Milepost Discrepancy with US Route 2 in Washington

[Amaury]

So, in this concurrency, US Route 2 is the primary route and therefore its mileposts are used. My question is simple. If anyone knows, was there a realignment of this, particularly of US Route 2, at some point? The reason I ask is because there's a gap in the mileposts after crossing over into Douglas County from Chelan County heading east via the Richard Odabashian Bridge (I'm going by east since mileposts, of course, increase west to east).

So, here we have US Route 2 milepost 120: https://goo.gl/maps/Y3zKGcxbHPy9ktHe6

That means the next one should logically be milepost 121. However, after making the turn left at the light–the junction with Washington State Route 28, where the route begins if you turn right–the next milepost is actually milepost 128: https://goo.gl/maps/dRTCzYsLGELt6NmN6

That's an eight-mile difference! Hence why I ask if there was a realignment at some point that significantly shortened that route and they just, for whatever reason, didn't bother to readjust the mileposts to that.

[Mapmikey]

So, in this concurrency, US Route 2 is the primary route and therefore its mileposts are used. My question is simple. If anyone knows, was there a realignment of this, particularly of US Route 2, at some point? The reason I ask is because there's a gap in the mileposts after crossing over into Douglas County from Chelan County heading east via the Richard Odabashian Bridge (I'm going by east since mileposts, of course, increase west to east).

So, here we have US Route 2 milepost 120: https://goo.gl/maps/Y3zKGcxbHPy9ktHe6

That means the next one should logically be milepost 121. However, after making the turn left at the light–the junction with Washington State Route 28, where the route begins if you turn right–the next milepost is actually milepost 128: https://goo.gl/maps/dRTCzYsLGELt6NmN6

That's an eight-mile difference! Hence why I ask if there was a realignment at some point that significantly shortened that route and they just, for whatever reason, didn't bother to readjust the mileposts to that.

US 2 used today's WA 285 to WA 28 north until the mid 1970s.

[Bruce]

The Richard Odabashian Bridge opened in 1975 and US 2 was rerouted across it. US 97 joined it in 1987 when it was rerouted to the east side of the Columbia River and the old alignment became US 97A.

There's plenty of milepost "corrections" that are noted in the State Highway Log that are more dramatic than this. SR 530, for example, begins at milepost 17 due to its truncation.

[Amaury]

US 2 used today's WA 285 to WA 28 north until the mid 1970s.

I've read the US Route 2 in Washington article in Washington before, but from what you said above, I just made the connection, though this sentence is still kind of vague, as it doesn't really say where the former alignment, but I can fill in the lines with what you said.

US 2 was routed north of Wenatchee onto the Olds Station Bridge, renamed in 1991 to honor Richard Odabashian, over the Columbia River in 1975,[67] while the former alignment was designated as SR 285 in 1977.

So my guess is that it was something like this for the former alignment of US Route 2 in Wenatchee/East Wenatchee: https://goo.gl/maps/4iPansY392NVBeZv8

I have my start point there as US Route 2 milepost 118 and my end point as US Route 2 milepost 128. With the way I routed it to get from point A to point B, Google Maps shows a distance of roughly 10 miles (10.2), so if I'm correct or roughly correct on what the former alignment of US Route 2 was in that area, that would explain the eight-mile gap as the routing I have fits the gap exactly. Although it makes me wonder if Washington State Route 28 didn't exist then or if US Route 2 was also (formerly) concurrent with Washington State Route 28 instead of just being concurrent with US Route 97 in that area at present time.

Whatever the case, with how important US Route 2 is, I'm rather surprised that they didn't adjust the mileposts in Washington to reflect the change from milepost 128 to the Washington-Idaho border in Newport, Washington, and vice-versa for US Route 2's mileposts on the westbound side between Newport and milepost 128 near the Washington State Route 28 junction in Wenatchee. For example, if they were to correct things, milepost 128 would actually be milepost 121 and so forth.

[Mapmikey]

It appears the street addresses in the rural areas match the mile markers as they were originally laid out, so this might preclude re-doing mile markers to avoid having to also change everybody's address.

[Rothman]

Heh.  If you got confused by this, come out to NY...

[stevashe]

Whatever the case, with how important US Route 2 is, I'm rather surprised that they didn't adjust the mileposts in Washington to reflect the change from milepost 128 to the Washington-Idaho border in Newport, Washington, and vice-versa for US Route 2's mileposts on the westbound side between Newport and milepost 128 near the Washington State Route 28 junction in Wenatchee. For example, if they were to correct things, milepost 128 would actually be milepost 121 and so forth.

Mile posts are generally not changed because it's more effort than it's worth to replace all the signs, not to mention it can cause confusion with any old records that refer to the old mileposts. Just look at at SR 530 or SR 17, the first mileposts on those routes are 17  and 8, respectively, due to being shortened at their starting ends.

Other notable/noticeable skips include SR 16 going from MP 5 to MP 8  across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge since it used to have a longer route in Tacoma, and I-90 starting around MP 2, which we discussed a while back in the Washington thread: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18003.msg2558829#msg2558829

If you want to get really into the weeds, a listing of all Milepost gaps and overlaps is available in the WSDOT state highway log, starting on page 36 of this PDF: https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-07/Statewide-Highway-Log-2021.pdf (it's in the bookmarks as "Equation Listing")

[ErmineNotyours]

While I'm aware of WSDOT never moving mileposts due to road changes, I'm still mystified by the reposting of SR 181 around 2018.  In this case they moved the post from the light pole in the foreground to a new post behind the bus shelter, a distance of about 20 feet.  All the mileposts were put on new poles with pre-drilled holes in them, but I never checked how far the others moved.

[Alps]

While I'm aware of WSDOT never moving mileposts due to road changes, I'm still mystified by the reposting of SR 181 around 2018.  In this case they moved the post from the light pole in the foreground to a new post behind the bus shelter, a distance of about 20 feet.  All the mileposts were put on new poles with pre-drilled holes in them, but I never checked how far the others moved.

Up to 50 feet off is generally ignored with mileposts, especially whole ones.