10 (More) Crazy American "Highways to Nowhere"

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  • Опубліковано 8 лют 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 117

  • @TimTomsen-o9h
    @TimTomsen-o9h 4 місяці тому +50

    Lasalle Expressway and Milestrip Expressway, two short highways that were supposed to connect as part of an outer beltway around the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area...

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому +3

      Appreciate the ideas, I'll definitely look into those ones for a future video!

    • @johnhelinski
      @johnhelinski 4 місяці тому +4

      Hello fellow buffalonian!

    • @markvolpe2305
      @markvolpe2305 4 місяці тому +4

      You also have to include the unfinished I-990 project.

    • @ThatsMrAwesomesauce
      @ThatsMrAwesomesauce 4 місяці тому +4

      I always wondered why milestrip was divided that way! Any idea where it would have routed going north/south?

    • @brandonreed1793
      @brandonreed1793 2 місяці тому +3

      buffalo!!!

  • @Ronprower
    @Ronprower 4 місяці тому +36

    There use to a fairly famous failed housing just outside Branson, MO called Indian Ridge Resort. Nearly completed mini mansions where abandoned in various stages of completion. They stood there until just a few years ago when they demolished everything after so many people kept going there to see them.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому +5

      That's a wild one! Crazy how far along some of those houses got before the project fizzled out

  • @ChaseRiverBand
    @ChaseRiverBand 25 днів тому +1

    So cool that you added this "Part 2"... I just found it! And it was especially great that I was very familiar with two of the Nowhere Highways in your first video on this subject. But I was even more surprised that I experienced your #4 in this one on a road trip. We'd been travelling from the Toronto and Buffalo areas back to the DC/MD/VA metro area and were taking Rt 219. We unexpectedly came upon the dead end you describe here. At least we were re-routed to the "old/current" Rt 219, which goes through Ellicottville, NY. It was a beautiful small town to visit and explore -- a very nice stop on the way home!
    Thanks for another great video. Excellent work. Hoping for a Part 3!

  • @samquinn5545
    @samquinn5545 21 день тому +4

    Thank you for covering I-180 in IL- there was once a plan to actually connect it to Illinois Route 6 in the Peoria area at Chillicothe, but ultimately plans never materialized.

  • @johnlozowski102
    @johnlozowski102 4 місяці тому +12

    I-78 in NJ once had a stretch of freeway that abruptly ended in the Watchung Reservation . For about 20 years there was about a 2 mile stretch of unused roadway that teenagers on motorcycles would ride up and down. Also some serious drag racing went on there back in the 70s . Finanally got completed in the 1980s, where today no one would ever know what once went on there. Great time back then!

    • @alphax4785
      @alphax4785 4 місяці тому

      Yeah I-78 through Watchung is quite the impressive road since it's 6 interstate lanes cut into the side of a mountain instead of the usual 4.

    • @samsnead2947
      @samsnead2947 4 місяці тому

      That stretch was held up in court by environmentalists activists sued the government to stop it held it up those years

  • @michiganrulez1
    @michiganrulez1 Місяць тому +5

    In Pontiac, MI there was suppose to be a whole brand new development planned in early 2000 which they started but due to funding from the company which turned into fraud declaring bankruptcy the development failed as they started, it’s been retrofitted today to being a new plaza full of stores

  • @lindsaynic
    @lindsaynic 12 днів тому

    I was fully not expecting Lake Ontario Parkway to be in this video! I grew up in Western NY, and have travelled the Parkway many times. It is an absolutely beautiful drive with marshy lake views. The parts near its western terminus are also terrifying in the dark during winter, as you are flanked by water on both sides of the road a good amount of time. I highly recommend a drive during the summer!

