State Route Oddities

[PHLBOS]

As a result of 1989 routing of US 1 onto I-93 and I-95 from Boston south to Dedham; MA 109 and MA 203 presently just 'end' at unnumbered roads.  MA 1A does that as well but its close proximity to US 1 and I-95 (at Exit 15A-B) interchange overshadows its 'nowhere' terminus.

I believe MA 1A ends at US 1 - it actually turns east to do so, although signage uses "TO". I am willing to be wrong.

The TO 1A listings on the EXIT 15A signs (I'm assuming you're referring to those) actually are a carry-over (since the older signs from the early 70s have long since been replaced) from back when the exit originally read EXIT 15A NORTH 1 TO 1A Dedham.  I guess the DPW didn't want to confuse motorists further by having two cloverleaf ramp exits listed as Southbound; 15A for 1A South, 15B for 1 South.

Where 1A turns east (Elm St. BTW) and ends at the Providence Highway was US 1 pre-1989.  Today, there's probably a TO US 1 trailblazer assembly with a right-arrow (pointing southbound) at the intersection... at least there was when I was last there 20 years ago.  The old green directional signs that were there at the time, had all the NORTH & SOUTH 1 messages greened out.

Bottom line: 1A essentially ends at the unnumbered section of the Providence Highway just noth of the I-95/US 1 interchange.

Another Boston area (this one's actually IN Boston) state route oddity: the southern terminus of MA 99.  On most maps, MA 99 is labeled as far south as and including the Charlestown Bridge (N. Washington St.) and essentially ending at the intersection of Causeway St./Commercial St./Joe Teche Way.  However, if one were to actually drive that route; there's no signs past the Austin St./Gilmore Bridge interchange indicating that Rutherford Ave. south of that point is still MA 99.

Northbound isn't any better.  The first MA 99 signs don't start appearing until the same Austin St./Gilmore Bridge interchange.  It's almost as if 99 south of Gilmore was an afterthought.  If Boston doesn't want the Charlestown Bridge or any road downtown for that matter to have a route number, just re-route MA 99 onto the Gilmore Bridge where it can terminate either on MA 28 (Mnsr. O'Brien Highway) or US/MA 3 near the Longfellow Bridge via Edwin Land Blvd (this was once part of Memorial Drive).

[Alps]

You're right, about both 1A and 99. I don't know what I was smoking to forget US 1 no longer exists there

[PurdueBill]

Back in August 2010 on a trip out that way I noticed on Washington St. southbound approaching the circle where it meets VFW Parkway (whether it's legally called that or not, it becomes that shortly north of there) and they were doing a lot of heavy work on that stretch of Washington Street.  What do you know....they had put up a shiny, new, large "JCT 1" sign!



US 1 hasn't gone that way in a long time, as discussed above. 

Interestingly, Google street view of that location dates to 2007 and doesn't show a similar old sign.  Maybe a JCT assembly was on the books for that location and had long ago either been knocked down or removed, only to surface in the records and be included in the plans for the new stuff?

[PHLBOS]

Back in August 2010 on a trip out that way I noticed on Washington St. southbound approaching the circle where it meets VFW Parkway (whether it's legally called that or not, it becomes that shortly north of there) and they were doing a lot of heavy work on that stretch of Washington Street.  What do you know....they had put up a shiny, new, large "JCT 1" sign!



US 1 hasn't gone that way in a long time, as discussed above. 

Interestingly, Google street view of that location dates to 2007 and doesn't show a similar old sign.  Maybe a JCT assembly was on the books for that location and had long ago either been knocked down or removed, only to surface in the records and be included in the plans for the new stuff?

That pic could be a candidate for the Erroneous Road Signs thread.

I, for one, would wish MassDOT would just put US 1 back to its pre-1989 alignment.  If possible truck traffic along the Jamaicaway, the Fens or Storrow Drive was the real issue behind the re-routing of US 1, they could've just designated the current US 1 along I-95 & I-93 as TRUCK US 1 or BYPASS US 1 and left the old US 1 designation remain as it was.  AASHTO be darned.

Rant over.

