"Bypasses" around Nothing Special

[pderocco]

Was the original purpose of 78 to provide a bypass for thru traffic on US-1, meaning it was once planned to continue southwest and rejoin US-1? Or was its purpose exactly what exists now, providing a bypass for thru traffic between I-95 and RI US-1? The latter seems more likely to me.

[Rothman]

Was the original purpose of 78 to provide a bypass for thru traffic on US-1, meaning it was once planned to continue southwest and rejoin US-1? Or was its purpose exactly what exists now, providing a bypass for thru traffic between I-95 and RI US-1? The latter seems more likely to me.

The latter.

[seicer]

I-215 and Old 215 (originally old US 395/TEMP I-15E) near Alessandro Boulevard in Moreno Valley.

The 215 realignment to the west (opened ca. 1994) seems to have been created for a railroad track in the area...that is no longer in use and has been removed, in favor of warehouses built since the newer freeway opened.  Historicaerials shows the area around the old alignment being semi-rural in the 1980s.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9210153,-117.2862229,2752m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

It appears that the portion of US 395 (that portion which later became I-215) from SR 60 to Cactus Avenue paralleled tracks and had numerous at-grade intersections that would have proven difficult to upgrade without relocating the tracks or providing some off-set interchanges, similar to what's being done along US 33 in Ohio: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NcA3qX6rWyJWkA6R9 

Those tracks are still active, it seems.

[sprjus4]

I nominate the two-year-old Mentone Bypass, a four-lane bypass of the town of 22. The bypass directs trucks around the town to the oil fields in the north.



Kinda looks like the beginnings of a Cities: Skylines world.

My favorite part of this "bypass" is the fact it is 4 lanes. Must get quite the traffic counts.

[Beltway]

I would call that a relocation, not a bypass.

An example is the 6.8 mile US-460 Poole Siding Relocation in Dinwiddie County, VA. No towns are bypassed.

As part of the program to upgrade US-460 to a 4-lane divided highway, this was built because the original highway crossed the parallel Norfolk and Western Railroad twice with bridges, and the relocated highway stayed south of the railroad without crossing it.  These were very old narrow 2-lane underpasses and rest of the segment was 2 lanes and with substandard alignment.

[michravera]

US-70 Bypass near Selma, North Carolina, comes to mind because it's not a bypass of the designated business route and rather serves as a bypass of an interchange.

I-5 and CASR-14 in Southern California as well as I-580 in Northern California have Truck Bypasses in order to avoid trucks ending up on the left side of the freeway where they aren't allowed to be.

[pderocco]

US-70 Bypass near Selma, North Carolina, comes to mind because it's not a bypass of the designated business route and rather serves as a bypass of an interchange.

I-5 and CASR-14 in Southern California as well as I-580 in Northern California have Truck Bypasses in order to avoid trucks ending up on the left side of the freeway where they aren't allowed to be.

That's a common thing, but they're not usually "bypasses", or even "truck routes", just truck lanes. (See the I-5/I-210 and I-5/I-405 interchanges just south, or the I-5/CA-99 interchange further north.) But the I-5/CA-14 interchange is more complicated, as the truck lanes and main lanes have different connections to surface roads. TravelMapping treats the I-5 truck lanes as a separate road, I guess due to its connection to Sierra Hwy, but even that doesn't describe all the details.

Further south, the I-5/I-805 interchange is two interleaved interchanges, where the main lanes to/from the south provide access to Carmel Valley Rd, while the signed "Local Bypass" lanes provide access to CA-56. To/from the north, neither have a direct connection to CA-56. Yet TravelMapping doesn't show a separate I-5 bypass.

[kphoger]

I would call that a relocation, not a bypass.

I mean, that's your right.  But it's name includes "bypass", and it is signed as such.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/DeqUVEqYLADRrHg48
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pnJRz4sC3DkwwMUk8

My favorite part of this "bypass" is the fact it is 4 lanes. Must get quite the traffic counts.

Did you look at TX-302 northeast of town?  It's been upgraded to 2+1 lanes all the way to Kermit and beyond.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rjwFQCJtsEvc6pVy5

And CH-300 itself is four lanes as well.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RBb6JZcxZCmTgxvb6

The 2024 AADT count just northeast of Mentone was almost 10,000—more than twice the 2019 count.  Just from 2020 to 2021, there was a 50% increase in AADT at that station.

[michravera]

US-70 Bypass near Selma, North Carolina, comes to mind because it's not a bypass of the designated business route and rather serves as a bypass of an interchange.

I-5 and CASR-14 in Southern California as well as I-580 in Northern California have Truck Bypasses in order to avoid trucks ending up on the left side of the freeway where they aren't allowed to be.

That's a common thing, but they're not usually "bypasses", or even "truck routes", just truck lanes. (See the I-5/I-210 and I-5/I-405 interchanges just south, or the I-5/CA-99 interchange further north.) But the I-5/CA-14 interchange is more complicated, as the truck lanes and main lanes have different connections to surface roads. TravelMapping treats the I-5 truck lanes as a separate road, I guess due to its connection to Sierra Hwy, but even that doesn't describe all the details.

Further south, the I-5/I-805 interchange is two interleaved interchanges, where the main lanes to/from the south provide access to Carmel Valley Rd, while the signed "Local Bypass" lanes provide access to CA-56. To/from the north, neither have a direct connection to CA-56. Yet TravelMapping doesn't show a separate I-5 bypass.

I guess that the instruction "TRUCKS MUST USE BYPASS" doesn't make them a "bypass" bypass but a "'bypass that isn't really a bypass bypass'" bypass.