  • @JonSSteiner
    @JonSSteiner Місяць тому +3

    I commute via the Ontario state parkway almost daily when the weather is nice. It’s a beautiful drive

  • @stevensiferd7104
    @stevensiferd7104 Місяць тому +6

    Have you heard of California 252? It is now a cancelled freeway. It was originally proposed to connect I-805 with the intersection of I-5 and I-15 on the southern edge of San Diego. They built the ramps from I-805, but the rest of the freeway (about 1.25 miles) was opposed by people in the neighborhood. The ramps from I-805 are now used as the 43rd Street exit.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  Місяць тому +1

      Not familiar with that one, thanks for mentioning it!

  • @toyotaecw
    @toyotaecw 24 дні тому +1

    1. I’m beginning to realize “environmental issues” aren’t a good enough excuse to halt a project.
    2. You see roads to nowhere, I see prime locations for the Mexican Racing League

  • @TramTrafficLightMan
    @TramTrafficLightMan 4 місяці тому +4

    One in my home state, Massachusetts, is the abandoned I-95 path to Boston. Along with a few others like the ghost intersection on I-93 (now partially exit 18) and the unfinished project where I-95 was supposed to go north of Boston. These were mainly canceled due to protests. I-95 now runs like a beltway bypassing Boston. That section is called the Yankee Division which is basically MA-128.

  • @SundayPancakeBreakfast
    @SundayPancakeBreakfast 4 місяці тому +3

    Ayyyy RT219 made it!

  • @AcuraLvR82
    @AcuraLvR82 4 місяці тому +1

    I was about to suggest Ozark Mountain High Road but evidently u already covered it in the first video. Watching it after this one is over. Great content.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому

      Appreciate it, glad you're liking the content!

  • @SeanFanelli
    @SeanFanelli 4 місяці тому +4

    Thanks for doing pa 23! I always wondered where that was supposed to go. Having that conplete with an interchange at 422 would be a godsend to local traffic in the area

    • @daffers2345
      @daffers2345 Місяць тому

      It would now -- but not decades ago when it was first built.

  • @ljosephdumas3113
    @ljosephdumas3113 15 днів тому

    Glad I waited before commenting on your previous video. You got New York's (AKA Robert Moses') fever dreams that got stopped.

  • @opedroppedthesoap
    @opedroppedthesoap 4 місяці тому +15

    Was about to call this the east coast edition til you threw in IL and CA. 😂

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому

      Haha true 🤣 I’ll make sure I add a little more geographic diversity in to the next video

  • @Rymac91
    @Rymac91 4 місяці тому +4

    There's a failed development called Newfields to the West of Dayton, Ohio that was going to be constructed along the western leg of the planned I-675 project.
    When the western leg of I-675 was canceled (it never got off the planning stage) the Newfields project died and the majority of the land was sold to the state to became Sycamore State Park. A small portion of the land was developed on Sycamore Woods Blvd.

  • @geoffreylee5199
    @geoffreylee5199 2 місяці тому +3

    We have been on the Springville Road south of Buffalo NY.

  • @LeahK2018
    @LeahK2018 4 місяці тому +15

    You are wrong about route 219 in NY. Route 219 wasn't supposed to be built from West Seneca to Pennsylvania all at once. They road was done in phases.they have done 4 parts of the highway so far. The section from Springville to End of road was just completed in 2020. Was called the Springville bypass. When more funding becomes available the 5th part of the highway will start construction most like to Ellicottville NY. So basically, they ended the highway where it was today was the plan all along. I live in the area and use the highway regularly.

    • @davestewart2067
      @davestewart2067 4 місяці тому +2

      219 is a US route not just a state highway. Was at one time part of a “continental one” vision that was supposed to extend south. One of its major backers was the late Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania.

  • @drewpatterson8261
    @drewpatterson8261 4 місяці тому +3

    As a resident of the Toronto area. The Lake Ontario State Parkway would have probably seen more Canadian drivers than American drivers if it were completed. I know a lot of Canadians in the Toronto and Southern Ontario areas would have appreciated the quick and easy access to Rochester.
    Not to mention avoid paying the tolls on the I-90.

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 4 місяці тому +1

      its NY so if it was finished you can bet they would slap tolls on it.

