Worst Endings to a Highway

[Henry]

Seeing that a lot of highway cancellations have taken place over the years, especially in major metropolitan areas, I have decided to start a thread about the worst highway ends ever.

Two things come to mind here: I-70 in Baltimore and the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco. The former is mentioned because it stops just short of cutting through a city park that the environmentalists worked very hard to save, and the latter because it was really a spur route (i.e. not connecting back to I-80) that threatened to destroy the once-pristine waterfront; nevermind it was a double-decker freeway that was prone to earthquakes like the one that shook the Bay Area back in 1989.

What are your nominations for this category?

[cpzilliacus]

Two things come to mind here: I-70 in Baltimore and the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco. The former is mentioned because it stops just short of cutting through a city park that the environmentalists worked very hard to save

That would be Leakin Park, on the west edge of Baltimore City.

I don't know the plans for I-70 well enough to know what the planned impacts on the park were, but I do assert that it is possible to build a large freeway through a park and not destroy the park.  It has been done elsewhere in Maryland, in particular in spite of intense NIMBYist opposition in the 1950's and early 1960's, I-495 (Capital Beltway) was built in the North  Chevy Chase area of Montgomery County alongside Rock Creek Park (roughly between the present-day Mormon Temple site, west of Md. 97 (Georgia Avenue, Exit 31) and Pooks Hill (Md. 355 and I-270, Exits 34 and 35, respectively).  The Beltway was constructed to roughly run parallel to bed of the Rock Creek stream itself (hence the many curves in this segment of the road).  To this day, the park is used by many people, and the small parkway that runs roughly parallel to the stream (Beach Drive) remains as well.

In the same county, and about 40 years after the Beltway was built, Md. 200 (InterCounty Connector) was constructed using much more advanced construction methods north of this section of the Capital Beltway.  It crosses many stream valley parks (including Rock Creek and a few of its tributaries).  In spite of even more frantic and coordinated and well-funded opposition, this road has (in my opinion) even less impact on the parks than the Beltway did.

Getting back to Leakin Park and I-70, the park is apparently enjoyed by many Baltimore City  residents, but the lack of the freeway through West Baltimore has encouraged the descent into urban chaos of that part of the city (you can read Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (and the fictional TV series) and The Corner, and watch The Wire for many glimpses of West Baltimore).  Additionally, in his Homicide book, author David Simon mentions that Leakin Park was a favored place for the dumping of Baltimore's many murder victims.  See  The Bodies of Leakin Park - Baltimore, MD page for details.

I don't know that the city would be better with I-70, but I don't think it would have been worse.

As an aside, the leaders of Baltimore City now want Maryland state and federal taxpayers (but not city taxpayers) to fund a multi-billion-dollar light rail line that would (roughly) run parallel (in sections) where I-70 would have run.

Edit:  Added reference to David Simon's discussion of Leakin Park as a place for "unauthorized interments" (I think those were his words) of Baltimore City murder victims.

Edit II:  Added link to The Bodies of Leakin Park.

[Perfxion]

US7 in Norwalk, CT. Its a freeway that ends at a stone wall. You have a light for a cross street, but you end up with a large cliff in front of you on Gist Mills. Saddest part is the land is owned by the state and the right of way is there to extend the highway.

[NE2]

Getting back to Leakin Park and I-70, the park is apparently enjoyed by many Baltimore City  residents, but the lack of the freeway through West Baltimore has encouraged the descent into urban chaos of that part of the city (you can read Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (and the fictional TV series) and The Corner, and watch The Wire for many glimpses of West Baltimore). 

Bullshit. If you haven't read "The Big Roads", you should. It has a whole section about this freeway. (The neighborhood was probably already going downhill, though I don't remember the details. Certainly ramming I-70 through would not have improved it.)

[kj3400]

If they were so worried, they could have tunneled it.

Does former I-170 count, since the horrible end it had got demolished?

[Henry]

Does former I-170 count, since the horrible end it had got demolished?

Sure, you can count that one in too, especially given its unlucky history (first to be part of I-70 itself, then I-170, and finally I-595, but eventually US 40, as it was left unconnected to the Interstate Highway System).

[NE2]

The Ridge Route. The fuckin' thing was closed in 2005.

[OCGuy81]

Majority of the freeways in Portland, OR.  While some of the earlier plans were overzealous, some, like the Mt. Hood Freeway, seemed like it would've helped, especially given the fact that moving east to west in Portland gives you only one freeway option.  84.

Portland is kind of NIMBY Gone Wild.

[amroad17]

I can think of two in the Syracuse area. 

