I had occasion to use the South Boston Haul Road the other day, a super-2 of which much is crammed into a former (Old Colony, I believe) railroad trench to the waterfront area.
This got me thinking about other instances where roads were directly laid in old railroad rights-of-way.
The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston.
It's my understanding that some parts of the Pennsylvania Turnpike are built on never-finished railroad grade.
Where else?
The Nada Tunnel on KY 77 in the Red River Gorge in Powell County uses an old narrow-gauge logging railroad tunnel.
Much of the new route of US 60 through Morehead is on an old abandoned C&O rail line. The line used to run from Lexington to Ashland but was removed in the early 1980s.
Peshekee Grade (http://blog.jacobemerick.com/hiking/snowy-drive-down-the-peshekee-grade/), running through the Huron Mountains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, mostly follows the grade of a railroad track (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Range_and_Huron_Bay_Railroad) that no train ever used! Legend has it that a test train attempted to travel its length but couldn't make it up a hill. Some portions had an over 5% grade.
H.B.'s example reminds me, Alaska has the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Glacier_Highway#Anton_Anderson_Memorial_Tunnel), where cars drive over a current railroad track through the length of the tunnel.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is on an old railroad right of way.
US 90/ Beach Blvd between Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach is on an old railroad right of way as well. Atlantic Blvd. (SR10) was the Beach Road (for those familiar with Jax that is why Beach Road Chicken dinner is on Atlantic Blvd not Beach Blvd which can confuse people) This is also where SR 10 is not hidden beneath US90 or US90A.. it is actually signed. Non roadgeeks assume it is a continuation of I-10 numbering scheme.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on April 06, 2014, 09:32:22 PM
The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston.
IIRC it wasn't just the extension, but almost the entire ROW from the NY border to the I-93/South Station exits.
Part of Erie St. in Lafayette, IN (http://goo.gl/maps/QN5Wt) runs on former Norfolk and Western ROW after the relocation completed in the 90s; interestingly, one track runs a fair distance along and ends somewhat randomly, probably to leave room to roll a train down it, throw a switch, and pull it into a different track in the yard nearby.
Texas: Significant portions of SH 114 from Dallas to I-35W are built on the Dallas, Pacific, and Southeastern Railroad right-of way. This grade was constructed in 1899, and the company went bankrupt before the tracks could be laid. Spur 348 (FMR SH 114), and Harry Hines Blvd south of Spur 348 are also built on this railroad's grade. This fact is omitted from local history books, and is not widely known, I discovered it by accident in 2003. I looked online later, and the local history buffs also know about it and had a topic for it on their forum.
LA 955 between LA 19 and LA 964 (between Ethel and Port Hudson) is laid directly on top of the old Clinton-Port Hudson RR.
Not exactly DIRECTLY on top, but LA 15/US 425 between Clayton and Baskin uses the old railroad ROW for the other lanes, when the highway was widened. In fact, the location of the bridge for LA 15/US 425 SB in Clayton is directly over the old bridge.
Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle. :bigass:
In the Northwest, many abandoned rail-lines become bike trails.
Part of Dallas North Tollway was built on the St. Louis Southwestern RR ROW, I'm told.
Much of VA 309 is on an old railroad ROW...
Then there's always US 1 through the Keys...
Mapmikey
Quote from: SidS1045 on April 06, 2014, 10:44:56 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on April 06, 2014, 09:32:22 PM
The Mass Pike extension took some to most of the Boston and Albany RR corridor in Newton and Boston.
IIRC it wasn't just the extension, but almost the entire ROW from the NY border to the I-93/South Station exits.
The B&A ROW is still intact west of 128, through the western suburbs as the Framingham/Worcester line of the MBTA. The Mass Pike runs well north of that line at that point.
The only other RR right of way I can think of along its route is in the Palmer/Ludlow/Chicopee area where the road used the never-operational Hampden RR alignment for a bit.
Edit: In the 1954 USGS topo I used to confirm this, it calls the unfinished turnpike "Disabled American Veterans Turnpike," a name appended to it by the legislature in 1954. I don't know if that name was ever posted, as the act says the turnpike "may" erect "suitable markers or tablets" to that effect.
The Jeffries Freeway section of I-96 through Livonia follows part of the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ROW.
Not only is much the PA Turnpike on what should've been RR right of way, but the original tunnels were also meant for the trains as well.
Side note: When in doubt, check OpenStreetMap. NE2 has added nearly every former right of way I've ever known to OSM.
