Routs That Backtrack

[plain]

US 258
VA 156
VA 165

[dlsterner]

Maybe not exactly a "backtrack", but there's always US 321 between Tennessee and South Carolina.  At both starting points (at either end) it is signed "North".  And at some point (Elizabethton TN maybe?), no matter which direction you enter town, the direction changes from "North" to "South".

[TheStranger]

California examples:

Route 26 near the town of West Point, at the route's eastern terminus at Route 88, one is going westbound on 26.

Route 18 does a C shaped route from I-15 in Victorville to Route 210 in San Bernardino, and Route 38 also has a strange C shaped routing that briefly parallels 18 in Big Bear Lake (as a result of the late-1970s truncation of what had originally been Route 30).

[michravera]

I have always thought I-476 in Scranton, PA was weird because it backtracked a little bit. However, US 52 in Sabula, IA, backtracks quite a bit before crossing the Mississippi River, a lot more than I-476. Anyone else got any examples? What about routs that loop over themselves like I-70 in Breezewood?

I-5 crosses over itself three times in Southern California. Once near the CASR-99 interchange. Once at each end the "crossed over" section through the Mountains.

CASR-120 has switchbacks near Yosemite (Is that "Priest Grade Rd"?) in order to keep the grade to something manageable.

US-101 south runs north for a couple of miles in the hills near LA (where the road is primarily headed east). I believe that there is only one entrance in each direction where it will say "South" but actually go north for a while, or vice-versa.

CASR-152 has a similar east-west dip through the hills, but it is nowhere near as pronounced as US-101. It's also not access controlled at that point, so signs would say something like "Los Banos->/<-Gilroy".

[sprjus4]

I-49 South when complete between Houma and New Orleans in Louisiana.

Present-day US-90 is east-west, so it's not a backtrack.

[SGwithADD]

Maybe not exactly a "backtrack", but there's always US 321 between Tennessee and South Carolina.  At both starting points (at either end) it is signed "North".  And at some point (Elizabethton TN maybe?), no matter which direction you enter town, the direction changes from "North" to "South".

US 321 in Tennessee seems so stupidly signed.  At it's starting point in TN, off of I-40, North 321 goes in a southbound direction for almost 13 miles, and doesn't really go in a northbound direction for its first 85 miles.  When it finally goes northward, it really heads northeast until Elizabethtown, where the directional switch takes place.  I love that they don't post the direction where the flip happens, and just have two direction-less US 321 markers (GSV).  Coming up on US 19E North, there is a BGS that used to have a direction that is now greened out.  I wonder what this used to say...

Why is this abomination of a segment not signed East-West??

[wanderer2575]

I can think of three off the top of my head - all being because they are constricted by one of the Great Lakes.

The eastern end of OH-163 on the Marblehead Peninsula
M-25 on Michigan's thumb
M-123 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Also M-22 in the Leelanau Peninsula.  And Wisconsin 13 near the Apostle Islands.

The western terminus of M-48 at I-75 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
https://goo.gl/maps/o9LX1v51w5A3A6so8

[zzcarp]

Many of our Colorado mountain passes have backtracking due to switchbacks over the pass e.g. US 6 at Loveland Pass and US 40 at Berthoud Pass.

One interesting backtracking state highway is Colorado Highway 30. Signed east-west, it begins on Hampden heading east from I-25, curves 5 miles north to 6th Avenue where it turns east. It follows 6th Avenue then follows a long sweeping curve back south to Gun Club Road which it follows south to its terminus at Quincy Avenue, one mile south of Hampden.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Any rout [sic] with a hairpin.

[Henry]

I-10 in Los Angeles backtracks a bit on its concurrency with I-5.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I was trying to find local examples that are reasonably worthy of mentioning, the only one I could find was MN 18 navigating around Lake Mills Lacs. On the west side it forms a V-shape where it dives SE from MN 6 and then immediately turns to the NE at Garrison when it joins US 169. After leaving 169 it heads around the north and east sides of the lake.

[jre1121]

West Virginia State Route 62

[kphoger]

I was trying to find local examples that are reasonably worthy of mentioning, the only one I could find was MN 18 navigating around Lake Mills Lacs. On the west side it forms a V-shape where it dives SE from MN 6 and then immediately turns to the NE at Garrison when it joins US 169. After leaving 169 it heads around the north and east sides of the lake.

If I may use an alternate definition of "route"...

route

noun
\ ˈrüt  , ˈrau̇t  \

2: a line of travel : COURSE

...this back-tracking route is somewhat common for my family to use.

[TravelingBethelite]

[...] navigating around Lake Mills Lacs. [...]

Can I just digress for a moment to say how stupid it is to name a lake that? Lake Thousand Lakes?

[kphoger]

[...] navigating around Lake Mills Lacs. [...]

Can I just digress for a moment to say how stupid it is to name a lake that? Lake Thousand Lakes?

It gets even better.  According to Wikipedia, it wasn't even the anglophones who did that.

Likewise, the French named the lake as "Mille Lacs Lake" (Lac des Mille Lacs), as the Brainerd Lakes Area was called "Region of Thousand Lakes" (Pays des Mille Lacs).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

[...] navigating around Lake Mills Lacs. [...]

Can I just digress for a moment to say how stupid it is to name a lake that? Lake Thousand Lakes?

