Divided super-2s with wide medians?

[US 89]

I got to thinking about this after driving the new Midvalley Highway in eastern Tooele County, Utah (SR 179). Typical cross section looks like this:



I don't think I have ever seen another road like this. There are plenty of two-lane freeways out there, but the ones I can think of are all either undivided with or without passing zones (US 169 near Chanute KS, SR 7 around St George UT), more or less undivided with a very narrow median (US 6 bypass of Price UT), or divided by a narrow physical barrier (I-93 through Franconia Notch). I don't think I've ever seen a divided 2-lane road with a wide median like this. The plan is to expand it to a full 4-lane once traffic levels are high enough, but it will probably stay in this configuration for many years.

Are there more of these out there that I don't know about, or is this one of a kind?

[wriddle082]

I got to thinking about this after driving the new Midvalley Highway in eastern Tooele County, Utah (SR 179). Typical cross section looks like this:



I don't think I have ever seen another road like this. There are plenty of two-lane freeways out there, but the ones I can think of are all either undivided with or without passing zones (US 169 near Chanute KS, SR 7 around St George UT), more or less undivided with a very narrow median (US 6 bypass of Price UT), or divided by a narrow physical barrier (I-93 through Franconia Notch). I don't think I've ever seen a divided 2-lane road with a wide median like this. The plan is to expand it to a full 4-lane once traffic levels are high enough, but it will probably stay in this configuration for many years.

Are there more of these out there that I don't know about, or is this one of a kind?

As far as I know, that's a unicorn.  Does it have an occasional second lane in either direction for passing?

Normally when they build two-lane roadways with provisions to easily expand to four lanes in the future, it's by grading both full-width carriageways and only paving one of them for two-way traffic.  I can see where this example would be safer as-built in reducing the probability of head-on collisions by keeping both directions on separate carriageways, but when they do decide to add the second lane in each direction it would be semi-complicated, with grading taking place close to existing traffic.  Or are the carriageway grades wide enough for a second lane as is?  Hard to tell with the snow.

[US 89]

Does it have an occasional second lane in either direction for passing?

It does not, but it doesn't really need one as it's only 3 miles long.

Normally when they build two-lane roadways with provisions to easily expand to four lanes in the future, it's by grading both full-width carriageways and only paving one of them for two-way traffic.  I can see where this example would be safer as-built in reducing the probability of head-on collisions by keeping both directions on separate carriageways, but when they do decide to add the second lane in each direction it would be semi-complicated, with grading taking place close to existing traffic.  Or are the carriageway grades wide enough for a second lane as is?  Hard to tell with the snow.

I bet your point about head-on collisions is probably the main reason. This road carries a surprising amount of truck traffic as there is an industrial park and an Army depot on the west side of Tooele, which you'd mainly get to using this road and Sheep Lane. There is also a Walmart distribution center on 138 west of Grantsville to add to the mix.

I also wouldn't be surprised if one of the goals was to make sure they had all the ROW for any future upgrades from the get-go (see Mountain View Corridor/SR 85 in the Salt Lake area for another example, though that one is being built with 2 lanes each direction to begin with). UDOT has been learning the hard way with Bangerter that in a rapidly growing region like greater Salt Lake City, you need to get your ROW reserved well ahead of time. Exurban areas like Stansbury Park are growing by leaps and bounds.

The shoulder sizes felt like what you would typically see on a Utah rural freeway, but as you mention I couldn't tell for sure with the snow on the ground. Based on how it felt the carriageways will probably have to be widened for any future lane additions.

[Bitmapped]

There are two places that I know of in Ohio that were expressways (with at-grade intersections) where one lane on each carriageway was closed. They are:

- SR 49 just north of I-70 was originally a 4-lane divided highway up to US 40. As part of a safety project, the I-70 interchange was reconstructed and the split intersection at Brookville-Salem Road was converted to a single intersection when signalized. North of there, they kept one lane on each carriageway up to where the divided highway ended at US 40: https://goo.gl/maps/yWHq7X19BnG8HhVS6

- When US 30 was relocated onto a freeway east of Wooster around 2005, about a mile of Old US 30 that had been a divided highway was bypassed. The old road was turned over to the county. This stretch was restriped to have one lane on each carriageway, with the old slow lane each way being used for farm equipment and Amish buggies. Traffic counts are fairly low now. I'm not sure why they didn't just remove one of the carriageways to reduce maintenance costs. You can see it here: https://goo.gl/maps/rKB9VneYpuBemQAo7