Quote from: bulldog1979 on April 07, 2014, 06:52:13 AM
The Jeffries Freeway section of I-96 through Livonia follows part of the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ROW.
I-96 in Livonia runs 1/2 mile north of and parallel to the ex-C&O (now CSX) tracks, never getting near them.
The Chicago Skyway (I-90) runs in some former railroad right-of-way and next to active railroads.
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.726966,-87.553552&spn=0.001633,0.002642&t=h&z=19
The Stevenson Expressway (I-55) runs in a former canal right-of-way, between active railroads, and an active canal.
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.816661,-87.744729&spn=0.002307,0.005284&t=h&z=18
Foothill Expressway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_County_Routes_in_zone_G#G5) (Santa Clara [Calif.] County Route G5) is built on a railway branch ROW. At Loyola Corners (the only interchange along Foothill) some old railroad buildings have been repurposed.
SR-25/Greenbelt Parkway between I-280 and SR-120/Cherry Street near downtown Toledo was once abandoned railroad, and now because of the new Skyway Bridge the parkway has more or less replaced Summit Street as the new gateway to downtown from the east.
Part of the Queensway(TCH-417) in Ottawa is built on a former CNR railroad ROW between Nicholas Street and Hwy-416
The original phase of North Central Expwy.-US 75 north of downtown Dallas, as well as the South Dallas part of the former South Central Expwy.-US 75 (now S.M. Wright Frwy.-US 175 & TX 310) was built along the old Houston & Texas Central RR (hence the 'Central' in the Expwy. naming).
The I-10 - Katy Frwy. widening done in Houston in recent years took in a former parallel railroad ROW.
Quote from: US81 on April 07, 2014, 05:29:15 AM
Part of Dallas North Tollway was built on the St. Louis Southwestern RR ROW, I'm told.
That would be the original late 1960s-era section between Harry Hines / I-35E and I-635.
In Brooklyn, NY, was the Gowanus Expressway built on the same structure as the former Third Ave. elevated train line? Or was it torn down and rebuilt for the highway. Either way, you could say it's in the same r/w.
Quote from: txstateends on April 07, 2014, 03:32:22 PM
The I-10 - Katy Frwy. widening done in Houston in recent years took in a former parallel railroad ROW.
Part of the Westpark tollway also used a former parallel railroad ROW.
Edit: The former railroad overpass was built when TX-99 was built at the junction of TX-99 and Westpark tollway befroe the line was removed is still there.
http://goo.gl/maps/stqj3
Interstate 80 between exit 1 and exit 4 in New Jersey is on the old alignment of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad between Dunnfield/Browning and Columbia. The last train to traverse the alignment was in 1940. The right-of-way was torn up and built over with U.S. Route 611/Interstate 80. You wouldn't be able to tell a railroad was there, except that the Karamac Trail, which is a piece of the right-of-way just off exit 1.
In Anne Arundel County, MD, there's a "WB&A Road". So named because it follows the route of an old interurban, the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis Electric Railway, which shut down in 1935. A number of other roads follow the r/w, including one aptly named (cue Eddy Grant) "Electric Avenue". It's also used for rail trails, power lines, part of a light rail line, and a whole section is obliterated by a little thing like, oh, BWI Airport.
Way out in the middle of the Pocono Mountains, starting near where PA 4031 branches off of PA 370, there's an "O and W Road." (It's called "Old Railroad Rd." on OpenStreetMap for some reason; perhaps renamed for historical awareness?) This was a branch of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railway that went from the mainline near Hancock, NY to Scranton, PA. The NYO&W was scrapped wholesale in 1957, thought I think the Scranton branch went out earlier. A road with the same name can be found in the hamlet of East Branch, PA, and I think parts of NY-17/I-86 cover the r/w as well.
Just east of Athens, OH, I think a mile or two of OH-32/US-50 has its eastbound lanes on the r/w of a B&O mainline that was only abandoned in the late 1980s. The loss of this line, which once ran all the way from Clarksburg, WV to Cincinnati, OH via Parkersburg, WV, is much-lamented by railfans.
In Beavercreek, OH, part of Research Blvd. is located on the r/w of the B&O Wellston Division, which ran between Dayton and Washington Court House via Xenia. It takes advantage of an I-675 bridge built to take the tracks underneath (though the RR was actually already abandoned a few years before the freeway opened) The road used to use a narrow underpass beneath US-35 to access a loop ramp, but that ramp seems to have been eliminated (too tight maybe, or they needed wetlands space) in favor of an extension of Research Blvd. that goes over US-35 to N. Fairfield Rd.
