U.S. Route 30

U.S. Route 30
Route information
Length:	3,073 mi[1] (4,946 km)
Existed:	1926[1] – present
Major junctions
West end:	US 101 in Astoria, OR
	I-5 at Portland, OR I-15 at Pocatello, ID I-25 at Cheyenne, WY I-35 at Ames, IA I-55 at Joliet, IL I-65 at Merrillville, IN I-75 at Beaverdam, OH I-81 at Chambersburg, PA I-95 at Philadelphia, PA
East end:	Virginia Avenue in Atlantic City, NJ
Highway system
United States Numbered Highways List • Bannered • Divided • Replaced

U.S. Route 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the system of United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. It is the third longest U.S. route, after U.S. Route 20 and U.S. Route 6. The western end of the highway is at Astoria, Oregon; the eastern end is in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Despite long stretches of parallel and concurrent Interstate Highways, it has managed to avoid the decommissioning that has happened to other long haul routes such as U.S. Route 66.

Much of the historic Lincoln Highway, the first road across America (from New York City to San Francisco), became part of US 30; it is still known by that name in many areas.

Route description

Lengths

	mi	km
OR	477.47[2]	768.41
ID	415.55[3]	668.77
WY	454.37[4]	731.24
NE	451[5]	726
IA	330.43[6]	531.77
IL	151.32[7]	243.53
IN	151.8[8]	244.3
OH	245.39[9]	394.92
WV	4[10]	6
PA	324[11]	521
NJ	58.26[12]	93.76
Total	3064	4930

Oregon

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Oregon

The west end of US 30 is at an intersection with U.S. Route 101 at the south end of the Astoria-Megler Bridge in downtown Astoria, Oregon, approximately 5 miles (8 km) from the Pacific Ocean. It heads east to Portland, where it uses a short section of freeway built for the canceled Interstate 505. From there it heads around the north side of downtown on Interstate 405 and Interstate 5 to reach Interstate 84. Most of the rest of the route is concurrent with I-84, with only about 70 miles (110 km), under 1/5 of its remaining length, off the freeway, mainly on old alignments.

Idaho

Westbound US 30 at Soda Springs, ID

Upon entering Idaho, US 30 runs along its old surface route through Fruitland and New Plymouth before joining I-84. It leaves at Bliss and soon crosses the Snake River, running south of it through Twin Falls and Burley before crossing it again and rejoining I-84. At the split with Interstate 86, US 30 continues east with I-86 almost to its end at Pocatello. US 30 cuts southeast through downtown Pocatello to Interstate 15, where it heads south to McCammon. There it exits and heads east and southeast, not parallel to an Interstate for the first time since Portland, into Wyoming.

Thousand Springs Scenic Byway
Location:	Bliss–Buhl
Length:	67.8 mi[13] (109.1 km)

The Thousand Springs Scenic Byway is a picturesque section of old US 30 in southern Idaho between the towns of Bliss and Buhl, dipping down into the Hagerman Valley and a canyon of the Snake River. The byway takes its name from the numerous streams and rivulets springing forth out of the east wall of that canyon, many of them plainly visible from the road, with the panoramic river in the foreground. These springs are outlets from the Snake River Plains Aquifer, which flows through thousands of square miles of porous volcanic rock and is one of the largest groundwater systems in the world. The aquifer is believed to be fed by the Lost River which disappears into lava flows near Arco, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Hagerman.

Wyoming

In Wyoming, US 30 heads southeast through Kemmerer to Granger, where it joins Interstate 80 across southern Wyoming. It is also here that it joins the historic Lincoln Highway. As in the previous two states, US 30 remains with the Interstate for most of its path, only leaving for the old route in the following places:

• 97 miles (156 km) from Walcott to Laramie
• 12 miles (19 km) through Cheyenne
• 2 miles (3 km) through Pine Bluffs to the Nebraska state line

Nebraska

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Nebraska

Unlike the three states to the west, Nebraska keeps US 30 completely separate from its parallel Interstates (Interstate 80 in this case). From the state line to Grand Island, US 30 closely parallels I-80. East of Grand Island, US 30 diverges from I-80 and runs northeast towards Columbus on a highway parallel to the Platte River. At Columbus, it turns east towards Schuyler and Fremont and crosses the Missouri River into Iowa east of Blair.

