Worst signed detours

[SkyPesos]

I think this one takes the cake for me:

I was on WB Liberty Way yesterday, and planning to turn onto OH 129 West at the junction with I-75/OH 129. All the signs for OH 129 weren't covered, and there weren't any ramp closed nor detour signs, so I though everything was normal (I normally don't use a GPS, and follow signs to navigate). Made a right turn onto the I-75 North/OH 129 West ramp, and that's where I start to see the ramp to OH 129 is closed, and signs with "OH 129 follow I-75 north". And those are the only appearance of the signs, as at the next exit on I-75 up at OH 63, there weren't any signs telling OH 129 traffic to make a U-turn at that SPUI.
Had either detour or ramp closed signs had been posted before I made the right turn onto the ramp, or I checked google maps for road closures beforehand, I would've went straight on WB Liberty and entered OH 129 WB at Cincinnati-Dayton Rd, instead of getting on and turning back on I-75.

Map of the area:

Red: Closed ramp
Green: The detour that's posted only once on the on-ramp
Blue: My ideal detour route if the closed ramp was posted in advanced.

[webny99]

Wow, and your green line detour doesn't even show how far out of the way OH 63 is... a solid 5 miles! That does cake the cake.

I remember something similar happening to us in Harrisburg, PA, several years ago (before I had a phone and could assist with navigation). The ramp to US 22/322 WB was closed, but instead of figuring out a local alternate, we took the signed detour and it went several miles further to the nearest cloverleaf interchange, around two loop ramps, and back the other direction. Not as egregious as yours, but still not what the locals would do if they knew any better!

[jeffandnicole]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

[hbelkins]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

[roadman65]

In Hillsborough County, FL once last year, a railroad grade crossing was worked on with a decent detour route about a quarter mile south of it. Detour signs sent EB traffic north on SR 39 and to Plant City to I-4 east to County  Line Road south. Several miles out of the way where the other way was not that much lost mileage wise.

[Rothman]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

[GaryV]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

The "official" detour might be long.  Sometimes it has to be, because it has to accommodate all vehicles.  You don't want tractor trailers going down narrow crowded streets.

But many locals will find better alternatives.

[hbelkins]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

The "official" detour might be long.  Sometimes it has to be, because it has to accommodate all vehicles.  You don't want tractor trailers going down narrow crowded streets.

But many locals will find better alternatives.

We're dealing with a closure right now with separate passenger vehicle and truck detours. Problem is, the truck detour is not the optimal route that could have been chosen, and I heard today that the signage had been placed improperly and is routing trucks on a route that's probably less-suited for them than the passenger vehicle signed detour would be.

Which is why I always suggest other, unsigned truck detours in my press releases that actually make sense.

[thspfc]

Funny that this thread is here because I just had the worst detour experience that I will probably ever have. A little over an hour ago I was going westbound (north cardinal direction) on US-14 in south Madison, towards the Beltline. I was planning to get on the Beltline EB, but no, ramp closed. Only signage was a small orange sign that said something about Fish Hatchery Road. Because of the ramp configuration of the Beltline/US-14/Park interchange I then had to get on the Beltline WB, which was moving at a snail's pace because that's shockingly what happens when you reduce a 120k VPD freeway to one lane in each direction  . So I exit at Fish Hatchery. Ramp to EB Beltline closed. No signage of that on the Beltline, on Fish Hatchery, or anywhere else. Just an electronic board right at the spot of the closure that says "Ramp closed blah blah blah", which is about as helpful to drivers as using Green River UT as a control city on I-70 WB in Colorado. I turn around and go back over to Park Street. SB to EB ramp closed. Again, not signed anywhere besides the site of the closure. So I go back east (south) for two miles on 14. The McCoy Road ramp was also closed but it's actually well signed. I exited at Lacy, went back north on Rimrock. Ramp to EB Beltline closed. No signage. Finally got on the Beltline going in the right direction at John Nolen.

But it took me about 35-40 minutes to get from here to here: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/43.0331956,-89.3902376/43.0434775,-89.3650625/@43.0383795,-89.3871267,14.61z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

Putting it into Google Maps would have done me nothing as Google isn't keeping up with this.

The Madison Beltline sucks and it will always suck.

