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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. |
A decommissioned highway is a highway that has been removed from service, shut down or has had its authorization as a federal or state highway removed. Decommissioning can include the complete or partial demolition or abandonment of an old highway structure because the old roadway has lost its utility, but such is not always the norm. Where the old highway has continuing value, it likely remains as a local road offering access to properties denied access to the new road or for use by slow vehicles such as farm equipment and horse-drawn vehicles denied use of the newer highway.
Decommissioning can also include the removal of one or more of the multiple designations of a single segment of highway. As an example, what remains as U.S. Route 60 between Wickenberg, Arizona and Phoenix, Arizona carried the routes of three US highways (U.S. Route 60, U.S. Route 70, U.S. Route 89) and one state highway (Arizona State Route 93).[1] The highway remains a federal highway, but with fewer designations.
In the United States
Decommissioned highways are common in the United States of America, as the states build freeways as a new classification of highways, the state may strip the old highway of its old designation as a numbered highway or downgrade it to a 'lesser' status. For example, U.S. Route 66, which connected Chicago and Los Angeles from 1926 until 1972, lost its designation as a U.S. Highway in favor of faster, more direct Interstate highways, which had supplanted it. Some state highways may be partly decommissioned, such as M-21 in Michigan, or wholly decommissioned in favor of newer Interstate routes, as was the case with Texas State Highway 9.[2] Some routes are devolved to lower authorities, as with U.S. 61 in Minnesota, which became Minnesota 61. At the extreme a decommissioned route may be demolished, as was done with California State Highway 480. Once part of the Interstate Highway System, it required retrofitting to remain in service after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 to remain in use, instead the highway was demolished. [3]
Even as superhighways supplant older surface routes as through routes, some historical highways get attention from those with antiquarian (and commercial) interests in the continued recognition of such routes. Route 66 in the midwestern and southwestern United States is a prime example of such efforts; "Historic Route US 66" markers, completely unofficial, designate most of the old surface road, some of which has literary significance (as in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath).
Outside the United States
The phenomenon also exists in the Canadian province of Québec,[citation needed] where Autoroutes similar to American Interstate Highways supplant old through routes, and in Germany,[citation needed] where Autobahns supplant an older through route, as in Bundesstraße 60 (best translated as Federal Highway 60), which disappeared as the A40 Autobahn supplanted it. In the Republic of Ireland, National Primary Routes are often realigned after the construction of new motorway sections, dual carriageways or bypasses. The old route thus loses its national route status and is usually redesignated as a Regional Road.
References
- Harris, Nancy (1992-08-16). "Route 66 winds its way through America's history". The Kansas City Star. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=KC&p_theme=kc&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF3E08A938DE6C&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- Martinez, Michael (2006-02-18). "Route 66 still a `classic American trek'". The Chicago Tribune. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-142270379.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- Cobb, Nathan (2001-03-10). "Homage to the Mother Road". The Boston Globe. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EBB69719A0CA01A&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
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