Your State's Most Difficult Highway

[theroadwayone]

Which highway in your state faced the hardest obstacles--political, financial, geographical, etc--but still got built regardless?

[US 89]

I'd say Utah's is almost certainly the Legacy Parkway. The initial goal was to start construction in the late 1990s and have it open for the 2002 Winter Olympics, but a series of lawsuits brought by environmentalists delayed the project several times. Construction finally started in 2001, but then stopped completely due to further lawsuits and court action. The state and environmentalists finally signed a compromise in 2005, and construction started again the next spring. The road was finally opened in September 2008, almost seven years behind schedule.

That doesn't mean I like Legacy the way it is. Trucks are banned on it (except when there is major congestion on I-15), and there is a 55 mph speed limit. But still, the fact that it exists is a tremendous accomplishment for UDOT.

[Max Rockatansky]

Considering it almost took 20 years to build Highway 1 in Big Sur due to geographic obstacles and Mud Slides I'd rank it ahead of the freeway funding debacles California is known for.  Granted CA 132 getting any upgrades after this much time in the planning stages is a miracle.

With Arizona it's an easy answer with I-10 in downtown Phoenix. 

[Beltway]

The 9.6 mile segment of I-66 between I-495 and Rosslyn.

The original eight-lane I-66 proposal inside the Beltway was blocked due to citizen opposition and a decision by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.  I-66 was downscaled by VDH&T to four lanes (2 each way), with HOV-4 rush hour restrictions (meaning that a vehicle must have at least 4 persons onboard to legally use the highway) in the peak direction (years later reduced to HOV-3, and then to HOV-2), and with no large trucks allowed at any time.  This was authorized by a new decision of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.   Construction spanned from 1977 to 1982.

[WR of USA]

For Massachusetts, it was certainly I-93 through downtown Boston. The big dig is estimated to cost over 20 Billion dollars, filled with numerous cost overruns and tunnel leakage problems. It needed to be built regardless of costs and geological difficulties, it's a critical corridor for the Boston area.

[ipeters61]

In the process of construction but probably the US-301 expressway in Delaware.  Pretty sure the reasons they finally constructed it were because (1) Middletown exploded in population (from my "reverse commuting" days I could see miles long backups on DE-896/US-301/DE-71 heading from I-95 to Middletown) and (2) they could toll it because nearly everybody in Middletown is rich.

In Connecticut I'd probably say I-291 or I-384 and the US-6 bypass in Willimantic, but I'm biased since I grew up around those highways and knew the most about them.  They were never completed and likely never will be, but there were small segments built (that I mentioned).

[ilpt4u]

Which highway in your state faced the hardest obstacles--political, financial, geographical, etc--but still got built regardless?

In IL:

The I-355 South Extension from I-55 to I-80 faced environmental and political issues, but did eventually get built, about a decade after it was pretty much ready to go

Those Flyover Ramp supports sat at the I-55 and I-355 interchange median for years, unused. But now, they carry the ramps and the additional I-355 mainline over I-55 in Bolingbrook

The leg of the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway/Now IL 390 Tollway from I-290 to the O'Hare Western Boundry finally got built. Who knows if the leg to Elgin, west of Lake Street is ever built...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I-35E in St. Paul between MN 5 and I-94, held up by neighborhood opposition, eventually a court settlement banned trucks and set a 45 MPH limit. Finally opened about 1991.

Also I-35 in Duluth took decades to finish because of disagreements about design, location, and also opposition. The original plan was an elevated freeway to protect the route from Lake Superior's unpredictability, but there was concern about cutting the waterfront off from downtown. There was also disagreement about whether the I-35 extension should stop at 10th Ave E, 26th Ave E, or 60th Ave E (26th was the one picked). Cut and cover tunnels were eventually selected which protected the route from Superior, but maintained the city's connectivity with the lake. Completed 1992.

[Great Lakes Roads]

In Indiana, probably the I-69 corridor from Evansville to Indianapolis...

[sparker]

Considering it almost took 20 years to build Highway 1 in Big Sur due to geographic obstacles and Mud Slides I'd rank it ahead of the freeway funding debacles California is known for.  Granted CA 132 getting any upgrades after this much time in the planning stages is a miracle.

With Arizona it's an easy answer with I-10 in downtown Phoenix. 

For a "conventional" highway (which in reality is anything but!), CA 1 from Cambria to Carmel is, hands-down, the clear "winner(?)" of the difficulty "award".  But when it comes to a section of freeway, that would have to be the last segment of I-5 to be constructed from Shasta Lake to Castle Crags in the Sacramento River canyon.  It had everything going against it:  opposition from the Sierra Club (what else is new!), the worst topography in the canyon stretch (including river/canyon "oxbows" and the proximity of the rail line), and the problem of constructing a new facility while maintaining substantial amounts of Interstate traffic on the existing expressway.  But once let, the project took only 6 years from the intial foray (building a "cutoff" across the oxbows) to opening (in the winter of 1992).  I had the good fortune to drive on it a week after it opened; compared with the previous nail-biting experience on the previous expressway stretch (featuring "double-double painted median lines as the only directional separation -- very much like US 101 through the Humboldt redwood areas) -- the new freeway was a godsend.   

