Useless roads

[BridgesToIdealism]

Are there any routes/roads (Interstate or otherwise) that are completely useless in terms of serving little to no traffic, and could easily be demolished/eliminated without disrupting things? These can be roads that never should have been built in the first place (likely because they were a result of pork spending), roads that are heavily underutilized because they have substantial unbuilt segments that would have made them more significant, and/or roads that have been made completely redundant by a newer and better road.

The two that come to my mind immediately, both falling into the first category of "never should have been built in the first place" would be Interstate 180 in Illinois and the Chickasaw Turnpike-to-nowhere in Oklahoma.

[hotdogPi]

CT 11

[silverback1065]

I-74 from Indy to Peoria is marginally useful. I-69 to evansville should have been built instead of this. I-64 in indiana is also meh.

[skluth]

WI 127

[skluth]

I-74 from Indy to Peoria is marginally useful. I-69 to evansville should have been built instead of this. I-64 in indiana is also meh.

It might feel "marginally useful" in Indiana, but not in Illinois. It's also part of a longer de facto bypass of Chicago and the toll roads going west from Pittsburgh on I-70 to Indy, I-64 to Bloomington IL, and then either north on I-39 to Rockford or west on I-74 to the Quad Cities.

Edit after several following posts: I-64 to Bloomington should be I-74. Oops. 

[hotdogPi]

I-74 from Indy to Peoria is marginally useful. I-69 to evansville should have been built instead of this. I-64 in indiana is also meh.

I-64 in Indiana is supposed to be St. Louis to Louisville. It should have hit Evansville, but not having it at all would not have been a good idea unless Champaign-Terre Haute-Bloomington-Louisville existed.

@reply #6: So I-74 should have been the diagonal route described above instead of going to Indianapolis?

[silverback1065]

I-74 from Indy to Peoria is marginally useful. I-69 to evansville should have been built instead of this. I-64 in indiana is also meh.

It might feel "marginally useful" in Indiana, but not in Illinois. It's also part of a longer de facto bypass of Chicago and the toll roads going west from Pittsburgh on I-70 to Indy, I-64 to Bloomington IL, and then either north on I-39 to Rockford or west on I-74 to the Quad Cities.

I get that, but at least from Indiana standpoint getting 69 to eville made more sense than that road. In indiana us 136 was fine.

[NWI_Irish96]

When the Cline Avenue bridge over the Indiana Harbor Canal was closed and then torn down due to safety concerns, the west leg of the freeway became useless.

[I-55]

IN-9 between US-24 and Mt Etna has no need to be 4 lanes. 2 lanes would suffice.

[silverback1065]

IN 16 no idea why this state road exists. It literally doesn't enter a single city. I think each place it does cross is unincorporated.

[KCRoadFan]

I-180 in Illinois comes to mind...

[Flint1979]

I-375 in Detroit

[Flint1979]

IN 16 no idea why this state road exists. It literally doesn't enter a single city. I think each place it does cross is unincorporated.

I've driven on that road before. My only memory of it was passing a landfill near Buffalo.

And what's with the useless concurrency with IN-119?

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 229 still being in the State Highway System is questionable.  The north/two lane portion was US 466 and serves the barely existing Creston.  No real state level services are needed which couldn't be provided by San Luis Obispo County. 

[NWI_Irish96]

IN 16 no idea why this state road exists. It literally doesn't enter a single city. I think each place it does cross is unincorporated.

The state highway designation is useless but the road itself isn't so I didn't mention it because I didn't think that is what the OP was going for.

However I do know that Monon is incorporated (I lived there from ages 4-8) and possibly a couple others.

[thspfc]

I-95 tbh, could throw I-5 in there as well

[thspfc]

WI 127

I stand by my proclaimation that WI-127 is THE most useless designated and well signed state maintained highway in the country. Prove me wrong.

[silverback1065]

I-95 tbh, could throw I-5 in there as well

citation needed

[silverback1065]

IN-340, this road is literally a few hundred feet from US 40 its entire length.

[I-55]

IN-340, this road is literally a few hundred feet from US 40 its entire length.

The fact that INDOT hasn't handed that to the county surprises me. You'd think they would've gotten rid of it in a half a minute.

[thspfc]

I-95 tbh, could throw I-5 in there as well

citation needed

https://photos1.blogger.com/img/177/3509/640/county%20sign.jpg

[webny99]

The northern section of the Niagara Scenic Pkwy, formerly Robert Moses State Parkway, serves little traffic, badly needs paving, and could honestly probably be eliminated. The most recent AADT on the Pletcher Rd-Youngstown segment is only about 4.4K and parallel NY 18 has an AADT of under 3K.

[Thing 342]

Not sure why SC-162 and SC-164 exist.

[DandyDan]

Whatever you think of I-180 in Illinois existing, the bridge over the Illinois River at Hennepin needs to exist, at least for local traffic.

[BrianP]

MD:

Interstate: I-70 inside I-695, basically useless.

US: 40 this has become redundant to I-95/70/68. Heck much of the time it's either multiplexed with an interstate or might as well be.  Not totally useless but the most useless of the US routes in the state with the exception of the western part which enters PA.

MD: 615 It connects I-70 to the PA line.  There's no PA route that it connects to and there's another local road just to east which does the same job. And there are no towns along the route.  There may be other state routes in contention but that came to mind first.