![Ghostrampbtv](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Ghostrampbtv.JPG)
An unused highway is a
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...
or highway ramp that was partially or fully constructed, but went unused or was later closed. An unused roadway or ramp may often be referred to as an abandoned road, ghost road, highway to nowhere, stub ramp, ghost ramp, ski jump, stub street, stub-out, or simply stub.
Examples
![Dead-Man's Curve in Lebec, California, 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Dead-Man%27s_Curve_in_Lebec%2C_California%2C_2010.jpg)
Some examples of reasons for unused highways include:
* An older portion of roadway being left unused by a highway realignment. The
Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike is the common name of a stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 when a modern stretch opened to ease traffic congestion in the tunnels. In this case, the Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hi ...
is one instance of this, where two 2-lane tunnels and 4-lane approaches were bypassed with 4-lane cuts. The old tunnels and approach roadways in this case are being rehabilitated for a
multi-use trail
A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is 'designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists'. Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. A ...
. Some parts of the A1 and A3
motorways
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
in Italy have been recently abandoned after some dangerous, curvy and narrow mountain stretches were replaced by wider and straighter alignments through new viaducts and tunnels. In many roads in the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
, some dangerous sections were replaced by tunnels and the abandoned parts are usually closed to traffic and used as hiking trails.
* A road which existed to serve a bridge becomes a dead-end once the bridge is demolished or left to deteriorate to the point where it can no longer be safely used. This is common on some older alignments of
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
which were bypassed, as the route was changed through multiple realignments before becoming a
decommissioned highway in 1985.
* A road becomes a dead end once a level railway crossing is closed and replaced by an overpass/underpass some distance away from the former level crossing (common in Greece).
* A highway being closed and demolished, where stubs remain on intersecting roads. Examples include ramps from the
Embarcadero Freeway
Embarcadero, the Spanish word for wharf, may also refer specifically to:
Places
* Embarcadero (Oakland), California
* Embarcadero (San Diego), California
** Embarcadero Circle, waterfront re-development project in San Diego
* Embarcadero (San F ...
that remained on the
Bay Bridge approach (
Interstate 80) in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
after the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway proper. The remaining ramps were demolished in 2010–11 during demolition of the old
Transbay Terminal
The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...
to make way for the new
Transbay Transit Center
The Transbay Transit Center (officially the Salesforce Transit Center for sponsorship purposes) is a transit station in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal — and potentially as a future rail terminal — for the San ...
.
* Highway construction begins but is cancelled, possibly because of a
freeway revolt
Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles.
Many freeway r ...
. Examples include:
** The
Pennsylvania Route 23 "Goat Path" east of
Lancaster, which was graded for a four-lane expressway. The project was cancelled before paving could commence, so the roadbeds were planted over with grass.
** In
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, the
M11 motorway has two short unused slips at Junction 4 (Charlie Brown's) which would have been a link for the
M12 motorway
The M12 is a length of spur motorway in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was opened in 1970.
It leads off the main M1 motorway, to Portadown, part of the conurbation of Portadown- Craigavon-Lurgan, and forms most of the route between jun ...
to head east into
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
.
** The
R.H. Thomson Expressway
Reginald Heber Thomson (usually R.H. Thomson; 1856 – January 7, 1949) was a self-taught American civil engineer. He worked in Washington state, mainly in Seattle, where he became city engineer in 1892Ross Anderson, "Earthmovers", ''Seattle Metrop ...
in Seattle was never built, leaving
stub ramps.
** Likewise, there are unused ramps for the never-built Inner Belt and
Southwest Corridor (respectively,
I-695 and part of an unused alignment for
I-95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...
) in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts.
** There was a similar situation on the A4 motorway near
Delft, Netherlands, where works started in the 1960s but were stopped (and finished in 2016).
** In
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, the A31 motorway ends in the middle of nowhere, because works for extending it towards the A22 were stopped after protests in the late 1970s.
** The Guinza tunnel, part of the planned
European route E78
European route E 78 is a road part of the International E-road network. It begins in Grosseto, Italy and ends in Fano, Italy. It links the Tyrrhenean and Adriatic coasts.
The road follows: Grosseto - Siena - Arezzo - Città di Castello/Sel ...
Grosseto
Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river.
It is the ...
–
Fano
Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by po ...
expressway, was completed in 1991, and never opened to traffic. https://goo.gl/maps/ACeNPKTLjYrBrLfd9
** Another example is in Connecticut, along
I-84
Interstate 84 may refer to:
* Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N
* Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts)
Interstate 84 (I-84) is an Interstate Highway in the Northeaster ...
, near
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
. It is the only four-level stack interchange in the state, however it is only partly used.
** New York's
parkway system has many stubs because it was the primary freeway system in the state (and still makes up a major portion of it, particularly in and near NYC) before the
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...
came to fruition. Once New York started building Interstate Highways, however, many of the expansion projects in progress for the state's parkways were abandoned. Examples include exit 2 and exit 9 on the
Cross County Parkway
The Cross County Parkway (CCP) is a parkway in lower Westchester County, New York, in the United States. The parkway is a critical east–west connection throughout Westchester, having full interchanges with every major north–south high ...
