Roads in former railroad rights-of-way

[roadman65]

Martin Luther King Boulevard in Kissimmee, Florida was built where a branch line of the CSX tracks used to divert in Downtown Kissimmee.

Then NJ 35 southbound along the barrier island between Mantoloking, NJ and Ortley Beach was a former railroad line.

US 17 SB in Arcadia, Florida was once a railroad line as well.

[Brian556]

quote from roadman65:

Martin Luther King Boulevard in Kissimmee, Florida was built where a branch line of the CSX tracks used to divert in Downtown Kissimmee.

Then NJ 35 southbound along the barrier island between Mantoloking, NJ and Ortley Beach was a former railroad line.

US 17 SB in Arcadia, Florida was once a railroad line as well.

I did think of the MLK one in Kissimmee, and I did notice the US 17 in Arcadia, and NJ 25 when looking at Google Maps

[cpzilliacus]

In Anne Arundel County, MD, there's a "WB&A Road".  So named because it follows the route of an old interurban, the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis Electric Railway, which shut down in 1935.  A number of other roads follow the r/w, including one aptly named (cue Eddy Grant) "Electric Avenue".  It's also used for rail trails, power lines, part of a light rail line, and a whole section is obliterated by a little thing like, oh, BWI Airport.

Nearly all of Md. 704 (MLK Highway, formerly George Palmer Highway) is on the old WB&A right-of-way.  Not so sure that Electric Avenue is actually on the old WB&A r-o-w or not.  But Electric Avenue marks the point at which the electric service area for Baltimore Gas and Electric Company gets closest to the District of Columbia (the BG&E service area in Prince George's County almost cuts the Maryland service area of the "Washington" electric company, Potomac Electric Power Company, or PEPCo, in half).

Another road built on former railroad right-of-way is Md. 260, Chesapeake Beach Road in Calvert and Anne Arundel Counties (between  E. Mount Harmony Road and Md. 4).

[agentsteel53]

CA-83, Euclid Ave, has the old Pacific Electric right of way right down the middle.

[formulanone]

Old Railroad Bed Road between south-central Tennessee and northern Alabama was part of the Middle Tennessee and Alabama Railway. The rail wasn't completely laid down, but the right-of-way became streets in the 1930s.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Clarification on NJ 35 - NJ 35 is the former alignment of the New York & Long Branch Railroad (a piece of the Central Railroad of New Jersey), that went south to Seaside Park and then crossed west into Toms River, where it ended. This extension south from Bay Head was cut in 1946-48 area, I believe '46 though.

[froggie]

Technically, the US 12 bypass of Long Lake, MN meets this.  The BNSF mainline through Long Lake was shifted slightly south, and the US 12 roadway was built on top of the old mainline.

[Brandon]

I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway, originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad.

[froggie]

I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway, originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad.

Mapmikey mentioned it yesterday.

[Brandon]

I'm a bit surprised not to see it yet, but there is also the Overseas Highway, originally built on many of the bridges of the Overseas Railroad.

Mapmikey mentioned it yesterday.

I noticed after I posted, but he barely made anything of it.

[GaryV]

The Houghton (MI) lift bridge (US-41 / M-26).  The lower level used to be railroad.  Now in the summer the bridge is partially lifted so cars use the old RR level.  That way the bridge clearance is higher for boat traffic and the bridge doesn't have to be raised as much.  In the winter, the bridge is fully lowered, and the old RR level is for snowmobiles.

[mgk920]

In Wisconsin, I-94 in the area of 27th St in Milwaukee was built on the grade of a former electric interurban (now called 'Light Rail Transit') line.

Elsewhere in the state, most of WI 173 between WI 21 and WI 80 was built on a former Milwaukee Road grade and the WI 13/54/73 beltline (Riverview Expressway) on Wisconsin Rapids' south side was built on the former grade of the Chicago and Northwestern's Fond du Lac-Wisconsin Rapids line.