[pderocco]

US-70 Bypass near Selma, North Carolina, comes to mind because it's not a bypass of the designated business route and rather serves as a bypass of an interchange.

I-5 and CASR-14 in Southern California as well as I-580 in Northern California have Truck Bypasses in order to avoid trucks ending up on the left side of the freeway where they aren't allowed to be.

That's a common thing, but they're not usually "bypasses", or even "truck routes", just truck lanes. (See the I-5/I-210 and I-5/I-405 interchanges just south, or the I-5/CA-99 interchange further north.) But the I-5/CA-14 interchange is more complicated, as the truck lanes and main lanes have different connections to surface roads. TravelMapping treats the I-5 truck lanes as a separate road, I guess due to its connection to Sierra Hwy, but even that doesn't describe all the details.

Further south, the I-5/I-805 interchange is two interleaved interchanges, where the main lanes to/from the south provide access to Carmel Valley Rd, while the signed "Local Bypass" lanes provide access to CA-56. To/from the north, neither have a direct connection to CA-56. Yet TravelMapping doesn't show a separate I-5 bypass.

I guess that the instruction "TRUCKS MUST USE BYPASS" doesn't make them a "bypass" bypass but a "'bypass that isn't really a bypass bypass'" bypass.

I guess that makes it a good example for this thread, because it's not really bypassing anything special.

That said, I often drove those truck lanes during the day, because the main line of I-5 often suffered a traffic jam approaching the top, so I was bypassing that.

[CoreySamson]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

[TheCatalyst31]

In the 70s, WisDOT decided that WIS 13 needed to bypass Ogema. WIS 13 is still a rural two-lane highway in that area, and Ogema is unincorporated with a population of 188.

[bassoon1986]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

Reminds me of Floyd TX a little further east on US 380 between McKinney and Greenville. Your bypass is much closer

[kphoger]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

It's not really a bypass.  It's just the new alignment of the mainline highway, with the old roadway being designated the business route.

[sprjus4]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

It's not really a bypass.  It's just the new alignment of the mainline highway, with the old roadway being designated the business route.

OP:

Today marks the opening of the Scott Miller Hill Bypass on US-33, a 4.3-mile realignment which is mostly in western Roane County, West Virginia.  This project was first planned about 40 years ago, and WVDOH has called this project a "bypass" for at least 30 years.  But the route bypasses no villages or other populated areas. 

[pderocco]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

It's not really a bypass.  It's just the new alignment of the mainline highway, with the old roadway being designated the business route.

OP:

Today marks the opening of the Scott Miller Hill Bypass on US-33, a 4.3-mile realignment which is mostly in western Roane County, West Virginia.  This project was first planned about 40 years ago, and WVDOH has called this project a "bypass" for at least 30 years.  But the route bypasses no villages or other populated areas. 

It took me about ten minutes to sleuth out what that original post referred to. A Google Maps link would have been nice. It's just another of the tens of thousands of road realignments that have happened over the years. I can see the planners referring to it as a bypass, but it's not signed as one, and the old alignment, a winding, slower road, only retained its street name, not a route designation. So it's not surprising that this thread gravitated toward examples of actual signed bypasses where the original road retained its designation, but seemed pointless. In Corey's example, small as Dundee is, it's not nothing.

[mgk920]

In the 70s, WisDOT decided that WIS 13 needed to bypass Ogema. WIS 13 is still a rural two-lane highway in that area, and Ogema is unincorporated with a population of 188.

Also in Wisconsin, WisDOT basically bypassed a gas station at Hatley, just east of Wausau.  They built the four lane WI 29 around it, complete with an interchange.  The effect is especially stark going eastbound at night.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/yL7eAtMHvyKRU3aZ9

Mike

[michravera]

US-70 Bypass near Selma, North Carolina, comes to mind because it's not a bypass of the designated business route and rather serves as a bypass of an interchange.

I-5 and CASR-14 in Southern California as well as I-580 in Northern California have Truck Bypasses in order to avoid trucks ending up on the left side of the freeway where they aren't allowed to be.

That's a common thing, but they're not usually "bypasses", or even "truck routes", just truck lanes. (See the I-5/I-210 and I-5/I-405 interchanges just south, or the I-5/CA-99 interchange further north.) But the I-5/CA-14 interchange is more complicated, as the truck lanes and main lanes have different connections to surface roads. TravelMapping treats the I-5 truck lanes as a separate road, I guess due to its connection to Sierra Hwy, but even that doesn't describe all the details.

Further south, the I-5/I-805 interchange is two interleaved interchanges, where the main lanes to/from the south provide access to Carmel Valley Rd, while the signed "Local Bypass" lanes provide access to CA-56. To/from the north, neither have a direct connection to CA-56. Yet TravelMapping doesn't show a separate I-5 bypass.

I guess that the instruction "TRUCKS MUST USE BYPASS" doesn't make them a "bypass" bypass but a "'bypass that isn't really a bypass bypass'" bypass.

I guess that makes it a good example for this thread, because it's not really bypassing anything special.

That said, I often drove those truck lanes during the day, because the main line of I-5 often suffered a traffic jam approaching the top, so I was bypassing that.

On SB I-5, it's very much easier to exit at Laval Rd, if you take the truck bypass. Since trucks need to show up in the right two lanes, when your goal is to end up in the right lane, it seems right to take the road build precisely for that!

[Road Hog]

My personal favorite (which I drove earlier this week) is probably the US 277 Dundee bypass in northern Texas.

Reminds me of Floyd TX a little further east on US 380 between McKinney and Greenville. Your bypass is much closer

I mentioned this one on the first page. I get that the highway was 4-laned around it, but it seemed silly for TxDOT to keep it in the state system at all, much less as a Business highway.