  • @MarkfromNewYork
    @MarkfromNewYork 4 місяці тому +5

    i drive on 135 every day, it gets a lot of traffic, its a major north south route on Long Island from the LIE to Sunrise.

  • @jukkasarilo7573
    @jukkasarilo7573 Місяць тому +2

    In Finland we finish, what we start. Obviously because of funding we do not start.

  • @WesleyFoderaro
    @WesleyFoderaro Місяць тому +1

    Love your videos! My sons do too! In northern Illinois there is an unfinished widening of US route 14 near Woodstock where there are double wide overpasses and graded and grassed lanes that are/were meant to be widened northwest bound lanes should the highway ever need to be widened to a divided Highway. Also, interstate US route 12 southeast bound in Wisconsin abruptly ends at the Illinois border near Richmond. There are unused ramps, and “ghost lanes” extending southward that disappear into brush and fields. Apparently Illinois dropped the ball on extending the expressway portion southeast bound where it remains a surface level 2 lane street with side streets, stoplights and TONS of traffic!

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  Місяць тому

      Thanks, glad you all are enjoying them!! And I appreciate you throwing that one out there, I wasnt familiar with that one but will definitely need to look into it more now!

  • @robinier
    @robinier 4 місяці тому +2

    Not sure how glamorous it is, but Louisiana State Highway 1141 in Cameron LA is completely disconnected from the mainland (but still technically under state control). The ferry service to Monkey Island got washed out by Hurrican Rita in 2005 and never got restored.
    There's also TX highway 87 between Port Arthur and Galveston whose entire middle section is just... gone. If you drive west from Port Arthur it just stops. Washed out by erosion and never rebuilt. Funny because the signs still mark the bypass route as a TX 87 "detour."

  • @IndyCarFan265
    @IndyCarFan265 4 місяці тому +5

    You should take a look at Miami's unbuilt expressways, I even made an interactive map of them all w/ exits and info included.

    • @XanaxDust214
      @XanaxDust214 4 місяці тому

      I've never understood how I-75's intended terminus at I-95 was canceled due to local opposition, yet highway 924 currently is a freeway that essentially picks up from where 75 instead currently ends, and traverses the remaining 7 or 8 miles of what would've otherwise been I-75, to I-95.

    • @nc5958
      @nc5958 3 місяці тому

      @@XanaxDust214 Without SR 924, the southern terminus of I-75 would have been SR 826. I-75 was originally planned to be built further south but then SR 84 was chosen for the route east from Naples instead of US 41. Local opposition delayed construction of SR 924. However, FDOT was determined to build the toll road and now it appears to be an attempt to connect I-75 to I-95. I am not sure why SR 924 was built. It was not intended to be an extension of I-75 and the original route was slightly longer.

  • @retroryan838
    @retroryan838 10 днів тому

    You forget to mention US-12 in Elkhorn and Genoa City, Wisconsin. If you make a third video, be sure to include that because it’s also interesting.

  • @ralphbalfoort2909
    @ralphbalfoort2909 4 місяці тому +1

    There's Exit 5-A on I-90 in Albany, NY. It was supposed to be a connector to I-687 that was never built. Or Exit 6 that was supposed to tunnel under Washington Park to a connection with I-87 at Exit 23.

  • @edkiess6953
    @edkiess6953 8 днів тому +1

    I followed this video with a second screen of Google Maps, stopping to get a car's eyeviews. Great way for a 76-year-old boy to spend a Friday afternoon in Albuquerque. Funding. Is that the "F" word?
    🤣👍

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  7 днів тому

      Thanks for watching, glad you found it interesting!

  • @killerwhaletank
    @killerwhaletank 4 місяці тому +1

    I honestly had no idea that NY-219 just ended like that! I guess I never made it that far south.

  • @bearcubdaycare
    @bearcubdaycare 27 днів тому +2

    I recall seeing data that showed that transportation departments consistently overestimate usage of planned roads. Lots of lost homes and farmland as a result. They need to focus better on the real transportation needs, often quite visible but perhaps hard to fix.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  27 днів тому

      Agreed! it's important that the planners don't get too locked in on one mode of transportation or one transit ideal. Everywhere is different and different places require different solutions!

