Most relocations of a stretch of highway

[bugo]

What stretch of highway has been bypassed the most times? There are many places where there is "highway X" and "old highway X". "Old old highway X"s are rare. Are there any old old old highway Xs?

[dfilpus]

US 70 in the Smithfield-Selma area of North Carolina has four parallel routes: US 70, US 70 Bypass, US 70 Business and US 70 Alternate. All have been signed mainline US 70 at some time in their history.

[pianocello]

I think US-12 in Michigan also has four parallel routes in the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek area: Current US-12 (which is actually 30 miles south of Kalamazoo, used to be US-112), and three different alignments between the two cities. If I'm not mistaken, US-12 has used current I-94, M-96, and Michigan Avenue between the two cities at some point.

[mgk920]

There are reroutes and 'old' roads of US 41 (and predecessor WI 15) all over the place from about Oshkosh through the Green Bay, WI area.  There are several reroutes between Green Bay and Marinette, too.

Mike

[kkt]

Are you talking about temporary reroutes?  CA 1 around Devil's Slide.

[roadman65]

Pennsylvania has had many reroutes of reroutes.  PA 309 in Wilkes Barre for one, and US 222 in Reading has had a bypass built of a bypass though not intended as one being  the first reroute was only temporary.

[1995hoo]

What stretch of highway has been bypassed the most times? There are many places where there is "highway X" and "old highway X". "Old old highway X"s are rare. Are there any old old old highway Xs?

Does "bypassed" include "reconfigured"? I can think of a spot near Tysons Corner where Gallows Road was re-routed and the old road became "Old Gallows Road." Then a new road opened to connect Gallows more directly to the shopping mall across Route 7 and it was deemed more important than Old Gallows, so Old Gallows was truncated a short distance and replaced with "Gallows Branch Road" (a name that lends itself to some unfortunate gruesome historic imagery if one considers the sort of hanging that would occur from a "branch").

I can think of a place along Ox Road (Virginia State Route 123) where the widening project resulted in a re-routing and, because there was already an Old Ox Road somewhere else, the orphaned segment was named "Little Ox Road" (even though it's a longer road than Old Ox Road is).

US Route 29 near Lynchburg, Virginia, was bypassed many years ago and the old road became the business route. Then the bypass was itself bypassed around 2005; the old bypass became the new business route, the new bypass got the main number, and the old business road was given a state route number.

[texaskdog]

What stretch of highway has been bypassed the most times? There are many places where there is "highway X" and "old highway X". "Old old highway X"s are rare. Are there any old old old highway Xs?

I know it's just a road but the "Old Old Ore Road" in Big Bend always makes me laugh.

[roadman65]

What about Williston, NC with US 13 & 17?  Both US 13 & US 17 were bypassed with an arterial around the east side of town.  Then later when the US 64 freeway was extended east of US 17, then US 13 and US 17 were both moved onto it.

Then we cannot forget about Kokomo, IN.  US 31 was originally Washington Street, later bypassed by Reed Road, and since last year it is now on a new freeway way east of Downtown Kokomo.

[hbelkins]

There are probably some individual short segments in Kentucky that may be fourth-generation alignments, but off the top of my head I can think of two major routes that are on their third alignments.

US 23 between Prestonsburg and Paintsville. It originally ran on an alignment close to where it is now on the west side of the (mumble) Fork of the Big Sandy River, but was relocated in the 1960s to what is now KY 321 (on the east side of said river). Now the four-lane route is again west of the river, with parts of it overlaid on the old route.

KY 90 crossing Otter Creek in Wayne County is also on its third alignment. Before the current route was built, the first old bridge could be seen from the second old bridge. Now the first bridge is closed off but traffic still uses the second bridge.

[sdmichael]

Burbank, CA has had three highway alignments. 1928-1950 - San Fernando Blvd, 1950-1958 - Front St/Providencia St (first bypass), 1958-Present - US 99/I-5 bypass (current alignment).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

US 169 in the Twin Cities has been realigned a bunch of times:

1. Originally went SW-NE into downtown Minneapolis
2. Was relocated onto a duplex with MN 100
3. Was moved out of downtown Minneapolis, then followed current Hennepin County 81 to Anoka
4. Moved onto its current freeway alignment replacing Hennepin County Road 18

This doesn't include all the southwest metro realignments, just the activity within the beltway.

[cpzilliacus]

Pennsylvania has had many reroutes of reroutes.  PA 309 in Wilkes Barre for one, and US 222 in Reading has had a bypass built of a bypass though not intended as one being  the first reroute was only temporary.

The East-West Mainline of the Pennsylvania Turnpike has been re-routed in several places, including (but not limited to) the tunnels that were abandoned.

