U.S. Route 24

U.S. Route 24, a dual north-south/east-west route, is one of the original United States highways of 1926.End of U.S. highway 24. mapguy. URL accessed 29 April 2006. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan in the east to Kansas City, Missouri in the west; today, it runs from Clarkston, Michigan to Minturn, Colorado. The transition from north-south to east-west signage is in Toledo, Ohio.

Termini

As of 2004, the highway's eastern terminus is west of Clarkston, Michigan at an intersection with I-75. Its western terminus is near Minturn, Colorado at an intersection with I-70.

Historic names

Between Dixie Highway in Pontiac, Michigan and Laskey Road in Toledo, Ohio, the highway is known as Telegraph Road (Main article), its name before the highway system existed. Mark Knopfler of the pop group Dire Straits wrote the song Telegraph Road about the development and decay of the road, which he spotted en route to a concert. It is a major surface route through western areas of Metro Detroit. The highway has 8 lanes and is often busy, particularly during rush hour.

States traversed

U.S. Route 24 passes through the following states:

Colorado

In Colorado, U.S. 24 runs from Interstate 70 (and implicitly, U.S. Route 6) at Minturn south to the Continental Divide at Tennessee Pass. It continues south to Johnson Village and then joins with U.S. Route 285 northbound to the Trout Creek Pass. After the pass, U.S. 24 separates from U.S. 285 and continues east to Colorado Springs and then northeast to Limon, where U.S. 24 joins I-70 for most of the rest of its routing to the Kansas state line.

Kansas

In Kansas, U.S. 24 enters from Colorado west of Kandrado; it is multiplexed with U.S. I70 for 45 miles (72 km) to Colby. U.S. 24 does not meet I-70 again until the Kansas City, Kansas bridge over the Kansas River. U.S. 24 serves the northern sides of Manhattan, Topeka and Lawrence.

Missouri

Illinois

In Illinois, U.S. Route 24 runs west across the Quincy Bayview Bridge and east across the Quincy Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River in Quincy. As of 2006, it is the main arterial highway from Quincy northeast to Peoria. From Peoria, U.S. 24 runs directly east through a number of small towns en route to Indiana and Fort Wayne, Indiana, the next major metropolitan center. U.S. 24 crosses into Indiana at the state line east of Sheldon.

Indiana

In Indiana, U.S. Route 24 runs east from the Illinois state line to Huntington. At Huntington, U.S. 24 turns northeast and runs through Fort Wayne before entering Ohio at the state line northeast of Fort Wayne. The segment of U.S. 24 between Fort Wayne and Toledo, Ohio is part of the "Fort to Port" project.

Ohio

Michigan

Related US routes

U.S. Highway 124 (decommissioned)
U.S. Highway 224 meets US 24 in Huntington, Indiana, its western terminus and has its eastern terminus in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

U.S. Alternate 24 was an early designation of the Seaway Freeway between Detroit and Toledo; it has almost all been incorporated into Interstate 75 and has been decommissioned since at least 1960.

Notes

U.S. 24 (Telegraph Road) west of Detroit, Michigan served as a testing ground for the Michigan Left. Several other channelization techniques are also used; for instance the M-153 (Ford Road) intersection includes a southbound jughandle and a cutoff for northbound left-turning traffic. (aerial photo)
U.S. 24 west of Manhattan, Kansas follows the old route of U.S. 40N.
The cable-stayed Bayview Bridge brings westbound U.S. 24 over the Mississippi River. Eastbound traffic is served by the older Quincy Memorial Bridge.
In Missouri, with the passage of Proposition 36B, the portion of US 24 that is multiplexed with US 36, from the Rocket Junction 7 miles west of Hannibal, Missouri to Monroe City, Missouri, will be upgraded to a 4-lane expressway highway by December 31, 2010.
Major upgrades have taken place throughout much of Indiana where U.S. 24 is designated as a High Priority Corridor and has been recently upgraded from a two-lane highway to a four-lane at-grade expressway from Logansport to Fort Wayne. Further upgrades are planned from Fort Wayne to Toledo, Ohio to upgrade U.S. 24 to similar standards. The grass roots effort to improve the section from New Haven, Indiana (Fort Wayne) to Toledo started from a meeting organized by Indiana State Representative Mitch Harper in 1989 at Woodburn, Indiana. It was at the meeting that the project name 'Fort to Port' was born. There are no plans to upgrade it to Interstate standards, however.
As Michigan enacted alcohol prohibition earlier than Ohio, for a time this road was notorious for its use by bootlegers, bringing booze from Cincinnati and Cleveland into Detroit.
In Colorado, U.S. 24 passes over (from east to west): Ute Pass, Wilkerson Pass, and Trout Creek Pass.

External links

References

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