There were at least three proposals, and it seems probable that the ultimate plan was to extend US 13 to Athens GA, but for some reason GDoT was not a part of these submissions to AASHO. See article (https://www.usends.com/blog/us-route-wannabes-1968-69-edition-nc-sc)
Quote from: usends on December 31, 2019, 03:53:07 PM
There were at least three proposals, and it seems probable that the ultimate plan was to extend US 13 to Athens GA, but for some reason GDoT was not a part of these submissions to AASHO. See article (https://www.usends.com/blog/us-route-wannabes-1968-69-edition-nc-sc)
I'm not even sure if GDoT was even interested in a two-digit north-south US highway ending in Athens. There appears to be not much evidence to support either side of the extension argument.
Per the just available database of AASHTO stuff:
1961 - US 13 proposed to extend to New Orleans!
NC - US 401 to Laurinburg, NC 79 to SC
SC - SC 79, SC 383, SC 9 to Whitmire; SC 72 to GA
GA - GA 72 to Athens; US 29 to Atlanta; GA 85 to Columbus
AL - US 80 to Montgomery; AL 21 to Atmore; US 31 to Mobile; US 98 to MS
MS - US 98 to Lucedale; MS 26 to LA
LA - LA 10 to Bogalusa; LA 21 to Covington; US 190 to Mandeville; Lake Pontchartrain Causeway! to end at US 90
1962 scaled back to extending to just Cheraw SC
1965 tried extending to US 221 near Greenwood with a US 13 Bus in Lancaster
Then the two tries to Abbeville
Extending US 13 to Athens, Georgia would have been crazy enough, but extending US 13 to New Orleans? That would have been INSANE! If this extension had been approved, it should have been numbered US 86, not as part of US 13.
Quote from: The Ghostbuster on September 22, 2020, 05:33:16 PM
Extending US 13 to Athens, Georgia would have been crazy enough, but extending US 13 to New Orleans? That would have been INSANE! If this extension had been approved, it should have been numbered US 86, not as part of US 13.
11 is already a near-perfect diagonal outside New York.
I had much the same idea as a kid back in '63 when US 13 was extended down to the Fayetteville region. But I came up with what I deemed a more realistic notion: extend US 13 MPX'd with US 301 down to Laurinburg, then down NC/SC 41 to US 17 north of Charleston, multiplexing with it into Charleston proper. Keeps the route as more of a coastal alternative.
Quote from: sparker on October 02, 2020, 02:11:15 AM
I had much the same idea as a kid back in '63 when US 13 was extended down to the Fayetteville region. But I came up with what I deemed a more realistic notion: extend US 13 MPX'd with US 301 down to Laurinburg, then down NC/SC 41 to US 17 north of Charleston, multiplexing with it into Charleston proper. Keeps the route as more of a coastal alternative.
AASHO in that same 1960 ± period rejected two different proposals to get SC 41 from Mt Pleasant to North Carolina into the US route system:
extension of US 220 south via US 74, SC 381, SC 9, SC 57 to reach SC 41. The request was based on reducing traffic on US 52, which was eventually accomplished with the completion of I-95/I-26 and further enhanced by its widening to 4 lane over a 30-year period starting about 1971.
ALSO
creation of US 313 which would've used the entirety of NC/SC 41 from Elizabethtown NC to Mt Pleasant
I wouldn't have approved the extension either, and New Orleans has enough bad luck as it is.
Maybe US 301 should have ended at its (former) junction with US 13 instead of vice versa. That way it would be US 13 that continues south all the way south to Sarasota, Florida. Of course, with the construction of NC (future Interstate) 295, US 13 could have hopped on Interstate 95 from Exit 58 to Exit 56, followed all of Business Route 95 (with BR 95 decommissioned) to the split just north of Exit 40, and onward. Then US 301 could be re-extended south along Dunn Road to the BR 95 interchange.