   1.  The abrupt ends of the Camillus (NY 5) bypass in Fairmount and west of Camillus.  This was a part of a much grander plan--having a freeway from east of Auburn to the I-81/481 interchange south of Syracuse.  However, due to community opposition and lack of funds, only the Camillus bypass was finished.  If this was completed, much of the traffic on two-lane NY 5 in western Onondaga County would have had a lot less traffic.  It would have also alleviated the traffic through Solvay, western Syracuse, and Nedrow.

   2.  The end of I-690 at I-481 near East Syracuse.  Ghost ramps indicated that this freeway was supposed to go further, either back to the Thruway somewhere between the I-481 exit and the Canastota exit or to Chittenango at NY 5.  If the part to Chittenango was completed, traffic through Fayetteville would have been alleviated.  Again, due to opposition, this part was never completed.  I believe the Thruway Authority had something to do with not extending I-690 back to the Thruway ($$$).

[mukade]

Indiana has a number of very weird endings. Among them are SR 450 which multiplexes US 50 into Bedford then abruptly ends while US 50 continues, SR 61 which ends at the Vincennes city limits instead of at another highway, and SR 332 which ends at a local cross road in Muncie while the road continues through a major business area. Other weird endings exist on SR 55 (N), SR 933 (S), SR 11 (S), and SR 166 (S). The latter two are minor roads that dead end at the Ohio River. The former two end at local roads. There are plenty of others that make little sense.

Illinois 111 (S) near E. St. Louis was probably the most confusing ending I have ever seen - ending at a minor cross street. Maybe that has changed.

[Revive 755]

I would debate that the death of a highway is rarely a good thing, but the following are the ones that stand out to me:

* The south extension of I-170 in Missouri - killed by a weak-willed county government, MPO, and NIMBYs.  Yet two of the cities along the section between US 40 and I-44 bought out a lot of their residents in areas near the proposed corridor and had shopping centers built.

* The Route MM semi-expressway between MO 21 and MO 30 in Jefferson County - died a silent death because the municipalities in the area could not agree on where to put the corridor (seriously, what's the point of having state DOTs if they have to always bow before every stinking little town?  MoDOT should have picked a corridor that was either the best or liked by most of the towns, and then tried to work with the other towns as much as possible).  Aerial of the corridor:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=otto,+mo&hl=en&ll=38.396837,-90.531549&spn=0.056841,0.132093&sll=38.62107,-90.20726&sspn=0.007083,0.016512&t=k&hnear=Otto,+Imperial,+Jefferson,+Missouri&z=14

* I-355 extension south of I-80 - this is kind of based on hearsay/rumors (so if someone has more info please correct me) but supposedly New Lenox had been keeping a corridor available, but the local school district(s) pressured them into letting it get developed.

[amroad17]

In the Cincinnati area, the Cross County (Reagan) Highway.  It currently ends in Montgomery at US 22 in a trumpet interchange.  Plans had the highway going through Indian Hill to meet up with I-275 somewhere in the vicinity of mm 55 or 56.  However, the residents of Indian Hill successfully blocked any attempts for the highway to go any further. 

I don't know if getting this built would have been an advantage.  It might have lessened traffic on I-275 around the north side of Cincinnati, but the way Cross County is built now from I-71 to I-75, the highway probably would not be able to handle the increased traffic it would get.
Post Merge: September 26, 2012, 01:28:52 PM
Another one in the Syracuse area--the north end of John Glenn Blvd.  It really should be extended to NY 481 instead of ending at Buckley Road (and not Morgan Road as Rand McNally shows--that part is partly graded but not done).

[xonhulu]

Majority of the freeways in Portland, OR.  While some of the earlier plans were overzealous, some, like the Mt. Hood Freeway, seemed like it would've helped, especially given the fact that moving east to west in Portland gives you only one freeway option.  84.

Portland is kind of NIMBY Gone Wild.

That's funny; I was just railing about the lameness of the Portland Anti-Freeway crowd only a couple hours ago.

I don't know that I share your feelings about the Mt. Hood Freeway.  It would've been very close to the already-existing Banfield Freeway.  They should've planned it further south; it would've been more useful and possibly wouldn't have encountered as much opposition.

While it never was as close to reality as the Mt Hood, the Portland-area freeway I would've liked to see would have been the West Side Bypass.  Had they built it back when it was first floated as an idea, land acquisition would've been fairly easy.  Now that the area is built-up, there'd be no chance of it now.

[adt1982]

Indiana has a number of very weird endings. Among them are SR 450 which multiplexes US 50 into Bedford then abruptly ends while US 50 continues, SR 61 which ends at the Vincennes city limits instead of at another highway, and SR 332 which ends at a local cross road in Muncie while the road continues through a major business area. Other weird endings exist on SR 55 (N), SR 933 (S), SR 11 (S), and SR 166 (S). The latter two are minor roads that dead end at the Ohio River. The former two end at local roads. There are plenty of others that make little sense.