Even though the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel has not been abandoned, the Turnpike immediately to the east of the tunnel has been re-routed at least twice.

First, the eastbound (descending) side of the Turnpike was re-routed onto an entirely new alignment, but the westbound (climbing) side stayed on the old routing, using some of the eastbound side to provide a climbing lane to reach the tunnel portal.

Then the westbound side was re-routed onto its a new alignment relatively close to the eastbound lanes, and the old Turnpike was entirely abandoned in this area. Some of it is visble from the westbound lanes of the Turnpike, and on satellite view.

[theline]

Then we cannot forget about Kokomo, IN.  US 31 was originally Washington Street, later bypassed by Reed Road, and since last year it is now on a new freeway way east of Downtown Kokomo.

Indiana has many such situations, with its tendency to construct non-access-controlled bypasses. Coming immediately to mind is US 30 in Ft. Wayne, which once ran through downtown, before relocation to Coliseum Blvd, and finally to I-69 and 469. Also, US 35 in Muncie once ran out Wheeling Ave. and Wheeling Pike, was switched to Broadway for many years, and then finally to the Muncie Bypass. I'll post again when I think of more.

[tdindy88]

When I think of Indiana, Bloomington came to mind with SR 37. There's a stretch of road to the northeast of town called Old State Road 37 which tracked its own route most of the way up to Martinsville. Then there's Walnut Street, sometimes refereed to as Business SR 37 (on maps I mean, most people just know it as Walnut,) and that forms the former routing of SR 37 prior to the modern day expressway bypass (soon to be I-69) now built to the west of the town. North of SR 45/46 are these three routes most visible.

[TheStranger]

Burbank, CA has had three highway alignments. 1928-1950 - San Fernando Blvd, 1950-1958 - Front St/Providencia St (first bypass), 1958-Present - US 99/I-5 bypass (current alignment).

Did the Front Street route also include Leland Way?

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Some other California ones I can think of:

US 101 from Daly City to San Francisco's Civic Center:

1926-1932: Mission Street, Valencia Street, Market Street to Van Ness
1932-1933: route became US 101W
1933-1936: San Jose Avenue, Alemany Boulevard, Bayshore Boulevard north of Alemany, Potrero Avenue, 10th Street, Fell Street to Van Ness
1936-1938: San Jose Avenue route became US 101
1938-1940: All of Bayshore Boulevard assigned to US 101 while the San Jose/Alemany routing became Alternate US 101
1940-1954: San Jose Avenue route reverts to US 101, Bayshore Boulevard route south of Alemany given Bypass US 101 designation
ca. 1954-1964: US 101 moved onto the Southern Freeway between San Jose Avenue and the Alemany Maze; Bypass US 101 assigned to the Bayshore Freeway south of the Maze.  US 101 then continues north on the Bayshore Freeway before hopping onto the newly-built Central Freeway at the edge of the South of Market district, connecting to Van Ness Avenue via Golden Gate and Turk.
1964-1989: Bypass US 101 designation removed, mainline US 101 moved onto there (and Route 82 designated for the old Southern Freeway routing, later becoming I-280 in 1968).
1989-present: due to earthquake damage, Central Freeway north of Fell Street closed permanently; US 101 now leaves that freeway at the exit for Mission Street/Duboce Avenue/South Van Ness Avenue.  (The stretch of Van Ness from Market north to Fell is restored to 101's routing for the first time since 1933, while the stretch from Fell to Turk was readded after approximately 34 years.)


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US 101 (including US 101W) in South San Francisco

1926-mid 1930s: El Camino Real, modern-day Mission Road & Antoinette Lane (to Chestnut Avenue), El Camino Real
1938-1940: Bayshore Highway (now Airport Boulevard/South Airport Boulevard, and likely a portion of Produce Avenue that has been repurposed as ramps to the Bayshore Freeway), with the El Camino/Mission routing becoming Alternate US 101
1940-1964: El Camino Real
1964-present: Bayshore Freeway

[froggie]

This doesn't include all the southwest metro realignments, just the activity within the beltway.

Of which there have only been two....one of those confined to the immediate vicinity around today's Eden Prairie Mall.  In the spirit of the OP's post, I wouldn't count the brief realignment onto I-494, nor would I count the MN 100 or CSAH 81 realignments as neither of those were purpose-built as a 169 bypass.

[sdmichael]

Burbank, CA has had three highway alignments. 1928-1950 - San Fernando Blvd, 1950-1958 - Front St/Providencia St (first bypass), 1958-Present - US 99/I-5 bypass (current alignment).

Did the Front Street route also include Leland Way?

No. Leland Way was not a part of the alignment, it was adjacent to it.