Martin Luther King Boulevard in Kissimmee, Florida was built where a branch line of the CSX tracks used to divert in Downtown Kissimmee.
Then NJ 35 southbound along the barrier island between Mantoloking, NJ and Ortley Beach was a former railroad line.
US 17 SB in Arcadia, Florida was once a railroad line as well.
quote from roadman65:
Quote
Martin Luther King Boulevard in Kissimmee, Florida was built where a branch line of the CSX tracks used to divert in Downtown Kissimmee.
Then NJ 35 southbound along the barrier island between Mantoloking, NJ and Ortley Beach was a former railroad line.
US 17 SB in Arcadia, Florida was once a railroad line as well.
I did think of the MLK one in Kissimmee, and I did notice the US 17 in Arcadia, and NJ 25 when looking at Google Maps
Quote from: lepidopteran on April 07, 2014, 08:12:36 PM
In Anne Arundel County, MD, there's a "WB&A Road". So named because it follows the route of an old interurban, the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis Electric Railway, which shut down in 1935. A number of other roads follow the r/w, including one aptly named (cue Eddy Grant) "Electric Avenue". It's also used for rail trails, power lines, part of a light rail line, and a whole section is obliterated by a little thing like, oh, BWI Airport.
Nearly all of Md. 704 (MLK Highway, formerly George Palmer Highway) is on the old WB&A right-of-way. Not so sure that Electric Avenue is actually on the old WB&A r-o-w or not. But Electric Avenue marks the point at which the electric service area for Baltimore Gas and Electric Company gets closest to the District of Columbia (the BG&E service area in Prince George's County almost cuts the Maryland service area of the "Washington" electric company, Potomac Electric Power Company, or PEPCo, in half).
Another road built on former railroad right-of-way is Md. 260, Chesapeake Beach Road in Calvert and Anne Arundel Counties (between E. Mount Harmony Road and Md. 4).
CA-83, Euclid Ave, has the old Pacific Electric right of way right down the middle.
Old Railroad Bed Road between south-central Tennessee and northern Alabama was part of the Middle Tennessee and Alabama Railway (http://www.abandonedrails.com/Middle_Tennessee_and_Alabama_Railway). The rail wasn't completely laid down, but the right-of-way became streets in the 1930s.
Clarification on NJ 35 - NJ 35 is the former alignment of the New York & Long Branch Railroad (a piece of the Central Railroad of New Jersey), that went south to Seaside Park and then crossed west into Toms River, where it ended. This extension south from Bay Head was cut in 1946-48 area, I believe '46 though.
Technically, the US 12 bypass of Long Lake, MN meets this. The BNSF mainline through Long Lake was shifted slightly south, and the US 12 roadway was built on top of the old mainline.
I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Highway), originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Railroad).
Quote from: Brandon on April 09, 2014, 11:18:01 AM
I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Highway), originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Railroad).
Mapmikey mentioned it yesterday (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=12050.msg291133#msg291133).
Quote from: froggie on April 09, 2014, 11:32:32 AM
Quote from: Brandon on April 09, 2014, 11:18:01 AM
I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Highway), originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Railroad).
Mapmikey mentioned it yesterday (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=12050.msg291133#msg291133).
I noticed after I posted, but he barely made anything of it.
The Houghton (MI) lift bridge (US-41 / M-26). The lower level used to be railroad. Now in the summer the bridge is partially lifted so cars use the old RR level. That way the bridge clearance is higher for boat traffic and the bridge doesn't have to be raised as much. In the winter, the bridge is fully lowered, and the old RR level is for snowmobiles.
In Wisconsin, I-94 in the area of 27th St in Milwaukee was built on the grade of a former electric interurban (now called 'Light Rail Transit') line.
Elsewhere in the state, most of WI 173 between WI 21 and WI 80 was built on a former Milwaukee Road grade and the WI 13/54/73 beltline (Riverview Expressway) on Wisconsin Rapids' south side was built on the former grade of the Chicago and Northwestern's Fond du Lac-Wisconsin Rapids line.
Mike
There are sections of I-480 (between I-71 & I-77 in Cleveland) where the paralleling railroad ROW was moved slightly to make way for the freeway's ROW.
