Yesterday evening - as part of a drive from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City, on my way back home to Kansas City - I drove along a stretch of I-40 in the Texas Panhandle, east of Amarillo, which crosses the county line between Gray and Donley counties six separate times.
That made me wonder: throughout the country, are there any instances of a highway that crosses the same county line that many times or more, or even comes close to doing so? If so, where might they be?
What about a road that -is- the county line? Would that count as 'infinite' crossings?
(Weld CR 13 in northern colorado, frexample.)
I would have thought I-88 between Otsego and Delaware Counties in NY would have been a contender, but alas, it only crosses between the two counties three times.
I-269. It seems to cross in and out of Shelby County, TN several times.
CA 166 crosses the San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara County line an obscene amount of times along but Cuyama River. There is at least a dozen times the highway crosses the county line.
M-134 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula crosses from Mackinac County to Chippewa County, back into Mackinac County, then into Chippewa County again.
I-64 in Louisa/Goochland County, VA. It only crosses the county line 3 times, but it feels like way more for me.
VA-48/Skyline Drive crosses county lines many times. It crosses the Greene/Rockingham County Line 12 times. It crosses the Madison/Page line 18 times.
I-64 crosses the Dubois/Spencer IN county line 3 times. It's not enough to top any lists, but notable in that that's the boundary between the Central and Eastern time zones.
The Ohio Turnpike (I-80/I-90) does a back-and-forth between Ottawa County and Sandusky County. (Trivia: The state has both an Ottawa and an Ottawa Hills, but neither are in the named county. And neither Sandusky nor Upper Sandusky are in the other.)
I-70 does a similar clip between Licking and Muskingum Counties. The county-line signs are but a few seconds apart when traveling at highway speeds.
Unless I'm missing some, it looks like the most we get in Louisiana is 3 crossings of the same line, with 5 highways doing that:
LA 12 – Beauregard/Calcasieu line
LA 20 – Lafourche/Terrebonne line
LA 126 – Catahoula/La Salle line
LA 151 – Lincoln/Union line
LA 358 – Acadia/St. Landry line
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on October 16, 2023, 07:48:39 AM
CA 166 crosses the San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara County line an obscene amount of times
69?
If 3 counties can be involved, US 20 in New York near the tripoint of Herkimer, Oneida, and Otsego Counties has 4 county line crossings in under 3 miles, involving every combination of those counties. Good luck topping this frequency of crossings. Between there and some places further east, US 20 crosses the Herkimer-Otsego line 4 times. That may be NY's winner for a single county pair.
My current state of residence (Nevada) has a few cases where a route crosses a line 3 times, but I can't think of any cases of more than 3. I-80 Storey-Washoe, US 50 Carson-Douglas, and US 95 Esmeralda-Nye are what comes to mind. For both 80 and 50, two of the line crossings are unsigned and not reflected in mileposts. Despite I-80 replacing US 40 almost exactly across the state, US 40 crossed the Storey-Washoe line 0 times.
While it basically rides the line for a good distance, I-80 in California only crosses tbe Nevada-Placer line 3 times. US 40 crossed.that line a whopping 5 times when it existed in California.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on October 16, 2023, 06:48:33 AM
What about a road that -is- the county line? Would that count as 'infinite' crossings?
(Weld CR 13 in northern colorado, frexample.)
California SR 88 says hi. That rides the Amador - El Dorado line for a decent distance.
Utah SR 39 crosses the Weber/Cache line 3 times and the.Cache/Rich line 9 times. Like many northern Utah county lines, they follow drainage divides, but the terrain is actually pretty light and rolling by Utah mountain standards, and SR 39 simply winds its way back and forth along the summit ridge line. Only one crossing of each line is signed, though.
Quote from: Occidental Tourist on October 17, 2023, 01:29:06 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on October 16, 2023, 07:48:39 AM
CA 166 crosses the San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara County line an obscene amount of times
69?
Not quite a nice amount of times, I just stopped bothering to count once I hit twelve. The interesting thing in the corridor is the Postmiles all denote SLO for San Luis Obispo County.
From glancing at the mob-rule overlay on Google Maps, it looks like I-70 crosses between Arapahoe and Adams Counties six times as well.
A couple more entries for NY:
- NY 28 crosses Herkimer-Oneida 4 times total, including 3 times in 4 miles. This ties US 20 Herkimer-Otsego for most in NY (tentatively)
- NY 14A crosses Yates-Schuyler 3 times in just 1 mile
I'd have to double-check, but I believe State Route 102 crosses between Tazewell County, Va., and Mercer County, WV, four times.