[Flint1979]

I remember back in the 90's, the year was 1994 to be exact I was 15 at the time so I wasn't driving yet but my dad was and we went to Pittsburgh for a Pirates baseball game, back then I wanted to go see the Atlanta Braves play so my dad told me we could go to Pittsburgh to watch them play. So we are on our way back home and on I-75 in Detroit and I-75 at the time was closed for construction through the downtown area and this was before GPS systems or even the internet so my dad wasn't real familiar with Detroit and still isn't but he's been there an awful lot and I kind of knew my way around Detroit from studying maps of it since I was into collecting maps
I studied them and could figure out my way around cities that way. So I was trying to figure out how to get back to I-75 north and didn't have any idea how long the detour was which wasn't posted at all and I'm telling my dad well go out I-96 and then take I-275 north to I-696 east then take that back to I-75. I'm not thinking that the Lodge is right there, that I-96 meets up with US-23 to take you back to Flint or that Woodward would take you out to Pontiac and you could reconnect with I-75 there or any other way that doesn't consist of going all the way out to I-275 and taking I-696 back to I-75. If you look at a map of Detroit you can see how out of the way that would be.

Honestly when I think about this I have no idea why we didn't connect with US-23 in Toledo to take us back to Flint but I do remember my first encounter with OH-199 and will never forget that highway because there was a thing on the computer before the internet was around called Automap that gave you directions to places, it wasn't detailed like it only had state highways, US highways and Interstates on it so it gave us a direction to take OH-199, well I-75 doesn't have an exit with OH-199 and the logical way would be to get off I-475 at OH-25 and then move over to OH-199 but back then I didn't know that. So we ended up taking another way I can't remember exactly 27 years later but I hate it when state, US or Interstate routes don't have an exit with an Interstate, like for example I-475 not having an exit with I-80/90 in Ohio. But I do know that is the Ohio Turnpike and you can connect with both via connections at two different exits.

[Flint1979]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

The "official" detour might be long.  Sometimes it has to be, because it has to accommodate all vehicles.  You don't want tractor trailers going down narrow crowded streets.

But many locals will find better alternatives.

Yeah that makes sense. I had this issue when I was traveling in Indiana along a road when I was avoiding a traffic jam on I-70. We got routed onto this narrow two lane road and a semi was in front of me the entire time until the next road that took us back to I-70.

[Flint1979]

When I-75 in Oakland County had a complete closure for a stretch for a few days the detour was between 8 Mile and Square Lake which are both MDOT maintained highways and the detour route was Woodward which is also a MDOT maintained highway. The closure could have been further south but there aren't any highways maintained by MDOT until you get to I-696 and 8 Mile is M-102.

[jeffandnicole]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

The "official" detour might be long.  Sometimes it has to be, because it has to accommodate all vehicles.  You don't want tractor trailers going down narrow crowded streets.

But many locals will find better alternatives.

We're dealing with a closure right now with separate passenger vehicle and truck detours. Problem is, the truck detour is not the optimal route that could have been chosen, and I heard today that the signage had been placed improperly and is routing trucks on a route that's probably less-suited for them than the passenger vehicle signed detour would be.

Which is why I always suggest other, unsigned truck detours in my press releases that actually make sense.

As part of the 295/76/42 construction project in NJ, NJDOT has utilized county routes, and even municipal residential streets, as part of the detour routes:  https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2016/031116a.shtm

Even the truck route involves a municipal roadway (Deptford Center Road), albeit a very important roadway in the traffic circulation in the Deptford Mall area, and a route between Routes 55 & 42.

[hbelkins]

Many agencies won't sign a detour *prior* to a closure, as people have a tendency to ignore the signage.

Many agencies also won't sign a detour for a state-maintained highway on a locally-maintained road or street.

^This.  The idea behind it is sound (i.e., DOTs control the maintenance), but it can lead to local frustration with traffic or befuddlement at long detours.

The "official" detour might be long.  Sometimes it has to be, because it has to accommodate all vehicles.  You don't want tractor trailers going down narrow crowded streets.

But many locals will find better alternatives.

Came through a detour today on US 2 in Minnesota that has separate signed truck and car routes. The signed car route uses MN 200 and then some square-signed county routes. The signed truck detour appears to use MN 200 all the way to US 169.

I'm presuming that the square-signed Minnesota county routes are the CSAH routes (which means the state pays for at least some of the maintenance) vs. blue pentagon routes? I say this because I saw one sign that referred to "CSAH Route nn" and that route was signed in a white square.