, the
Taconic State Parkway
The Taconic State Parkway (often called the Taconic or the TSP and known administratively as New York State Route 987G or NY 987G) is a parkway between Kensico Dam and Chatham, the longest in the U.S. state of New York. It follows ...
at I-90, the
Northern State Parkway
The Northern State Parkway (also known as the Northern Parkway or Northern State) is a limited-access state parkway on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. The western terminus is at the Queens– Nassau County line, where the parkway conti ...
at NY 454, and both the eastern and western terminus of the
Lake Ontario State Parkway
The Lake Ontario State Parkway is a parkway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario in Western New York in the United States. The western end of the highway is at a partial interchange within Lakeside Beach State Park in Carlton, Orleans Count ...
.
**
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
's
Foreshore Freeway Bridge
The Foreshore Freeway Bridge, also known as Cape Town's Unfinished Bridge, is an incomplete section of what was intended to be the Eastern Boulevard Highway in the city bowl of Cape Town, South Africa. Conceptualised and Civil engineering, desig ...
, which has stood unfinished since construction was halted in 1977.
* Stubs are built to connect to a highway that is not yet constructed. These stubs are very common in the state of
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
, where they will eventually connect to new stretches of
I-73
Interstate 73 (I-73) is a north–south Interstate Highway, located within the US state of North Carolina. Currently, there is one continuous section of I-73, totaling , first traversing the U.S. Route 220 (US 220) freeway from ...
,
I-74
}
Interstate 74 (I-74) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an interchange with I-80 in Davenport, Iowa (Quad Cities); the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchang ...
, and
I-840, among others, along the
Greensboro Urban Loop
The Greensboro Urban Loop is a Interstate Highway beltway that surrounds Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of ...
. Remnants of stub ramps can be seen on the
Massachusetts Turnpike
The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...
in
West Stockbridge. The ramps were used to connect the newly built highway, completed in May 1957, with local roads prior to the connection with the
New York State Thruway, completed
to the NY-MA state line in May 1959. Also, in Melbourne, Florida, the westernmost point of
Pineda Causeway
State Road 404 (SR 404), the Pineda Causeway, is an east–west divided highway currently running from Interstate 95 (I-95) to SR A1A at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, US. It was opened as a toll road in 1971 and classified as ...
will eventually connect to Wickham Road, but for the meantime, it has been blocked westward of the I-95 ramp.
* When a
divided highway
A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
ends, there are sometimes a stub exists where more of highway could become a divided highway and tie into the stub.
* A part of the highway can become unused due to changes in national borders. Some stretches of the
Berlin–Königsberg autobahn are unused after the partition of
East Prussia because the highway lacks a
border crossing
Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...
between Poland and Russia. Some small roads between different European countries did not have border crossing facilities and were closed to traffic until those countries joined the
Schengen Agreement
The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...
. Some border roads are closed when the two countries have bad relations or are at war with each other, for example between
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
-
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
,
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
-
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
-
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
-
Syria,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
-
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
, and
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
-
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
. Even countries on good terms with each other have decided to close some less-trafficked cross-border roads for security reasons, as the US and Canada did along
their border south of
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
prior to the
1976 Summer Olympics
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 P ...
there.
* The highway is used for a purpose different from what was originally intended. The east end of
I-70
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the c ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and the stub of
I-95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...
inside the
Capital Beltway
The Capital Beltway is a Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area that surrounds Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. It is the basis of the phrase " inside ...
northeast of
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
, are two examples because of the cancellations of their alignments within the inner city. Both of these stubs are used for
park-and-ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...
facilities. In England, improvement works in 1987 rerouted the
A47 in
Rutland near
Wardley, resulting in an unused stretch of carriageway that was left behind, which functions only as access to a transmitting station. Part of the
A2 in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
was realigned in 2009, leaving a substantial part of the original road intact. Part of the road has been made into a public park. On
I-90 near
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...
, an interchange was built for the planned
I-687; that interchange (labeled as exit 5A off I-90) now serves as an exit for Corporate Woods Boulevard. The exit ramps occupy nearly as much space as the area they serve.
* The highway has unused lanes. The
1000 Islands Parkway
The Thousand Islands Parkway (often written as 1000 Islands Parkway) is a Scenic route, scenic parkway in the Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It extends easterly from an interchange (road), interchange with Highway 401 in Gananoque for ...
contains two "ghost lanes" for its entire length. Its right-of-way is four-lane divided, as it was part of
Highway 401
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one,
is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
, Canada's busiest highway, during that freeway's construction. When Highway 401 was ultimately completed in 1968, the final 1000 Islands bypass took a path further inland. Two lanes of the original four-lane waterfront right-of-way were retained and used for the scenic parkway, the rest becoming small pedestrian or bicycle trails laid out in an otherwise-vacant freeway-grade right-of-way.
See also
*
Bridge to nowhere
A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken, incomplete, or unconnected to any roads. If it is an overpass or an interchange, the term overpass to nowhere or interchange to nowhere may be used respectively. There are fi ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unused Highway
Cancelled highway projects
Road junction types
Highways
Waste of resources