[Tom958]

It's not a super two, but the new mile-and-a-half long US 84 bypass of Argyle, Georgia, is two lanes with a 32-foot median. GDOT has been working on widening the entirety of US 84 to four lanes and this is on one of the last segments to be completed. I'm guessing that GDOT really wanted to use single-lane roundabouts rather than stop signs or (unwarranted) traffic signals at the ends of the bypass. With a few exceptions, Georgia restricts oversized trucks to multilane divided highways; this short stretch is at least divided. Maybe they'll four-lane it when or if GDOT is convinced that area drivers can handle multilane roundabouts.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.0718376,-82.6568604,1122m/data=!3m1!1e3

[froggie]

There's an example of a used-to-be:  MD 32 at the Burntwoods Rd interchange south of I-70 was built in a similar fashion to the OP's example for about 3/4 mile.  I say used-to-be because it's in the process of becoming 4-laned as part of the widening of MD 32.

[wanderer2575]

Not exactly what the OP referenced, but a similar one-lane arrangement with a median is the split-merge alignment implemented in some construction areas to maintain two lanes in each direction but a single carriageway isn't wide enough for it.

These are only temporary but they can be long (I was once in a ten-mile-long one) and traffic can be heavy (good chance of being stuck behind a slow driver).

[webny99]

^ That's an Ohio staple right there! Seems like there's always at least one long work zone in this configuration on I-90 east of Cleveland.

[jeffandnicole]

NJ realized that when split lanes are too long, accidents go up, especially due to one slow driver creating the situation mentioned. They try not going more than 3 or so miles with such a configuration.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

NJ realized that when split lanes are too long, accidents go up, especially due to one slow driver creating the situation mentioned. They try not going more than 3 or so miles with such a configuration.

A lot of accidents also come from the "oh shit" when people realize they are about to exit into the "express" lane and will not be able to get to their exit they need to be in the "local" lanes to have access to (and face a long backtrack back to where they need to get to), like with the I-94 rebuild on Minneapolis's northwest side the last two years.

[FrCorySticha]

Not exactly what the OP referenced, but a similar one-lane arrangement with a median is the split-merge alignment implemented in some construction areas to maintain two lanes in each direction but a single carriageway isn't wide enough for it.

These are only temporary but they can be long (I was once in a ten-mile-long one) and traffic can be heavy (good chance of being stuck behind a slow driver).

Washington State did this a couple years ago during work on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass on the west side of the summit. The carriageways there can be as far as 1/2 mile apart, and it was interesting to be heading westbound on the eastbound carriageway and see the regular westbound carriageway across the valley.

[JREwing78]

Bus. US-127 in Mount Pleasant, MI has a section of 2 lanes SBD, 1 lane NBD. It was formerly 2 lanes in each direction, but a redo about 15-20 years ago rebuild the NBD section as a single lane with right-turn lanes at intersections. I don't understand the reasoning for this besides costs, or perhaps calming traffic coming into the Mount Pleasant commercial strip.

https://goo.gl/maps/Fm7Y53pcoLBsQqBp6

[wanderer2575]

Bus. US-127 in Mount Pleasant, MI has a section of 2 lanes SBD, 1 lane NBD. It was formerly 2 lanes in each direction, but a redo about 15-20 years ago rebuild the NBD section as a single lane with right-turn lanes at intersections. I don't understand the reasoning for this besides costs, or perhaps calming traffic coming into the Mount Pleasant commercial strip.

https://goo.gl/maps/Fm7Y53pcoLBsQqBp6

It was formerly one two-lane carriageway, one lane in each direction.  I don't recall when it was redone, but I'm sure it was more recently than 15 years ago.  (The short stretch between Mission Road and US-127 on the north side of town is two carriageways, two lanes in each direction.)

[deathtopumpkins]

To answer the OP, probably the most infamous example of this is NJ 33 on the Freehold Bypass: https://goo.gl/maps/FoZcGkjcGnakyq3W7

NJ built this configuration again on the US 206 Hillsborough Bypass: https://goo.gl/maps/tnNypUv9ysRPSEy39

It's not a freeway, but the recently built Pettengill Rd in Londonderry, NH behind MHT airport is a divided 2 lanes: https://goo.gl/maps/2TMKPAUMFekYYXxd9 with the grading and guardrail and signal placement obviously prepared for a future widening to 4 lanes.