Unusually numbered routes

[Henry]

I-73 and I-74 in NC. The former is entirely east of I-77, and the latter will never connect to the real one in Cincinnati.

[DandyDan]

Wisconsin 213 near Beloit has a strange number.  I've never seen a successful attempt to explain the number there.  Wisconsin doesn't have state route numbers over 200 unless they're branches of a two-digit route (310's a branch of 10, 241's a branch of 41, etc.).

That was originally part of highway 13, which used to go south from Wisconsin Dells to Madison and ultimately to Beloit.

[hbelkins]

Most of the three-digit route numbers on the West Virginia primary system.

[formulanone]

AL 605. Where the heck did that number come from? Alabama doesn't typically do state route numbers over ~300 (besides 759, an extension of I-759).

There was a short-lived AL 604 in Auburn; I guess someone forgot the memo that ALDOT had just started into the 300s, and a lot of even 2xx numbers hadn't been used yet.

[TheGrassGuy]

I-73 and I-74 in NC. The former is entirely east of I-77, and the latter will never connect to the real one in Cincinnati.

No, those aren't as egregious as interstates like I-99 because they have been INTENDED to conform to the regular interstate numbering grid according to the original plan, even if the original plans are very unlikely to take place in the near future.

[TheGrassGuy]

*Hunterdon CR 751
*Middlesex CR 807

These two don't exist anymore. HuntCo 751 may have just been a typo by NJDOT, the county always considered it CR 621 and the SLDs were recently corrected to that number. CR 807 was never signed, is now just (unsigned) CR 632. There was a reference to a proposed Route 807 freeway in 1973 NYT article running through Essex, Union, and Somerset so that, if it was built, would qualify in this thread.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_county_routes_in_Middlesex_County,_New_Jersey
Woah. You're right. But it seems that Middlesex County now has unsigned 4-digits?!!

[TheGrassGuy]

Florida also used to have a 9823

[US 89]

Utah 900 and 901 are unusual numbers for two unusual routes.

[Mr. Matté]

*Hunterdon CR 751
*Middlesex CR 807

These two don't exist anymore. HuntCo 751 may have just been a typo by NJDOT, the county always considered it CR 621 and the SLDs were recently corrected to that number. CR 807 was never signed, is now just (unsigned) CR 632. There was a reference to a proposed Route 807 freeway in 1973 NYT article running through Essex, Union, and Somerset so that, if it was built, would qualify in this thread.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_county_routes_in_Middlesex_County,_New_Jersey
Woah. You're right. But it seems that Middlesex County now has unsigned 4-digits?!!

I know I'm right because I was the one who made the updates there.

[Max Rockatansky]

Utah 900 and 901 are unusual numbers for two unusual routes.

Can they actually be driven?  I know both were unimproved BLM roads that were added to block a nuclear waste disposal rail line 

[MNHighwayMan]

Wisconsin doesn't have state route numbers over 200 unless they're branches of a two-digit route (310's a branch of 10, 241's a branch of 41, etc.).

You're forgetting WI-243, which was numbered to be the same as its Minnesota counterpart across the St. Croix.

[oscar]

Hawaii 8930, the highest signed route number in the state. Hawaii doesn't have nearly that many routes, but the high number is from its 4-digit route number (for newer urban secondary routes), on Oahu for which the 6xxx-9xxx number block is reserved.

[sparker]

*US Routes ... 400, 412, and 425

Please see below (although the veracity of some of this info has been called into question on these boards, it has not actually been debunked).

US 412 is a NHS/ISTEA High Priority Corridor, and was designated in 1982 (see https://www.aaroads.com/high-priority/corr08.html ). It might become a future Interstate. US 425 was added to the US route system in 1989; this is the preferred corridor for any future extension of I-530 to I-69. Part of US 425 is included in the I-69 corridor (see 6.4 ). US 371 was added as a branch route of US 71 in 1995 in LA and AR. US 400 is also a NHS/ISTEA High Priority Corridor, added to the US system in 1996, the newest US route (see https://www.aaroads.com/high-priority/corr03.html ). The number was picked by Kansas DOT out of a list of available numbers, and agreed to by Missouri and Colorado. US 400 is also planned as a future extension of I-66.

But why those numeros? Why not US 402, US 414, or US 426?

Apparently the decidedly arbitrary "400" series of routes was supposed to divide that centennial by 8, anchored by 400 itself.  Thus the next two numbers would be 412 and 425.  And the assessment of what corridors got those particular numbers seems to be essentially correct -- all three are either connected to legislated high priority corridors (400/HPC 3; 412/HPC 8) or potential limited-access routes, if only partially (425/I-530 as part of the HPC 18 multi-route compendium).  Any number with a decimal point (e.g. 412.5) is simply rounded down to the whole.  So the next one to be designated should be 437 (.5!).  But since HPC's intended to be future Interstates are more often than not, at least with the most recent additions,  being presently supplied with a specific number in their original authorizing legislation (a process used for 5 of the last 6 new trunk Interstates to be designated), the spate of 400's as purported "placeholders" may well be behind us.         

[dgolub]

If unsigned routes count, Westchester County in New York has a few four-digit county route numbers, despite all the others being below 400.