[ftballfan]

M-3 ends where M-29 begins and vice versa in Chesterfield Township, northeast of Detroit.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Sorry if it's been mentioned here already, but CA-65 and CA-84 have two different segments that are separate from each other. The CA-65 gap is much larger, as the north section is in Sacramento while the southern section is in Bakersfield. CA-84 is just between Livermore and Sacramento.

[national highway 1]

Sorry if it's been mentioned here already, but CA-65 and CA-84 have two different segments that are separate from each other.

CA-84 is just between Livermore and Sacramento.

I believe Vasco Road is the locally-maintained connection between the two sections of the latter route, CA 84.
A few other routes that I can recall being in two segmented pieces:
120
162
168
169
178
180
190

[pianocello]

M-54 and M-83 both end in a 2-mile wrong-way concurrency to connect to I-75 at Birch Run. They could be easily consolidated. IIRC, IL-48 and IL-127 do the same thing south of Springfield.

[ftballfan]

M-54 and M-83 both end in a 2-mile wrong-way concurrency to connect to I-75 at Birch Run. They could be easily consolidated. IIRC, IL-48 and IL-127 do the same thing south of Springfield.

Or have M-54 run up the old Dixie Highway to Exit 144, with M-83 continuing south along current M-54 to the Dixie Highway. Then assign a three-digit number between M-83 and I-75.

[myosh_tino]

I believe Vasco Road is the locally-maintained connection between the two sections of the latter route, CA 84.

Vasco Road is *not* part of CA-84.  CA-84 is officially unconstructed between I-580 and CA-4 although there is a legislative definition for it.

A few other routes that I can recall being in two segmented pieces:
180

Not sure how CA-180 is segmented. The signed portion of 180 is continuous from CA-33 to Kings Canyon Nat'l Park.  There is a legislative definition for a western segment between CA-33 and CA-25  but the entire route is unconstructed and therefore unsigned.

[DandyDan]

I don't think anyone mentioned Nebraska, but Highways 2, 27, 57, 59, 62, 64, 66, 103,  and 121 all come in at least 2 segments.  There's also the fact that Nebraska has spur and link roads which are numbered in the form L-xy or S-xy and not just given a number like every other state does.  They also have 4 gravel roads on the highway system, NE 18 west of US 283, NE 65 south of NE 8, NE 67 between NE 2 and US 34, and, bizarrely enough, S-67C, which goes west of NE 65 to nowhere in particular.

Iowa has Iowa Highway 165, which is in Carter Lake, which is not only separated from the rest of the Iowa highway system, but is separated from every other street in Carter Lake, as it only connects to Abbott Drive in Omaha, the main road from downtown Omaha to Eppley Airfield.

[pj3970]

Not necessarily the same, but Missouri has had 2 Highway 88's:

The original ran from the AR-MO State Line to Lanagan (now Business US 71, Jesse James Rd in Pineville, and Route EE)

A later segment ran along Scenic Ave (and I think part of Chestnut Expressway) in Springfield.

To expand on the second incarnation of MO 88 in Springfield, it ran up Scenic Ave. from Sunshine to Chestnut Exp., then ran down Chestnut to Kansas Exp., then turned north on Kansas Exp. to Division St., then turned east on Division to Commercial St., then went down Commercial St. to end at Glenstone Ave. Hope that helps with the second MO 88 routing a little better

[Scott5114]

I always found it ironic that Scenic Avenue was one of the least scenic streets in Springfield.

[StretchLongfellow]

I don't think anyone mentioned Nebraska, but Highways 2, 27, 57, 59, 62, 64, 66, 103,  and 121 all come in at least 2 segments.  There's also the fact that Nebraska has spur and link roads which are numbered in the form L-xy or S-xy and not just given a number like every other state does.  They also have 4 gravel roads on the highway system, NE 18 west of US 283, NE 65 south of NE 8, NE 67 between NE 2 and US 34, and, bizarrely enough, S-67C, which goes west of NE 65 to nowhere in particular.