  • @petuniaskunk2316
    @petuniaskunk2316 4 місяці тому +4

    There’s the abandoned portion of I-22 in Birmingham Alabama at an interchange with I-65

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому +1

      That's a cool one, that I hadn't heard of before! Looking at it on google maps now... neat how it sorta dead ends at the railroad overpass with the other flyovers above it

    • @petuniaskunk2316
      @petuniaskunk2316 2 місяці тому

      8:13 there’s also State Highway 6 in Mossville

  • @travist.7279
    @travist.7279 14 днів тому

    This is a repost from the other video, about a long-forgotten Highway-to-Nowhere in Sacramento, California. On the north side of Sacramento, a bypass for I-80 was being constructed to replace an outdated section of U.S. 40----including a dangerously sharp turn. All but the last 500 feet of the 3-mile bypass had been completed by 1970 (including all overpasses, ramps, and a mile-plus elevated section). The final 500-ft section would have to clip a far corner of the Haggin Oaks Golf Course. The golf course refused to give-up the land, and fought the city and state in court. Finally, after nearly two decades of fighting, the state abandoned the project. That 3-mile section, completely paved and signed, never saw a single car! The entire project was later demolished (mid 90's) and the land was turned over to Sacramento's new "light rail" project.

  • @nc5958
    @nc5958 4 місяці тому +2

    I am not familiar with many roads outside of Florida that are not interstates. More specifically, main interstates and not the spur routes. Many Floridians view the Suncoast Parkway as a road to nowhere that should not have been built. This list (and the previous list) are great examples of roads to nowhere.

  • @jpatterson4042
    @jpatterson4042 2 місяці тому

    You missed the western end of the PA rte 23 at us rt 30 in Lancaster. Was supposed to interchange 30 at walnut st and had roadway grading work done and some overpasses and interchanges completed up to somewhere around Leola / New Holland. Has grass on it so some of the amish pastured livestock on it giving it the nickname the goat highway. Though recently a short 2 lane section was completed and opened at walnut steet to give a way to theoritacly alleviate some traffic from greenfield road interchange @ 30

  • @davidroddini1512
    @davidroddini1512 4 місяці тому +1

    Hey! Akron! L I’ve just down the road from here.

  • @295g295
    @295g295 4 місяці тому

    2:33 - When building/planning a new highway/road, encountering a railroad to cross creates a complication.

  • @conniead5206
    @conniead5206 26 днів тому

    Pasadena is notorious for not wanting any high traffic roads, let alone freeways. Lots of wealthy people live where the proposed freeways want to go. The 30 was finally completed about 20 years ago. Because of Pasadena only a couple of sections had been completed south of it. And they were used.
    As far as the “environmental concerns” there, it was bogus. When there is lots of housing and businesses covering an area there is little or no “natural flora and fauna”. Besides, the 30 was not going between the expensive real estate and the undeveloped hills. Much of the land for it had been acquired before the 70s.

  • @harryhoesch3793
    @harryhoesch3793 4 місяці тому

    Two in Florida, to Tallassee and Gainesville.

  • @nlpnt
    @nlpnt 4 місяці тому +3

    At this time the Champlain Parkway is open from Home Av to Lakeside Av and they're working on the I-189 connection. Four signalized intersections in a little over half a mile, with room for all of them to have been roundabouts, is traffic engineering malpractice IMO.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому

      Appreciate the update on the progress!

  • @hikinbootz
    @hikinbootz 4 місяці тому +2

    All highways to nowhere eventually lead to Flint, Michigan 😂

  • @jc3Trains
    @jc3Trains 4 місяці тому

    The Lake Ontario highway I think is so funny to me the first time I made it to the end I was like what the hell? It Jist stops lol?

  • @JamesPilkenton-se5cx
    @JamesPilkenton-se5cx Місяць тому +1

    Rt 29 in Maryland comes to,I 70 and, well, stops.

