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National Boards => General Highway Talk => Topic started by: Mergingtraffic on August 04, 2010, 08:07:47 PM

Title: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Mergingtraffic on August 04, 2010, 08:07:47 PM
CT has a practice of widening 2-lane roads to 4-lanes at intersections, sometimes with turning lanes as well.

CT-177 has it in Farmington and US-7 at CT-57

I'm not sure of the purpose of it but any other areas that have this or other things?
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: bugo on August 04, 2010, 08:31:56 PM
Tulsa does this.  More common is a 4 lane undivided street going to a 5 lane with center turning lane at intersections.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Alps on August 04, 2010, 09:23:06 PM
Northern NJ, especially Bergen County, loves to do it with county road intersections.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: realjd on August 04, 2010, 10:06:00 PM
They do this for a couple of reasons. One is to double the number of cars that can get through the light per green without lengthening cycle times. The other is if they plan on widening the road in the future, they'll often build the extra lanes when they rework an intersection to prevent having to do it again in the future. It's the same reason you'll sometimes find small bridges over creeks and culverts built wide enough for multiple lanes even though the road is only 2 lanes wide.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Ian on August 04, 2010, 10:07:22 PM
New York State has a few of these.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Bickendan on August 04, 2010, 10:30:53 PM
Oregon has a few.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Troubleshooter on August 04, 2010, 10:53:30 PM
This allows other drivers to pass left turning drivers.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: US71 on August 04, 2010, 10:56:40 PM
Quote from: Bickendan on August 04, 2010, 10:30:53 PM
Oregon has a few.

I've seen a few 4-Lane roads go to 6 or 8 lanes at intersections
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Eth on August 04, 2010, 11:39:51 PM
I'm pretty sure I've never seen an Interstate in Florida have an interchange with a 2-lane road — the surface road always widens to 4-lane divided at the freeway.  I can't say for sure that it's a statewide thing, but certainly in the panhandle.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: mapman on August 04, 2010, 11:54:19 PM
Widening two-lane rural highways to four lanes is common Caltrans practice when an intersection is signalized.  I've also seen it a few times in urban areas.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: Hot Rod Hootenanny on August 05, 2010, 12:07:46 AM
Seen my share of this in Ohio. (Oh 142, Oh 29, US 42 w/I-70 in Madison Co)
Louisiana as well (Juban Rd, Walker Rd, La 43 w/I-12)
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: SSOWorld on August 06, 2010, 07:21:52 AM
I've seen a few in WI - most of the time, they just split the road to add a left turn lane.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: elsmere241 on August 06, 2010, 09:56:08 AM
Suburban Delaware has quite a few.  It drove me nuts when I was maintaining New Castle County centerlines.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: akotchi on August 06, 2010, 01:17:24 PM
I have seen it mainly for capacity reasons (lower delays at signals, but lane drops on the departure side are not always far enough downstream) and at freeway interchanges (sometimes including a median) in PA and NJ.
Title: Re: 4-Laning at intersections
Post by: kj3400 on August 11, 2010, 02:44:07 PM
Maryland does it too. I know that at one intersection with US 40 a two lane road (technically; two cars can fit per side, but the dashed line isn't there) turns into a four lane road with two left turn lanes per side.