Mike

[thenetwork]

There are sections of I-480 (between I-71 & I-77 in Cleveland) where the paralleling railroad ROW was moved slightly to make way for the freeway's ROW.

[Pete from Boston]

 Sgt. James Ayube Memorial Drive, formerly the Bridge Street Bypass Road in Salem, Mass., was carved at least partly into a chunk of the Newburyport/Rockport Line right-of-way.

[WichitaRoads]

In Wichita, US 54/400 (Kellogg Ave.) from about the Arkansas River to Southwest Blvd. uses an old ROW (greatly expanded over the years, of course). Previously, US 54 traveled west on Maple far out to near Goddard before dropping south, then west on the current alignment.

ICTRds

[TEG24601]

If we are talking about freeways, the only thing close that comes to mind is I-84's Banfield Expressway in Portland.  It follows close to a rail line, and MAX line, and in some cases covers the railroad, and likely supplanted portions of it, when it was built, not to mention a creek and golf course.


Much of the new SR-99 freeway, south of Downtown Seattle is in a former railroad right-of-way, as is the new roadway, the pit for the tunnel, and the existing viaduct (as most trains were moved inland to a tunnel between King St. and Union Stations.



For non-freeways, there is also most of the Pearl District, Portland, which is built on top of a former rail yard.


I recall at least of of the major Detroit Trunks or Freeways being built on an old railroad, ROW, but don't remember where I read that.

[thenetwork]

Here's one I completely forgot: 

I-670 just east of Downtown Columbus, OH.  The section either side of I-71 I clearly remember as a sizable old rail yard.

[KEVIN_224]

Sections of the new Busway between New Britain and Hartford, CT will be using existing railroad ROW. A portion of the line will be right next to Amtrak's rail line in Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, up to Union Station near Bushnell Park. (The line is supposed to open in 2015.)

[route56]

The K-7 extension to the Nebraska Line generally followed and old alignment of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy. The CB&Q had another line on the Missouri side of the river (Now the BNSF Napier and St. Joseph Subdivisions)

[Pete from Boston]

Sections of the new Busway between New Britain and Hartford, CT will be using existing railroad ROW. A portion of the line will be right next to Amtrak's rail line in Newington, West Hartford and Hartford, up to Union Station near Bushnell Park. (The line is supposed to open in 2015.)

Holy crap, they are actually building this?  I feel like it was 20 years ago that they were talking about it (that was around when I was last in the Hartford bus station, which is where I recall seeing the plan publicized), then the price tag became prohibitive and it never moved forward.

Do a lot of people commute into Hartford from NB?

[froggie]

Yes, it's under construction now.  You can see the construction from a few places along I-84 and also the underpass on CT 9.

[flowmotion]

How about "Railroads in former highway rights-of-way"?

I nominate the Hiawatha LRT line in Minneapolis, MN.

[hm insulators]

On Hawaii 56 just south of a town called Wailua on the island of Kauai, there are two bridges that cross over the Wailua River. The bridge closer to the ocean (in Hawaiian, makai) that now carries the northbound lanes of the highway many years ago was a railroad bridge for when the sugar cane companies used railroads decades ago. Later they used "cane haul" trucks that used the makai bridge for crossing the river on the way to and from the mills until sugar became a dead commodity in Hawaii.

[thenetwork]

I remember crossing that bridge for the first time in the dark about 10 years ago.  Approaching the bridge there was a route marker for HI-56 that said you could go straight OR bear right (on the RR bridge) to continue on 56.

They also had contra-flows set up during select hours in the morning where southbound traffic used both lanes of the main bridge while northbound traffic had to use the RR bridge, IIRC.

[cjk374]

When US 167 was expanded to a divided 4 lane between Quitman, LA & the Lincoln/Jackson parish line, the north bound lanes were built on the old Rock Island RR ROW.  This was part of the Rock's Little Rock branch that ran from Littlt Rock to Winnfield, LA.