Illinois 111 (S) near E. St. Louis was probably the most confusing ending I have ever seen - ending at a minor cross street. Maybe that has changed.

Yeah, I'm not sure why 111 has never been extended the half mile or so down to I-255.

[sp_redelectric]

Majority of the freeways in Portland, OR.

What, you have a problem with U.S. 26 and I-84 having pathetically designed interchanges at their ends that cause massive gridlock even in the wee hours of the night because you're forced to be in a certain place, at a certain time, with less than adequate direction or signage?

I've lived in Oregon most all my life and I do my darnedest to avoid either interchange.  We can't spend any money to fix decades old highway problems, but we can build a snazzy new U-shaped Streetcar line that really goes nowhere, and is all but designed to convert what was supposed to be an "industrial sanctuary" into yet another gentrified row of wine bars, coffee shops and art studios.  Like we need any more of those in Portland.

About the ONLY freeway end that makes sense is I-405 northbound on the Fremont Bridge leading to I-5.  Traffic coming off of U.S. 30 (Yeon Avenue) and wanting to stay on U.S. 30 (I-5 south to I-84) don't have to make a lane change, provided they are in the left lane on the ramp to I-405.  Center two lanes head to I-5 northbound.  Right lane gives you good access into N.E.

Southbound I-405 is almost as good, except for the piss-poor high number of on-ramps preceding it, the left merge coming off of Naito Parkway, and then the I-5 squeeze where I-5 mainline (which comes in to the right of I-405) is all but whittled down into one lane to merge with I-405.  And that annoying 45 MPH curve that you actually do have to slow down to 45 for.

217...don't get me started.

[mcdonaat]

LA 1263 in St. Francisville, a lack of reflective signing means that if you don't see the signs, your car is going into the Mississippi River. Jersey barriers would work well.

[NE2]

Guys, I think he meant 'ending' in a temporal sense, not a spatial sense.

[cpzilliacus]

Majority of the freeways in Portland, OR.  While some of the earlier plans were overzealous, some, like the Mt. Hood Freeway, seemed like it would've helped, especially given the fact that moving east to west in Portland gives you only one freeway option.  84.

Portland is kind of NIMBY Gone Wild.

That's funny; I was just railing about the lameness of the Portland Anti-Freeway crowd only a couple hours ago.

I don't know that I share your feelings about the Mt. Hood Freeway.  It would've been very close to the already-existing Banfield Freeway.  They should've planned it further south; it would've been more useful and possibly wouldn't have encountered as much opposition.

While it never was as close to reality as the Mt Hood, the Portland-area freeway I would've liked to see would have been the West Side Bypass.  Had they built it back when it was first floated as an idea, land acquisition would've been fairly easy.  Now that the area is built-up, there'd be no chance of it now.

I know that planning groupies (and members of the "anti-auto vanguard" from around the United States) worship Portland (and Portland Metro, the regional planning agency and regional government) as some sort of Heaven-on-earth because of the huge sums of local, state and federal tax dollars that have been spent on light rail and residential densification (including this disaster along a light rail line in Beaverton) - and that includes the cancellation of a fair number of centerline miles of freeway.

[Stephane Dumas]

Here the current ending of PQ-138 at Nathasquan

This abrupt ending will be a future historic one once PQ-138 will be extented easternly to Vieux-Fort.

[cpzilliacus]

This abrupt ending will be a future historic one once PQ-138 will be extented easternly to Vieux-Fort.

Will PQ 138 ever make it all the way to Blanc-Sablon?

[US71]

The Kansas Turnpike used to dead-end into a farmer's field at the OK State Line.

[SP Cook]

The Coalfields Expressway, AKA future US 121, currently signed as WV 121, ends at what will be at at grade intersection with a one lane county road in the middle of Deliverance country with not even a sign directing you how to find the main road.

NC 12 does not really end at the end of the paved section just north of Corolla, but actually continues as a 4-wheel drive only on the beach to the VA line.  All there is there is a standard "Welcome to Virginia" sign and a "unauthorized vehicles prohibited" on posts that block you from going any further (the part in Virginia is a not open to the public).

[xonhulu]

Guys, I think he meant 'ending' in a temporal sense, not a spatial sense.

I don't think they heard you. 

Everyone, go back and read the OP: it's referring to highway cancellations, removals and redesignations, not the literal ends of highways!

[Stephane Dumas]

Will PQ 138 ever make it all the way to Blanc-Sablon?

I hope so, currently we can go to Blanc-Sablon by car by taking a very long detour via PQ-389 to Fermont and Labrador City, then the Trans-Labrador highway down to Goose Bay and Blanc-Sablon.

[NE2]

Everyone, go back and read the OP: it's referring to highway cancellations, removals and redesignations, not the literal ends of highways!

To be fair, Henry's post was clear as poo.