Iowa

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Iowa

US 30 crosses Iowa from west to east approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Interstate 80. Between Missouri Valley and Denison, the highway runs in a southwest-to-northeast direction. Several freeway bypasses have been built around the major cities on US 30 - Ames, Marshalltown, Cedar Rapids and DeWitt. It crosses the Mississippi River into Illinois on the Gateway Bridge at Clinton.

U.S. Route 30S and U.S. Route 30A are two previous alternate alignments of U.S. Route 30 in Iowa. They followed the original alignment of US 30 in Iowa. They both began in Nebraska, entered Iowa in Council Bluffs, and extended north to Missouri Valley via Crescent to meet the current highway.

Illinois

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Illinois

US 30 heads east in Illinois to Rock Falls, where it begins to parallel Interstate 88. At Aurora it turns southeast to Joliet, where it is a major thoroughfare in the city of Joliet (Plainfield Road), and then back east through Chicago Heights to the Indiana state line, bypassing Chicago to the south. The original 1926 routing of US 30 ran directly through downtown Chicago, however.

Indiana

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Indiana

US 30 in Indiana is a major rural divided highway. It is not a freeway except at Fort Wayne, where it runs around the north side on Interstate 69 and Interstate 469. Between I-65 (at Merrillville) and I-69 (Fort Wayne), there are over 40 traffic signals on this divided highway, hindering smooth traffic flow. Many of these signals are concentrated between Hobart and Valparaiso, the two cities being about 20 miles apart. It is, however, a four lane divided road through its entirety within Indiana, generally avoiding small towns. Speed limits range, but are generally 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).

Ohio

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Ohio

US 30 heads east across northern Ohio via Mansfield and Canton. After several upgrades, it is now a four-lane divided highway from the Indiana state line to Canton with controlled-access freeway sections between Van Wert and Delphos, Bucyrus and Mansfield, and Massillon and Canton. At Upper Sandusky, the highway runs concurrent with US 23.

There is no direct interchange between US 30 and Interstate 75 where the roads cross in Beaverdam. Instead, US 30 has an "inverted trumpet" interchange connecting it to the old Lincoln Highway east of Beaverdam. The Lincoln Highway then connects drivers to I-75.

West Virginia

US 30 spends only about four miles (6 km) in West Virginia. It crosses the Ohio River over the Jennings Randolph Bridge, and cuts through the town of Chester and across the northernmost piece of the Northern Panhandle on a two-lane road.

Pennsylvania

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania

US 30 heads southeast into Pennsylvania, joining U.S. Route 22 and then the Penn-Lincoln Parkway West west of Pittsburgh. It heads through downtown Pittsburgh on Interstate 376/US 22, leaving at Wilkinsburg for its own alignment. From there it roughly parallels the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 76) to the Philadelphia area, though in many areas, particularly from York past Lancaster to Coatesville and Downingtown, it is far enough for its own freeway. As it approaches Philadelphia, US 30 constitutes the main road of the "Main Line", a famous string of affluent suburbs west of the city; often called Lancaster Ave. and Lancaster Pike through this stretch. US 30 then joins I-76 near downtown Philadelphia, splitting onto Interstate 676 to cross the Delaware River on the Ben Franklin Bridge.

New Jersey

Main article: U.S. Route 30 in New Jersey

US 30 splits from I-676 just east of the Ben Franklin Bridge toll plaza in Camden and heads southeast to Atlantic City, generally parallel to the Atlantic City Expressway, passing through the New Jersey Pine Barrens. For most of its New Jersey run, it is known as the White Horse Pike. It ends in Atlantic City at the intersection of Absecon Boulevard (US 30) and Virginia Avenue, about one mile (1.5 km) from the Atlantic Ocean.^[12]

History

In the original (October 30, 1925) plan for the system, US 30 ran from Salt Lake City, Utah to Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[14] West of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this was designated largely along the Lincoln Highway, as part of a promise to the Lincoln Highway Association to assign a single number to their road as much as possible. West of Salt Lake City, U.S. Route 40 continued to San Francisco, California, although it ran farther north than the Lincoln Highway east of Wadsworth, Nevada and west of Sacramento, California.^[15]

Around 1931, a split in Ohio was designated, from Delphos east to Mansfield. The original US 30 was assigned U.S. Route 30S, and a straighter route became U.S. Route 30N. US 30S was eliminated ca 1975, putting US 30 on former US 30N.^{[citation needed]}