Sgt. James Ayube Memorial Drive, formerly the Bridge Street Bypass Road in Salem, Mass., was carved at least partly into a chunk of the Newburyport/Rockport Line right-of-way.
In Wichita, US 54/400 (Kellogg Ave.) from about the Arkansas River to Southwest Blvd. uses an old ROW (greatly expanded over the years, of course). Previously, US 54 traveled west on Maple far out to near Goddard before dropping south, then west on the current alignment.
ICTRds
If we are talking about freeways, the only thing close that comes to mind is I-84's Banfield Expressway in Portland. It follows close to a rail line, and MAX line, and in some cases covers the railroad, and likely supplanted portions of it, when it was built, not to mention a creek and golf course.
Much of the new SR-99 freeway, south of Downtown Seattle is in a former railroad right-of-way, as is the new roadway, the pit for the tunnel, and the existing viaduct (as most trains were moved inland to a tunnel between King St. and Union Stations.
For non-freeways, there is also most of the Pearl District, Portland, which is built on top of a former rail yard.
I recall at least of of the major Detroit Trunks or Freeways being built on an old railroad, ROW, but don't remember where I read that.
Here's one I completely forgot:
I-670 just east of Downtown Columbus, OH. The section either side of I-71 I clearly remember as a sizable old rail yard.
Sections of the new Busway between New Britain and Hartford, CT will be using existing railroad ROW. A portion of the line will be right next to Amtrak's rail line in Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, up to Union Station near Bushnell Park. (The line is supposed to open in 2015.)
The K-7 extension to the Nebraska Line (http://idmweb.ksdot.org/publiclib/publicdoc.asp?ID=003709361:1) generally followed and old alignment of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy. The CB&Q had another line on the Missouri side of the river (Now the BNSF Napier and St. Joseph Subdivisions)
Quote from: KEVIN_224 on April 18, 2014, 09:03:07 PM
Sections of the new Busway between New Britain and Hartford, CT will be using existing railroad ROW. A portion of the line will be right next to Amtrak's rail line in Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, up to Union Station near Bushnell Park. (The line is supposed to open in 2015.)
Holy crap, they are actually building this? I feel like it was 20 years ago that they were talking about it (that was around when I was last in the Hartford bus station, which is where I recall seeing the plan publicized), then the price tag became prohibitive and it never moved forward.
Do a lot of people commute into Hartford from NB?
Yes, it's under construction now. You can see the construction from a few places along I-84 and also the underpass on CT 9.
How about "Railroads in former highway rights-of-way"?
I nominate the Hiawatha LRT line in Minneapolis, MN.
On Hawaii 56 just south of a town called Wailua on the island of Kauai, there are two bridges that cross over the Wailua River. The bridge closer to the ocean (in Hawaiian, makai) that now carries the northbound lanes of the highway many years ago was a railroad bridge for when the sugar cane companies used railroads decades ago. Later they used "cane haul" trucks that used the makai bridge for crossing the river on the way to and from the mills until sugar became a dead commodity in Hawaii.
I remember crossing that bridge for the first time in the dark about 10 years ago. Approaching the bridge there was a route marker for HI-56 that said you could go straight OR bear right (on the RR bridge) to continue on 56.
They also had contra-flows set up during select hours in the morning where southbound traffic used both lanes of the main bridge while northbound traffic had to use the RR bridge, IIRC.
When US 167 was expanded to a divided 4 lane between Quitman, LA & the Lincoln/Jackson parish line, the north bound lanes were built on the old Rock Island RR ROW. This was part of the Rock's Little Rock branch that ran from Littlt Rock to Winnfield, LA.
Quote from: mgk920 on April 16, 2014, 03:10:22 PM
In Wisconsin, I-94 in the area of 27th St in Milwaukee was built on the grade of a former electric interurban (now called 'Light Rail Transit') line.
There's a lot of freeway mileage in Milwaukee that obliterated the old interurban rail system. I-94 used the one of the corridors all the way into West Allis. You can can see the last bit of r/w through the cemetery north of the freeway in the Miller Park vicinity.
The entirety of I-894 uses one of these rail transit corridors. There is still visible r/w coming south out of the Hale interchange curving towards "Highway A-hunderd". The high voltage power line running along the east side of US 45/WI 100 through Hales Corners sits on top of the former rail line.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shore-line.org%2Fimages%2FMEL_map.jpg&hash=5dce5f4d8133fcf5470d8e317dc20c4ac4cf5852)
Aerial photos from 1956 show these r/w's.