Funny you mention that because I learned last night one possible English translation of Minnehaha is "waterfall", which would make the famous waterfall "Waterfall Falls".

[CardInLex]

KY 620 is a spiral in Scott County, KY. The eastern end at US 25, in between two additional intersections with KY 620.


https://goo.gl/maps/cXGQVVScj2EBH1nj6

[I-55]

Back when US-24 was routed on the south side of Fort Wayne, it backtracked between Roanoke and the 69/469 junction. Between the two points it is a straight line on CR 900/Lafayette Center Rd, and is substantially quicker that way. Heck, it's actually quicker to take 900 to 69 from Roanoke to get to the US-24 exit off I-69 than it is to take US-24 (factoring in traffic lights). Probably the reason that a) US-24 is now on the north side and b) why 900 got widened to 4 lanes (even though taking the south side of 469 is still quicker than the current 24 routing)

[dgolub]

NJ 495 has the helix.  NJ 440 has that weird thing where it curves to the south a little and then continues back north.

[zachary_amaryllis]

CO 119, i believe makes a weird loop -- at one point or another, its signed in all 4 directions. if this looks screwy, i'll try to do better, a little new to this google map thingy..

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0189487,-105.4724579,10z

[Revive 755]

I think there's a point where most routes could be considered to backtrack, depending upon the scale looked at.  But anyway:

* The J-shaped IL 137 in the northern half of Chicagoland
* IL 4 around Carlinville
* MO 32 has an 'S' shape between Bismark and St. Genevieve
* MO 52 between Butler and Montrose, then there's a bit of a 'C' shape between MO 13 and Tuscumbia
* US 52 in Illinois has a slight amount to go through Joliet versus a straighter route to Kankakee
* US 67 in Illinois between Rushville and Godfrey:  Goes slightly eastward into Beardstown, then back west slightly until near Meredosia, then back east to Jacksonville, back west until the stretch near White Hall, then back east.  Used to be less when it ran on what is IL 267 today, and IIRC it used to use a more direct alignment between Jacksonville and Beardstown through Arenzville.
* I-70 in the St. Louis area, with the dip into East St. Louis versus a straighter course using the I-270 corridor
* Very slight amount for the new eastern end of I-44
* I-55 between St. Louis and Memphis - it appears to reach its farthest east point between Scott City and north of New Madrid, before starting back west
* EB I-74 through the loop ramp at I-280
* WB I-74 through the loop ramp at the interchange with I-80 and I-280
* I-72 between IL 106 and IL 96, then again east of IL 96
* I-29 in Council Bluffs
* I-70 for the downtown KC Loop
* I-64 between Charleston, WV, and Stanton, VA
* I-40 in Memphis due to the direct route being cancelled
* I-40 in Arkansas with the dip into the Little Rock area

[ethanhopkin14]

I think there's a point where most routes could be considered to backtrack, depending upon the scale looked at.  But anyway:

* The J-shaped IL 137 in the northern half of Chicagoland
* IL 4 around Carlinville
* MO 32 has an 'S' shape between Bismark and St. Genevieve
* MO 52 between Butler and Montrose, then there's a bit of a 'C' shape between MO 13 and Tuscumbia
* US 52 in Illinois has a slight amount to go through Joliet versus a straighter route to Kankakee
* US 67 in Illinois between Rushville and Godfrey:  Goes slightly eastward into Beardstown, then back west slightly until near Meredosia, then back east to Jacksonville, back west until the stretch near White Hall, then back east.  Used to be less when it ran on what is IL 267 today, and IIRC it used to use a more direct alignment between Jacksonville and Beardstown through Arenzville.
* I-70 in the St. Louis area, with the dip into East St. Louis versus a straighter course using the I-270 corridor
* Very slight amount for the new eastern end of I-44
* I-55 between St. Louis and Memphis - it appears to reach its farthest east point between Scott City and north of New Madrid, before starting back west
* EB I-74 through the loop ramp at I-280
* WB I-74 through the loop ramp at the interchange with I-80 and I-280
* I-72 between IL 106 and IL 96, then again east of IL 96
* I-29 in Council Bluffs
* I-70 for the downtown KC Loop
* I-64 between Charleston, WV, and Stanton, VA
* I-40 in Memphis due to the direct route being cancelled
* I-40 in Arkansas with the dip into the Little Rock area

Same for The I-10/I-35 concurrency in San Antonio as compared to St Louis. It's slight, but travelers heading east will be facing southwest before exiting onto the rest of I-10.

[kphoger]

KY 620 is a spiral in Scott County, KY. The eastern end at US 25, in between two additional intersections with KY 620.

https://goo.gl/maps/cXGQVVScj2EBH1nj6

That is messed up!

[hbelkins]

KY 620 is a spiral in Scott County, KY. The eastern end at US 25, in between two additional intersections with KY 620.

https://goo.gl/maps/cXGQVVScj2EBH1nj6

That is messed up!

Part of that cluster foxtrot was created by the construction of the ring road around the Toyota plant when it was built in the mid-1980s.

[CardInLex]

KY 620 is a spiral in Scott County, KY. The eastern end at US 25, in between two additional intersections with KY 620.

https://goo.gl/maps/cXGQVVScj2EBH1nj6

That is messed up!

I also just realized that it's "western"  end is farther east than the "eastern"  end.