US 30 was rerouted ca 1931 to bypass Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa to the north. The former route, from Fremont, Nebraska to Missouri Valley, Iowa, was designated U.S. Route 30S. Around 1934 it was truncated to Omaha and ca 1939 it was removed.^[16]

Metropolitan Portland has a signed US 30 "Bypass", beginning at the St. John's bridge, following (roughly) Lombard Street in North Portland, continuing along Sandy Blvd., and rejoining the I-84/US-30 route in the center of the town of Wood Village. Junctions with I-5, US-30 at the St. John's bridge, and I-205 are all signed with "US-30 BYPASS" markers.^[17] Portland also had a U.S. 30 Business route along N.E. Sandy Boulevard, however the route was decommissioned in 2007.

Wyoming had requested ending US 30 in Salt Lake City, but Idaho and Oregon objected.^{[clarification needed]} What is now US 30 through those states (west of Burley, Idaho) had been designated as part of U.S. Route 20, another transcontinental route, but it took a detour to the north through Yellowstone National Park, making it inaccessible during the winter season. The states agreed to take US 30 along that route, splitting from the route to Salt Lake City at Granger, Wyoming and running along what had been designated as U.S. Route 530. (That number was then reused for the spur towards Salt Lake City.) The planned US 530 had ended at U.S. Route 91 at McCammon, Idaho, where the new US 30 turned north to Pocatello, meeting the planned US 20. (US 20 was truncated to Yellowstone but later extended along its own route to the Pacific Ocean.) What had been designated as U.S. Route 630, from US 30 at Echo, Utah to Ogden, was to be extended east on former US 30 to US 30 at Granger and northwest on US 91 and what had been designated U.S. Route 191 to US 30 at Burley.^[15]

Utah objected to that plan, however, as it removed US 30 from that state, giving them only US 630, a branch. A compromise was reached, in which the US 630 route would become the main line of US 30, once improved to higher standards, but that was still not deemed completely satisfactory. Ultimately, in the final system, a split was approved between Burley, Idaho and Granger, Wyoming, with U.S. Route 30N running along what was to be US 30, and U.S. Route 30S taking the route through Utah (planned as US 630). In the final plan (dated November 11, 1926), the route towards Salt Lake City became U.S. Route 530, ending at U.S. Route 40 at Kimball Junction, Utah.^[15][18]

See also

• Lincoln Highway

Bannered routes

• Bannered routes of U.S. Route 30

Related routes

• U.S. Route 130
• U.S. Route 230 (former)
• U.S. Route 330 (former)
• U.S. Route 430 (former)
• U.S. Route 530 (former)
• U.S. Route 630 (former)
• U.S. Route 730
• U.S. Route 830 (former)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Droz, Robert V. U.S. Highways : From US 1 to (US 830). URL accessed 02:55, 17 April 2006 (UTC).
2. ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, TransGIS and Equations and Milepoint Range Information, accessed January 30, 2006
3. ^ Idaho Transportation Department, May 4, 2004 Milepost Log - State Highway System
4. ^ Wyoming Department of Transportation, November 2004 Reference Marker Book
5. ^ Nebraska Roads: US 30
6. ^ Iowa Department of Transportation, 2004 Geographic Information Systems Statewide and County Data
7. ^ Illinois Department of Transportation, 2004 GIS Data
8. ^ Indiana Highway Ends - US 30
9. ^ Ohio Department of Transportation, January 1, 2005 Straight Line Diagrams
10. ^ Approximated from Mapquest
11. ^ Pennsylvania Highways: US 30
12. ^ ^{a b} New Jersey Department of Transportation, 2005 Straight Line Diagrams - US 30 (PDF)
13. ^ Staff. "Thousand Springs Scenic Byway". America's Byways. Federal Highway Administration. 
14. ^ Report of Joint Board on Interstate Highways, October 30, 1925
15. ^ ^{a b c} Richard F. Weingroff, From Names to Numbers; The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System
16. ^ US Highways: Divided (Split) Routes
17. ^ US Highways: Bypass routes
18. ^ American Association of State Highway Officials, United States Numbered Highways, 1927

External links

• Termini of U.S. Route 30
• Speed Limits for U.S. Route 30 in New Jersey

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Lists		U.S. Routes • Bannered • Divided • Bypassed

Browse numbered routes
← SH-29	ID	SH-31 →
← WYO 28	WY	WYO 30 →
← SR 29	OH	SR 31 →