[thspfc]

WI-243, which is a glorified bridge over the St Croix River at Osceola. There's no 43 or 143 nearby.

[epzik8]

The state of Maryland has a system for its lowest-numbered state route range, which is 2 through 37. The lowest of these numbers, 2 through 6, are mostly contained within the southern part of the state; more specifically, south of Washington, DC and Annapolis. It goes on through the Eastern Shore, the Baltimore metro area, and central and western Maryland. The Eastern Shore's number range is 12 through 21, and Western Maryland is supposed to contain routes 33 through 37. But several decades ago, routes 17 and 33 were swapped. So, MD-17 is in Frederick and Washington counties in the western part of the state, and MD-33 is in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore. They should conventionally be the other way around.

[texaskdog]

Made me think when I lived in Wyoming my license plate was "49Y".  That sure is not a lot of combinations

[kurumi]

For a year or two, the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut was unsigned state road 999. That would have been cool to keep and sign.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky has 6000-series routes, which are frontage roads or otherwise unimportant state-maintained routes (such as some bridges on county routes over parkways or interstates). Most aren't signed, although some of them in the far western part of the state (Districts 1 and 2) are posted.

Makes you wonder if Kentucky doesn't anticipate its four-digit routes reaching 4000 or 5000. We're already up into the 3600s.

And then the parkways are unsigned 9000-series routes. The Mountain Parkway had a few identity crises when the tolls were removed from it. It was originally numbered KY 114 (which would have been logical, since the route between Salyersville and Prestonsburg was known as the Mountain Parkway Extension and was co-signed as KY 114 and the Mountain Parkway for years in Floyd County.) Then it became KY 402. Neither number was posted, except for a brief time back in the late 1980s when contractors installed KY 402 signs at Exit 33 when the toll booth was removed there and the interchange was reconfigured. Wish I had gotten photos, but alas, I didn't.

[TheGrassGuy]

Kentucky has 6000-series routes, which are frontage roads or otherwise unimportant state-maintained routes (such as some bridges on county routes over parkways or interstates). Most aren't signed, although some of them in the far western part of the state (Districts 1 and 2) are posted.

Makes you wonder if Kentucky doesn't anticipate its four-digit routes reaching 4000 or 5000. We're already up into the 3600s.

And then the parkways are unsigned 9000-series routes. The Mountain Parkway had a few identity crises when the tolls were removed from it. It was originally numbered KY 114 (which would have been logical, since the route between Salyersville and Prestonsburg was known as the Mountain Parkway Extension and was co-signed as KY 114 and the Mountain Parkway for years in Floyd County.) Then it became KY 402. Neither number was posted, except for a brief time back in the late 1980s when contractors installed KY 402 signs at Exit 33 when the toll booth was removed there and the interchange was reconfigured. Wish I had gotten photos, but alas, I didn't.

Kentucky has a crap ton of 4-digits. Originally, the system was neat and tidy with only 100 routes, organized like the interstate system. But more and more new routes were added to the state highway system, and all numbers between 100 and 6000 are in sequential order.

[ce929wax]

OSR in Texas comes to mind.

[MNHighwayMan]

OSR in Texas comes to mind.

Technically not a numbered route.

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma routes are wacky enough that it's hard to point to individual routes as "unusually numbered". However, most of the ones that can be are lettered spur routes, which quite logically are children of one- or two-digit state or US routes, with a letter suffix to identify them.

• 251A is probably the wackiest, because there is not and never has been a 251. However, there was once an entire series of 251 routes in the area that it serves, so at least it sort of had a reason to exist.
• 40A is second-wackiest, because it doesn't connect to I-40, the only highway 40 in the state (and none of the interstates have lettered spurs anyway). However, it is a spur off US-177, which was SH-40 before it was a US highway.
• 77 has a few wacky letters that don't go in order, such as 77H (the H is probably after the defunct town of Hollywood) and 77S (scenic, maybe?) 412 has 412P, the P probably meaning "port".
  

[ce929wax]

OSR in Texas comes to mind.

Technically not a numbered route.

Technically, but it is a route, and it is unusually designated.

[TheGrassGuy]

Oklahoma routes are wacky enough that it's hard to point to individual routes as "unusually numbered". However, most of the ones that can be are lettered spur routes, which quite logically are children of one- or two-digit state or US routes, with a letter suffix to identify them.

• 251A is probably the wackiest, because there is not and never has been a 251. However, there was once an entire series of 251 routes in the area that it serves, so at least it sort of had a reason to exist.
• 40A is second-wackiest, because it doesn't connect to I-40, the only highway 40 in the state (and none of the interstates have lettered spurs anyway). However, it is a spur off US-177, which was SH-40 before it was a US highway.
• 77 has a few wacky letters that don't go in order, such as 77H (the H is probably after the defunct town of Hollywood) and 77S (scenic, maybe?) 412 has 412P, the P probably meaning "port".
  

Not a route number, but the NB-only exit on the Garden State Parkway for NJ-19 was Numbered Exit 155P. P for Paterson, I presume? Thank goodness they renumbered Exit 155P and Exit 155 to plain old Exits 155A-B recently.