtown Greensboro to the new Urban Loop, but moved back to its old alignment after seven months in 2008.

[Takumi]

VA 70 was decommissioned in 1954, then in 1962 was restored to the same route it had had from 1951 to 1954.

[Dough4872]

DE 71 when first designated ran along its current alignment between US 13 south of Townsend and US 13 in Tybouts Corner via Middletown. The route was realigned from Middletown southwest to the Maryland border along the US 301 corridor and then cut back to DE 896 north of the Summit Bridge before being extended back to US 13 south of Townsend, replacing DE 896.