Mike probably knows this, but there is a functioning remnant of the Interurban Electric Rail system between Mukwonago and East Troy as a tourist novelty.
Quote from: thenetwork on April 22, 2014, 06:06:54 PM
I remember crossing that bridge for the first time in the dark about 10 years ago. Approaching the bridge there was a route marker for HI-56 that said you could go straight OR bear right (on the RR bridge) to continue on 56.
They also had contra-flows set up during select hours in the morning where southbound traffic used both lanes of the main bridge while northbound traffic had to use the RR bridge, IIRC.
Is the railroad bridge a truss?
The Broken Arrow Expressway (OK 51/US 64) west of I-44 is in a current railroad right of way. The freeway was built on either side of the railroad so today the rail line is in the median.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 29, 2014, 12:46:26 AM
Quote from: mgk920 on April 16, 2014, 03:10:22 PM
In Wisconsin, I-94 in the area of 27th St in Milwaukee was built on the grade of a former electric interurban (now called 'Light Rail Transit') line.
There's a lot of freeway mileage in Milwaukee that obliterated the old interurban rail system. I-94 used the one of the corridors all the way into West Allis. You can can see the last bit of r/w through the cemetery north of the freeway in the Miller Park vicinity.
The entirety of I-894 uses one of these rail transit corridors. There is still visible r/w coming south out of the Hale interchange curving towards "Highway A-hunderd". The high voltage power line running along the east side of US 45/WI 100 through Hales Corners sits on top of the former rail line.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shore-line.org%2Fimages%2FMEL_map.jpg&hash=5dce5f4d8133fcf5470d8e317dc20c4ac4cf5852)
Aerial photos from 1956 show these r/w's.
Mike probably knows this, but there is a functioning remnant of the Interurban Electric Rail system between Mukwonago and East Troy as a tourist novelty.
In the area of Miller Park, those odd-looking power towers, especially visible along I-94 east of the stadium, straddle the abandoned interurban grade.
Mike
Tammany Trace bike trail in Louisiana
https://www.tammanytrace.org/
Civic Blvd in Taipei, Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_Blvd_Expressway
Colonel By Drive in Ottawa was built on the former railroad right of way after the train station was moved out of downtown.
SE of Sherman, TX, SH 11 ( FMR FM 1281) was built on an old railroad grade.
Just discovered this when doing research for my Grayson County Highway History Map.
Interstate 91 in Hatfield and Whately MA runs on an old rail line that used to be right beside a current line. Also, a portion of US 5/MA 10 west of South Deerfield uses that same old rail line.
http://docs.unh.edu/MA/nrhm95nw.jpg
Good historical map that shows the old lines.
Much of the Fort Washington Expressway (PA 309) in the Philly area is on former railroad right-of-way.
Quote from: bugo on April 29, 2014, 01:16:44 AM
Quote from: thenetwork on April 22, 2014, 06:06:54 PM
I remember crossing that bridge for the first time in the dark about 10 years ago. Approaching the bridge there was a route marker for HI-56 that said you could go straight OR bear right (on the RR bridge) to continue on 56.
They also had contra-flows set up during select hours in the morning where southbound traffic used both lanes of the main bridge while northbound traffic had to use the RR bridge, IIRC.
Is the railroad bridge a truss?
No; it's just an ordinary-looking bridge. There is an old cantilever-truss bridge on the north shore of Kauai near a town called Hanalei but it was never a railroad bridge. It's a very narrow single-lane thing that was built in 1912. Every so often, the powers that be in both the state of Hawaii and Kauai County make noises that it's time to replace it with a big modern span over the Hanalei River, but the folks in Hanalei and vicinity scream bloody-blue murder about the changes it would bring. If you've ever seen
The Descendents with George Clooney and Anne Hathaway, I think (it was up for a Best Picture Oscar a few years ago), part of it was shot in Hanalei. That quaint little town hasn't changed since I was living on Kauai 30 years ago and back then, it probably looked as it did in the 1940s. And the people there like it that way.
U.S. Route 9 in Beachwood, NJ from the Garden State Parkway south to its merge with Route 166 was constructed in the old Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way. This is the same line mentioned earlier in this thread that crossed the Barnegat Bay to Seaside Park and turned north along current Route 35. It can be seen very clearly from an aerial view of Beachwood, with the vacant former ROW visible at each end of the portion occupied by Route 9. The old Barnegat Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ (now a pedestrian trail) crosses the ROW in the middle of town forming a visible "X" from above...