The most I can think of in CT is CT 322 which begins in Wolcott (New Haven County), then crosses into Southington (Hartford County), then into Cheshire (New Haven) for about 1/3 of a mile, then back into Southington. It ends at I-691 just before the road continues into Meriden (New Haven). I-691 runs parallel to it and does the Meriden-Southington-Cheshire crossing within about 2 miles, and the ramps to and from eastbound I-84 at the terminus cross back into Southington.
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on October 17, 2023, 11:50:03 AM
The most I can think of in CT is CT 322 which begins in Wolcott (New Haven County), then crosses into Southington (Hartford County), then into Cheshire (New Haven) for about 1/3 of a mile, then back into Southington. It ends at I-691 just before the road continues into Meriden (New Haven). I-691 runs parallel to it and does the Meriden-Southington-Cheshire crossing within about 2 miles, and the ramps to and from eastbound I-84 at the terminus cross back into Southington.
Some people think those aren't the counties in CT any longer.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 17, 2023, 10:58:56 AM
I'd have to double-check, but I believe State Route 102 crosses between Tazewell County, Va., and Mercer County, WV, four times.
Indeed. Nearby, WV-161 crosses between McDowell County (West Virginia) and Tazewell County only twice, but the State Line border hits the east edge of the right-of-way three more times. None of these are posted and WVDOH maintains the entire route even on the Virginia side.
Further west, Bearwallow Road (SR-616) runs along the other dividing line between Tazewell County and McDowell County (later becoming Pea Patch Road and then Compton Mountain Road). SR-616 crosses the border 58 times (either fully or partially). It's so complicated, the WVDOH county map doesn't bother showing any of it.
Keep going further northwest, and the aptly named Stateline Ridge Road crosses 22 times (either fully or partially). Again, no attempt to show it on the WVDOH county map.
From there, WV-83/VA-83 crosses from McDowell into Tazewell eight times (either fully or partially). There is barely an attempt to show the crossings on the WVDOH county map.
For the record, the WVDOH county maps generally show extreme details as to where the "county roads" cross the various county borders (because there is a different route number associated with each county).
OH 78 crosses between Athens County and Hocking County four times. When I was a child in the pre-GPS days, my family got very lost going to a wedding at Burr Oak State Park, and I remember that road being part of the problem - if you missed a sign, it was hard to keep track of which county you were in.
Quote from: cenlaroads on October 16, 2023, 11:54:05 PM
Unless I'm missing some, it looks like the most we get in Louisiana is 3 crossings of the same line, with 5 highways doing that:
LA 12 – Beauregard/Calcasieu line
LA 20 – Lafourche/Terrebonne line
LA 126 – Catahoula/La Salle line
LA 151 – Lincoln/Union line
LA 358 – Acadia/St. Landry line
I-49 has a multitude of in and outs with Evangeline Parish.
Rapides to Evangeline, Evangeline to Avoyelles, Avoyelles back to Evangeline, Evangeline to St Landry, St Landry Back to Evangeline, and finally Evangeline back to St Landry 6 times in or out of Evangeline Parish and 3 of them with St Landry
The Middlesex/Worcester county line in MA is a popular one: I-90/MassPike crosses it 3 times, while I-495 crosses it 5 times. From a quick peek on streetview, it looks like each crossing is fully signed following MassDOT's sign replacement projects in the past couple years.
Quote from: bwana39 on November 08, 2023, 08:09:55 AM
Quote from: cenlaroads on October 16, 2023, 11:54:05 PM
Unless I'm missing some, it looks like the most we get in Louisiana is 3 crossings of the same line, with 5 highways doing that:
LA 12 – Beauregard/Calcasieu line
LA 20 – Lafourche/Terrebonne line
LA 126 – Catahoula/La Salle line
LA 151 – Lincoln/Union line
LA 358 – Acadia/St. Landry line
I-49 has a multitude of in and outs with Evangeline Parish.
Rapides to Evangeline, Evangeline to Avoyelles, Avoyelles back to Evangeline, Evangeline to St Landry, St Landry Back to Evangeline, and finally Evangeline back to St Landry 6 times in or out of Evangeline Parish and 3 of them with St Landry
Oh yeah, that would be another one... for some reason I only thought to look at state highways when I checked :confused: :ded:
It looks like Minnesota TH 7 may technically interact with the Carver/Hennepin line 7 times.
Not a highway, but a local 2-lane county road...Shades Crest Road (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jefferson+County,+AL/@33.2935552,-86.9574208,13.69z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x8888de0150477323:0x98d56e0a4b32468c!8m2!3d33.4914122!4d-86.9824288!16zL20vMGtjcmQ?entry=ttu) between Jefferson and Shelby Counties near Birmingham swaps over both counties 18 times.