[yakra]

Bath, ME: Do three dimensions count? One plane intersects Centre St (original 1926 US1), Court St (1938), the surface-level Leeman Hwy (1947), and the Bath Viaduct (1959). (The freeway west of the city is newer (1968) but only has two parallel old alignments.)

US Route 29 near Lynchburg, Virginia, was bypassed many years ago and the old road became the business route. Then the bypass was itself bypassed around 2005; the old bypass became the new business route, the new bypass got the main number, and the old business road was given a state route number.

Same thing happened with US380 in Floyd, TX a few years back. Only, the old old route is a county, not state, road, and there's no neato-keen freeway business route, just short surface roads.

US 23 between Prestonsburg and Paintsville. It originally ran on an alignment close to where it is now on the west side of the (mumble) Fork of the Big Sandy River, but was relocated in the 1960s to what is now KY 321 (on the east side of said river). Now the four-lane route is again west of the river, with parts of it overlaid on the old route.

NB8 between Marysville and Nashwaak Bridge. Originally on River Rd & NB628 on the east side of the Nashwaak River, relocated (in the 1940s?) to Canada St & NB148 on the west side. Now bypassed by a new limited-access (Super-2?) route to the east of the original.

Or, there's TCH2 in the Saint John River Valley. The north-south bits in particular. It's all on a four-lane divided freeway now, but several of the parallel NB1xx routes in the area were at least partially TCH2 at one time.
I don't know the exact history, of (how much of) what was TCH2 when, or whether / how many times it flipped & flopped to opposite sides of the river, but there are at least a few places with three parallel alignments. NB2, NB590, NB103; NB2, NB105, NB130...
A few roads used to transition a bypass onto the former routing, before becoming obsolete when the freeway was extended further: Blvd Acadie in Edmundston; (Iroquis Way? I can't confirm); Abandoned road/driveway near Maillet St, itself the original TCH; Laplante Way in Saint Leonard; a bit of Ouellette St in Grand Falls; F. Tribe Rd in Perth-Andover; Sigahaw Cove Rd south of Woodstock...
Wikipedia contradicts itself on whether TCH2 originally crossed from the west side of the Saint John River to the East at Perth-Andover or Florenceville. Perth-Andover looks more probable to me. If so, there's potentially four parallel alignments there, depending on whether TCH2 was moved directly from NB105 to F. Tribe Dr, or onto the parallel bit of NB130 in the interim.

[texaskdog]

US 169 in the Twin Cities has been realigned a bunch of times:

1. Originally went SW-NE into downtown Minneapolis
2. Was relocated onto a duplex with MN 100
3. Was moved out of downtown Minneapolis, then followed current Hennepin County 81 to Anoka
4. Moved onto its current freeway alignment replacing Hennepin County Road 18

This doesn't include all the southwest metro realignments, just the activity within the beltway.

Don't forget MN 121

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MN_121

It times it was on completely different routes than it's orginal route, all in the same area

[cl94]

US 20 has had a bunch in Western New York. Both current US 20 and US 20A (US 20 until the ~30s) have a bunch of realignments, though I don't know what was changed when.

I think US 22 east of Pittsburgh has some locations with 2+ realignments. We talked about this in one of my highway design classes. Given the amount of dashcam videos he has shown us (including a couple of the US 22 alignments), I'm convinced my professor is a closet roadgeek.

[NE2]

A number of towns along US 66 in Illinois were bypassed thrice. For example, Lexington:
I don't know what the original route was; it's possible that the first state-maintained route was the first bypass. The 1918 Blue Book directs drivers into town from the southwest on CR 2375E, then on West-Main-Chatham-Orange.
The first bypass was on Grove and Wall. It's still there except for the sweeping curve between the two streets.
The second bypass is the obvious old US 66.
The third bypass is I-55.

[Pete from Boston]

The Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania has some twice-superseded parts, and using the logic here, the Pennsylvania Turnpike that follows it closely can be considered a third new alignment.  Pretty incredible when you look at some of the two-cars-can-barely-pass segments that carried long distance traffic now handled by the Turnpike.

[hbelkins]

Almost forgot. There's a stretch of US 27 north of Somerset that's on its third alignment. Original route of US 27 from Somerset all the way up to Stanford is KY 1247, unsigned in a few places. When 27 was four-laned immediately north of Somerset, the second-generation segment was signed KY 2227.

[GCrites]

Bath, ME: Do three dimensions count? One plane intersects Centre St (original 1926 US1), Court St (1938), the surface-level Leeman Hwy (1947), and the Bath Viaduct (1959). (The freeway west of the city is newer (1968) but only has two parallel old alignments.)

I think it should. The definition of "alignment" includes both the horizontal and vertical planes.