[hbelkins]

In Kentucky, either the new East End Bridge in Louisville, or the widened Paris Pike (US 27/68) in Fayette and Bourbon counties.

West Virginia has to be Corridor H.

[jp the roadgeek]

In CT, it's a tie among all highways .  Seriously though, it would be finishing I-291 to Manchester.  For almost 40 years, CT 291 sat as a short expressway from CT 159 in Windsor to US 5 in South Windsor;  there wasn't even a direct freeway to freeway connection with its de facto (now actual) parent.  It took till 1994 to complete the I-91 interchange and the portion east of US 5 to the I-84/I-384 interchange in Manchester.   

[TheOneKEA]

There are at least three such highways in MD:

- MD 200, the Intercounty Connector. cpzillacus and Beltway could each post novel-length treatises about the political and financial mayhem that preceded the eventual start of construction of the ICC, and the environmental compromises which increased the financial difficulties and reduced the utility of the corridor.
- I-68 through Sideling Hill. It was the very last segment of the then-US 48 freeway to be completed and required enormous earthworks to minimize the gradients of the old US 40 route over the hil.
- I-70in Frederick, MD. It took the SHA over 30 years to rebuild, reconstruct and expand the old Frederick Freeway alignment from the old I-70S partial interchange at Exit 53 to the old eastern end of the freeway at Exit 59. The final result is an excellent, high-speed facility that provides far more capacity and utility to local and long-distance traffic in eastern Frederick.

[pianocello]

In Iowa, it's the diagonal freeways/expressways of I-380 north of Cedar Rapids, IA 330, and I-35 north of US 20. Turns out it's pretty hard to build a diagonal corridor across a square grid without making a lot of landowners angry.

[oscar]

In Hawaii, easily Interstate H-3. Intensely controversial, took an Act of Congress to override a Federal appellate court ruling blocking a key part of the freeway. It was conceived during the Vietnam War to address problems moving troops among the island's military bases, but the war was long over by the time the highway opened in 1997.

[US71]

Either AR 23 aka The Pig Trail (Ozark to Huntsville), AR 7 from Russellville to Harrison or AR 21 Clarksville to Kingston

[txstateends]

I'm not sure if there was one road/highway/corridor in TX that would be the overall winner.

One contender could be Loop 9 around Dallas.  It was proposed ~50 years ago, left for dead, later revived in different ways, mainly as a toll road.  Part of it was held up in Grand Prairie by a court decision that stood for many years.  The part between I-30 and I-20 in Garland, Sunnyvale, and Mesquite is still being planned, although Sunnyvale residents have fought it because it would mess up their quality of life and view of Lake Ray Hubbard.  The part from US 67 south of Dallas around to I-20 in Mesquite is actually the only part that would use the Loop 9 designation, and may be the last part completed, if so.

As for longest one road/highway took to build in TX, I'm not sure.  I-10 took quite a while, because of length, remoteness, and various geologic barriers.  I-45 took some time, mainly due to lawsuits holding up much of the Dallas end of the route.  At the rate it's going, I-69 may need to be added to the list.

[cjk374]

I-10 through the Atchafalaya Flood Basin couldn't have been a cake walk...19 miles of bridge through a swamp. I-49 is still being built, being started in the early 80s. It has survived oil market busts, tax money shortages & who knows what else. It is almost finished.

[Flint1979]

For Michigan I'm going to go with I-696.

[JREwing78]

In Michigan, I would say the Mackinac Bridge, considering the 5-mile crossing, several wars, and legal wrangling it took to build it.

The new Gordie Howe bridge, and the US-31 connection to I-94 near Benton Harbor might be in the running once they're actually built.

[Flint1979]

In Michigan, I would say the Mackinac Bridge, considering the 5-mile crossing, several wars, and legal wrangling it took to build it.

The new Gordie Howe bridge, and the US-31 connection to I-94 near Benton Harbor might be in the running once they're actually built.

I wouldn't consider the Mackinac Bridge a highway though. It's part of I-75 but only for 5 miles of the 396 miles of I-75 in Michigan.

[Bruce]

Interstate 90 between Seattle and Bellevue.

It took 50 years, several lawsuits, and a sunken floating bridge to complete the "last link" in I-90. And construction on the corridor is still not done, as light rail is being put in its median.

[Bickendan]

Politically, I-205 through Portland itself, as it was targetted to be cancelled by activists after they managed to shut down the Mt Hood Freeway (and this is after I-205 got pushed east two times during its planned existance as the Laurelhurst Freeway -- 39th Ave, then 52nd Ave -- winding up as 95th Ave). ODOT wanted 205 really badly, and Fred Meyer and the city of Vancouver threatened to sue if it didn't get built. The activists relented, demanding that ODOT build the Division/Powell exit as is... by drawing it on a napkin.

Geographically, US 20 Eddyville Bypass.

[webny99]

Interesting thread, because discussion so often focuses on the opposite - highways that didn't get built.

I will avoid making myself look like a fool and let those with more knowledge of the history speak up for my home state of NY.

[Roadsguy]

Hands down the Blue Route (Mid-County Expressway/I-476) in Pennsylvania. It was planned from the 1960s, but didn't get completed until 1992 after many legal battles and design compromises (such as only building it to four lanes south of PA 3).