  • @benjaminwagner8141
    @benjaminwagner8141 Місяць тому

    I wouldn't have put the akron one on here. It's got a start and end

  • @captaincanada1525
    @captaincanada1525 4 місяці тому +1

    should check out Allen Rd in Toronto

  • @tylerbarbaree7007
    @tylerbarbaree7007 4 місяці тому +1

    These are really fun videos by the way.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому

      Thanks! Glad you're enjoying them!

  • @ToABrighterFuture
    @ToABrighterFuture 4 місяці тому +1

    If you want an idea for a failed residential housing project, Pruitt-Igoe is probably the most infamous. Lots of famous names in the design and build: the main architect was Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the Twin Towers.
    But the finished property at Pruitt-Igoe was such a disaster that it was imploded less than a quarter century later. It had become such a visual shorthand for urban blight by then, that it was prominently featured in "Koyaanisqatsi" (1982), both before and during its demolition. Parts of the site remain vacant to this day. It's widely blamed for ending Modernism as an architectural style.

    • @fresagrus4490
      @fresagrus4490 4 місяці тому

      Well, the twin towers were also eventually imploded some time later

  • @adamcheklat7387
    @adamcheklat7387 Місяць тому

    If i were the head honcho of North America, I’d have those highways torn down.

  • @ClawBoss
    @ClawBoss 4 місяці тому +1

    NJ Route 18 ends abruptly in Wall Township. It has an interesting story and if completed would make driving in that area a breeze.

  • @hazevthewolf178
    @hazevthewolf178 4 місяці тому +1

    The mother of all failed housing projects is California City located in the Mojave desert!

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому

      Yep! just made number 1 on the most recent video I put out!

  • @robert4travel
    @robert4travel 4 місяці тому +1

    US-219 starts at I-90 and goes south, but comes nowhere near I-86. You say it starts at I-86 (NY-17)?

    • @davestewart2067
      @davestewart2067 4 місяці тому

      Salamanca area, NY. A whole video discussing battles with the tribe there could be made. Meaning disputes over first NY 17 upgrades to limited access (86) and also the US 219 proposals.

  • @MikeDavis-q2h
    @MikeDavis-q2h Місяць тому

    Geek, Dig this shit.

  • @dg321_
    @dg321_ 4 місяці тому +1

    Please look at the Lowell connector in Mass

    • @tomgeraci9886
      @tomgeraci9886 4 місяці тому

      I wouldn’t consider it a highway to nowhere. It connects Lowell, a city of 80k people with a major university, to the interstate system and to closer suburbs of Boston. I know it was supposed to extend further into Dracut, but just because it didn’t get the full extension doesn’t mean it doesn’t fulfill a purpose.

  • @midisax
    @midisax 2 місяці тому

    Look at the camera, not the screen to the side.

  • @spamlessaccount
    @spamlessaccount 26 днів тому

    I get what you're doing, but "incomplete" is not the same as "road to nowhere", even if there's no plans to complete.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  26 днів тому

      You're overthinking this... "road to nowhere" is a commonly used catch-all phrase used to describe an inefficient, incomplete or underutilized road. I am not literally saying these roads go to the inter-dimensional void of nowhere.

  • @johnsmart964
    @johnsmart964 2 місяці тому +1

    It would be interesting to know if the people who have environmental concerns have those same concerns for others, whose homes they drive past. I can't imagine that they think about that very much.

  • @tomanderson6335
    @tomanderson6335 4 місяці тому +2

    Under at least one proposal Interstate 710 would have wiped out my great-grandparents' house and machine shop, both of which were in South Pasadena. The shop (which was really two converted houses encircled by a fence) is long gone, but the house is still there.
    My suggestion for your next video is not so much a failed residentail development, but a mostly failed city development: California City, CA. Hundreds of miles of streets laid out, graded, and even named, but only a tiny percentage of them play host to housing (or any development).

