Nevada

[cl94]

Yes, there was some correlation between federal aid corridors and post-1976 routes, but I can't rememher if it was 1 to 1

[andy3175]

The urban route numbers aren't necessarily random (I'm sure I've covered the patterns in prior threads).

I'm not sure I've seen the pattern, unless you mean the numbering ranges assigned by county and importance. (And even that has exceptions, as most of the 6xx numbers are minor urban arterials, except for 613, which is a freeway.)

Although by "strewn about at random" I meant less about the numbering and more things like why are Rainbow and Jones state routes but not Decatur or Buffalo? Charleston, Sahara, Flamingo, and Trop are all state routes but Desert Inn and Spring Mountain aren't. That sort of thing.

I still hold out hope that someday McCarran Blvd in Reno-Sparks will get fully signed as NV 659. As an important route encircling the urban area, in my opinion it rises above other state routes that start and stop as deserving of signage. Last time I drove through there, I didn't really see any 659 shields on the route and definitely not any on I-80 guide signs for McCarran Blvd.

[xonhulu]

I still hold out hope that someday McCarran Blvd in Reno-Sparks will get fully signed as NV 659. As an important route encircling the urban area, in my opinion it rises above other state routes that start and stop as deserving of signage. Last time I drove through there, I didn't really see any 659 shields on the route and definitely not any on I-80 guide signs for McCarran Blvd.

When I was there in March, IIRC I saw two 659 shields. Here's the only one I photographed:



I drove the entire western side of the loop, so only 2 shields in that entire distance is a pretty sad level of signage.

[DenverBrian]

I was reading on line about why the Silver State does not sign state highway shields in urban areas especially US 95 Business along Rancho Drive in the LV area.

According to the Goog its primarily because the MUTCD allows states to use their judgement especially if safety is an issue.  The search engine pulled up research that explains that Nevada specifically chooses not to shield intersections due to the clutter effecting the need for much needed signage like warning, school zones, etc.  To them shielding intersections is not necessary and unessential.


However, some freeway guides omit state routes and just sign the local street names, which to me is not creating clutter to the drivers.  So that is not being unessential by leaving out the route number especially when maps include them more than the names.

The route numbers are kind of strewn about at random and stop and start at odd places based on whatever agreements the city and state come to on who maintains what. That makes them kind of useless for navigation, so freeway signs don't include route numbers for city streets and most people don't even notice there are numbers even when there are shields present on the surface streets. The numbers are more there for NDOT's benefit than anyone else's.

Case in point, highlighted in orange is the entirety of NV 589. Real fuckin' useful route there!


Besides, does anyone in a large city in any other state actually call city streets by number? Even in Oklahoma City, it's Northwest Expressway not 3, Sooner Road not 77H, 23rd Street not 62, etc.

Wouldn't be surprised if such a short state route has something to do with funding for the interchange.

[Scott5114]

Wouldn't be surprised if such a short state route has something to do with funding for the interchange.

The east endpoint is pretty much where the Sahara bridge over the railroad tracks touches down, so I assume it's mostly because the city and county don't want to accept maintenance of that bridge.

[Max Rockatansky]

Wouldn't be surprised if such a short state route has something to do with funding for the interchange.

The east endpoint is pretty much where the Sahara bridge over the railroad tracks touches down, so I assume it's mostly because the city and county don't want to accept maintenance of that bridge.

Which how a lot of State Highways that cross along I-15 are configured.  Even that central segment of 159 I mentioned has a similar east terminus just past the railroad.  591 to my knowledge is one of the few that got reclassified as a ramp facility.

[roadfro]

I still hold out hope that someday McCarran Blvd in Reno-Sparks will get fully signed as NV 659. As an important route encircling the urban area, in my opinion it rises above other state routes that start and stop as deserving of signage. Last time I drove through there, I didn't really see any 659 shields on the route and definitely not any on I-80 guide signs for McCarran Blvd.

When I was there in March, IIRC I saw two 659 shields. Here's the only one I photographed:



I drove the entire western side of the loop, so only 2 shields in that entire distance is a pretty sad level of signage.

I'm pretty sure that those two junction assemblies on either side of 4th St are the only SR 659 shields in existence anywhere on or around the entire McCarran Blvd loop. They are rather new as well, installed a few years ago during an NDOT project along the SW quadrant of the McCarran loop (repaving and median replacement).

The main indication of SR 659's existence is the mileposts. When NDOT took the whole loop over, they actually installed SR 659 mileposts at the even integer mile locations around the loop, and many are still present.

Wouldn't be surprised if such a short state route has something to do with funding for the interchange.

The east endpoint is pretty much where the Sahara bridge over the railroad tracks touches down, so I assume it's mostly because the city and county don't want to accept maintenance of that bridge.