I had been wondering about Spur 67C myself for years.  Turns out that it was the original planned route of Nebraska 3S (now Nebraska 8).  This map shows the Nebraska highway system as planned in 1955, but was never completed: http://www.transportation.nebraska.gov/maps/historical/pdf/st_hwy55-hi-res.pdf  What I don't understand is why this hasn't been decommissioned yet, especially as it somehow survived the renumbering process of 1971 (it was originally Nebraska 165).

[hotdogPi]

NH 84, 85, 87, and 88 are all in Rockingham County only.

MA 99 is the only route in Melrose, even though bordering towns have many more routes.

[Buck87]

When it comes to routes that don't end at other routes, Ohio has several. A few I can think of...

(In most of these cases, the state route designation ends, but the road itself continues as a local road)

OH 53 N ends at the entrance to the Miller Ferry at Catawba Point
OH 269 N ends at East Harbor State Park
OH 163 E ends southwest of Marblehead, after wrapping around the Marblehead peninsula and having a couple miles of wrong way alignment 
OH 231 S ends on the streets of Morral, OH
OH 293 N ends on the streets of Wharton, OH
OH 728 (which I think should be part of OH 348) is a spur that ends at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville
OH 372 is a spur that ends at the Scioto Trail State Forest

And there are at least 2 routes completely discontiguous from the rest of Ohio's state route system:

OH 357 - entirely on South Bass Island
OH 575 - entirely on Kelleys Island

[KEVIN_224]

Besides a chunk of the Berlin Turnpike (US 5/CT 15) and CT 287, Newington, CT has state routes 173 (mostly Willard Avenue), 174, 175 (Cedar Street) and 176 in it.

http://goo.gl/maps/cW1eR

[dgolub]

In New York, there are two different routes designated NY 24, one of which is east/west and the other north/south.  NY 878 has a gap in it, and one of the two section is a floating segment not connecting to any other state or interstate route.  NY 27A is also applied to two different routes, although one of them is unsigned.

New York has an unsigned interstate, I-478.  Also, there are both NY 2 and US 2 in the same state.

[vtk]

When it comes to routes that don't end at other routes, Ohio has several. A few I can think of...

(In most of these cases, the state route designation ends, but the road itself continues as a local road)

Also the spur to John Bryan State Park (whose number I forget) and the former state highway from Lancaster to the women's prison (793, I think it was).

[hotdogPi]

State routes that don't end at another route or a state border:

MA 150
MA 203
MA 228

State routes that end at each other:

MA 114 and MA 129
MA 111 and MA 119
Almost NH 84 and NH 88

[vdeane]

In New York, there are two different routes designated NY 24, one of which is east/west and the other north/south.  NY 878 has a gap in it, and one of the two section is a floating segment not connecting to any other state or interstate route.  NY 27A is also applied to two different routes, although one of them is unsigned.

New York has an unsigned interstate, I-478.

Also I-878, which is entirely multiplexed with NY 878 east between I-678 and the JFK expressway.

Also, there are both NY 2 and US 2 in the same state.

Also:
-US 15/NY 15 (NY 15 being former US 15 in this case)
-US 220/NY 220 (another short case of duplication like US 2)

[hotdogPi]

Also, there are both NY 2 and US 2 in the same state.

US 4 and NH 4 both exist in New Hampshire - and they are very close to each other!



Additionally, NH 111A exists 3 times.

[bing101]

California has plenty of examples of this.  CA-84 is in several segments, making it next to useless for navigational purposes between the Dumbarton Bridge and Sacramento (then again, if you're taking that, instead of 680 to 80, to Sacramento, you're clearly looking for adventure).

CA-173 is the only dirt road segment in the system, and it is appallingly bad, even by dirt-road standards.

CA-65 is another one, CA-90 are California highways with gaps.

[SD Mapman]

We here in SD have only 3 routes with gaps that I can think of, being SD 20, SD 25, and SD 271 (Okay, discounting the 1804/1806 madness). SD 271 is odd in that the non-state-highway part is only about 10 miles long, paved, and connects the two segments.

[Thing 342]

In VA, the longest designated state route (VA-48, about 320 mi) isn't an actual road. It's the ROW (but not the road itself) for the Blue Ridge Pkwy and Skyline Drive.