  • @caleblaw3497
    @caleblaw3497 4 місяці тому +11

    We may soon have a train to nowhere if they do not finish the California High Speed Rail project. So far, only the middle part connecting some central valley agricultural cities is being built.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому +3

      It will certainly be interesting to see if/how it turns out!

    • @kennethboyer2338
      @kennethboyer2338 2 місяці тому

      Too much corruption to ever finish it. I for one think we should embrace high speed rail. The main problem is the cost, specifically right of way issues and costs. Then it's trying to get people to actually use it

  • @EdwardM-t8p
    @EdwardM-t8p 4 місяці тому +2

    There's an unused freeway stub in greater Boston, a short section of the Northeast Expressway over Copeland Circle, Revere. Originally built as part of I-95, today it's a dead end spur off of Route 1.

    • @maroon9273
      @maroon9273 4 місяці тому

      I'm from that area. It is one of the most important roads to the city northeast of Boston.

  • @gedstrom
    @gedstrom 13 днів тому

    Here in the Los Angeles area, we have the "Bridge to Nowhere" in the Angeles National Forest.

  • @suitandtieguy
    @suitandtieguy 4 місяці тому +3

    I-180 is AWESOME and it's not a "highway to nowhere", it's a highway to somewhere you don't like!
    totally weird this wound up on the list. 180 had a purpose, it was built for it, and still exists, despite its purpose evaporating. every other dumb road on here is a total FAILURE.
    if you were going to talk about a FAILURE highway in rural Illinois what about Route 6, which was supposed to be part of a Peoria ring road called 474 that only got half-built.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  4 місяці тому +1

      Its not that I have anything against where it goes, just stating the facts that it is one of the least traveled interstates in the country ... and that the mill, one of the big reasons why it was built in the first place, doesn't exist anymore.

    • @stevenwiggins9267
      @stevenwiggins9267 Місяць тому +1

      I-180 was built for a steel mill that opened and closed several times over the years. How about the strange I -69 that sort of connects Indy to Evansville?

  • @raccoon874
    @raccoon874 Місяць тому +1

    *yay for governmental idiocy*

  • @Denozo88
    @Denozo88 4 місяці тому +2

    I think if a highway has zero work done outside stasis maintenance after 25 years it should he demolished and handed back to nature.

  • @Nicksonian
    @Nicksonian 4 місяці тому +1

    Pennsyltucky has notoriously wasted inordinate sums on useless roads while not building sorely needed roads like a bypass around Breezewood.

  • @DMETS519
    @DMETS519 4 місяці тому

    The projects in Breezy point Queens that were never built. They managed to put up steel skeletons of the buildings before public outcry halted the project. When the residents knew they wouldn't be finished and had to be torn down they all gathered and cheered when they were blown up and demolished.

  • @marvinbone1379
    @marvinbone1379 2 місяці тому +1

    Nancy Pelosi: "we have to pass this bill, to find out what's in it"

  • @johnhenryNC
    @johnhenryNC 3 місяці тому

    Amazing how many road projects get stalled due to environmentalists raising a fuss to protect a snail or a turtle.

    • @BuildingTales
      @BuildingTales  3 місяці тому +1

      It is fascinating what ends up being the official dealbreaker in some of these cases!

  • @Matthew-p2h
    @Matthew-p2h 4 місяці тому

    I hope this is forcing the Secret Service to get their act together. Also, with all those guns around, you'd think Americans would be better shots!

  • @edwardsr70
    @edwardsr70 4 місяці тому +1

    A recent update on the Route 219 project. The Federal Highway Administration is not expected to make a final approval of the Route 219 project to connect Route 219 to I-68 in Maryland until summer 2025. The estimated completion date of the project is 2031, with an estimated cost of $250 million in Pennsylvania. Last year, PennDOT earmarked $136 million in its 12-year transportation plan for Route 219 with the rest funded by multiple grant programs the road is eligible for. Maryland will get $85 million to complete its side of the Route 219, but funding also falls short, and Maryland is hopeful that grants will fund the remaining $65 million needed for the roadways completion.