Which how a lot of State Highways that cross along I-15 are configured.  Even that central segment of 159 I mentioned has a similar east terminus just past the railroad.  591 to my knowledge is one of the few that got reclassified as a ramp facility.

In many cases, where NDOT has a urban arterial state highway that crosses through a freeway interchange and they later give up a significant chunk of that state highway route, NDOT tends to retain maintenance of the roadway within the ROW bounds of the freeway interchange. Most of the time, NDOT keeps the state highway number in use for that segment within the interchange, particularly if that state highway number was still in use on another segment of the same arterial road (e.g. SR 159/Charleston Blvd). For others, where the state route number might only exist at the freeway interchange, NDOT will sometimes reclassify the state highway as "FR" or "frontage road" to keep it in the system (e.g. Spring Mountain Road at I-15 is former SR 591 and current FR CL 51)...but this practice isn't necessarily consistent.

[roadfro]

The urban route numbers aren't necessarily random (I'm sure I've covered the patterns in prior threads).

I'm not sure I've seen the pattern, unless you mean the numbering ranges assigned by county and importance. (And even that has exceptions, as most of the 6xx numbers are minor urban arterials, except for 613, which is a freeway.)

Although by "strewn about at random" I meant less about the numbering and more things like why are Rainbow and Jones state routes but not Decatur or Buffalo? Charleston, Sahara, Flamingo, and Trop are all state routes but Desert Inn and Spring Mountain aren't. That sort of thing.

With the 1976 reclassification, Nevada's Federal Aid Secondary (the 100-400 series routes, including 28 & 88) and State Aid Route (700-800 series) schemes were assigned by going through the counties in alphabetical order. The Federal Aid Urban (500-600 series) scheme is similar, but the order was generally assigned by going through the *cities* in alphabetical order—with some exception in the Las Vegas Valley. 

• Boulder City - low 500s 
• Carson City - 511-531
• Elko - 535
• Henderson - 560s (east/west arterials)
• Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, unincorporated Clark County in Henderson - 573-594 (east/west arterials, starting in the north at Craig Rd going down to Russell Rd) and 595-612 (north/south arterials, starting in the west at Rainbow Blvd and heading east to Nellis Blvd)
• Reno & Sparks - 640s-680s

Roads that were state-maintained simply adopted the FAS/FAU/SAR classification number as the state highway number. 

But the question of why some of these arterial roadways are/were state-maintained while other roads assigned an FAU number were not is still very much a mystery.

They are better about this in Reno, from my observations.

SRs 430, 653, and 667 beg to differ. All of which have shields (sometimes multiple) on relinquished sections. 430 even has shields on sections that were *never* 430.

I said they were *better* about this in Reno, not *perfect*... 

Curious about 430 shields on sections that never were 430. I thought SR 430 was continuous along Virginia St from US 395 in the north to Mt Rose in the south at some point (even if some of that may have been relinquished to the city 25+ years ago).

[Rothman]

At least nowadays, the Federal-Aid System is based upon functional class and changing what's eligible requires heavy involvement from FHWA, including appeasing concerns about system connectivity.  Makes me wonder about the sequence Nevada follows to change its state numbering.

[cl94]

Curious about 430 shields on sections that never were 430. I thought SR 430 was continuous along Virginia St from US 395 in the north to Mt Rose in the south at some point (even if some of that may have been relinquished to the city 25+ years ago).

There's one south of 341/431, or was as of a couple of months ago. Also one at Exit 25.

[roadfro]

Curious about 430 shields on sections that never were 430. I thought SR 430 was continuous along Virginia St from US 395 in the north to Mt Rose in the south at some point (even if some of that may have been relinquished to the city 25+ years ago).

There's one south of 341/431, or was as of a couple of months ago. Also one at Exit 25.

I take it you're talking about this one south of 341/431. For this one, it was technically SR 430... Prior to the extension of I-580 between Mt Rose Hwy and the north end of Washoe Valley, NDOT had a weird maintenance thing in their state maintained highway logs. US 395 was technically inventoried with a gap between those points. The logs show IR 580 as being maintained along the future alignment corridor which had yet to be built. The US 395 corridor open to traffic and signed as such between those points (now US 395 Alt) was inventoried as SR 430—the state route was sparsely signed because it was signposted as US 395 (and I think the mileposts still reflected US 395). This assembly (which has had an SR 430 shield alongside a US 395 shield in the earliest Street View going back to 2009) might have been the only SR 430 shield posted along that segment.

For this one near Exit 25, NDOT logs show state maintenance on S Virginia St between this I-580 interchange north up to Patriot Blvd, cataloged as SR 430. Again, it was sparsely signed, and again this might have been the only shield posted on that segment. 

However, since the opening of I-580 extension, these segments of SR 430 were reclassified as US 395A in the logs. So these two SR 430 shields shouldn't exist in the field now.