AR: Several Arkansas Updates (and a new state highway)

[TBKS1]

Hi there. I've been using TM for a little bit, but I haven't really posted anything here or given much of any updates in my own state of what I've seen over the past few months.

First of all, starting from late last year, Arkansas has a new state highway, AR 270! Since the Hot Springs Bypass was completed last year, which extended AR 5 to US 70, a new state highway designation has also been added. While I haven't actually been here since the designation was added, you can find quite a few shields on GSV, I'll post a few of them...

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4712053,-92.9890531,3a,22.1y,110.44h,88.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNLg3Ep6z9WcqillFOl0OGA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4762837,-92.9860436,3a,18.1y,45.1h,85.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srBuLKRbdDIkXNYO5NpoX4w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.5773507,-92.9810179,3a,31.3y,166.96h,84.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7JVRYXb0a1CI86FRVzdgnQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

The route begins at US 270 (exit 9) on the Hot Springs Bypass and ends at the intersection of AR 5 and AR 7 west of Fountain Lake. The route is overlapping US 70 and AR 5 for its entire length. I'm not fully sure why it exists in the first place, but ARDOT county maps show the designation as well.



Secondly, from my trip to Jonesboro back in April, I took AR 14 between US 67 and I-555, and noticed that the section of AR 384 east of Amagon in Jackson County appeared to be decommissioned.

This is a photo I took from my trip there...



... compared to 2016 GSV imagery of the same intersection ...

(if you click the image, it should take you to the GSV link)


The ARDOT county map also doesn't show it either. It would show up south of the eastern section of AR 37 if it still existed.



Next up, the AR 600 designation in Bradley County. I've heard rumors that this route is signed, but I couldn't fully verify it until about two weeks ago when I was actually there...



While this section is signed, AR 600 is an umbrella designation for any ARDOT maintained road within the boundaries of an Arkansas state park. There's many, many sections of this route number, but this has been the only one that I've been able to find that's actually signed. I can't verify if there's any others that are. This doesn't show up in the ARDOT maps either.

The route begins at US 63 in Moro Bay and ends at a boat ramp along the Ouachita River.

And lastly, on the way home from that drive, a couple of state highways in Calhoun County have been either truncated or decommissioned. AR 172 has been fully decommissioned in that county, and AR 274 has been truncated AR 203 and US 167. I don't have any photo proof of this but you can check the county map here: https://ardot-gis-imagery.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/PLAN/GIS/MAPS/COUNTY_MAPS_RAS/Calhoun.pdf

Edit: Title changed

[Duke87]

I took the liberty of editing your img tags to eliminate the horizontal scrolling.

[TBKS1]

Yeah that's fine, I didn't know how much evidence to post lol

[yakra]

Welcome to the Travel Mapping forum, and thanks for the updates!

AR384
This one had been on my radar as a minute order a few years back ordered its deletion.
I'd been periodically checking GMSV for updates to the signage -- at the wrong AR384.
That, and the right one to watch received updated imagery shortly after Markkos1992 posted here.
Good to know it's gonzo.

AR270
This has gotten some discussion in the AR Hot Springs bypass extension thread.
At the moment it's gotten bogged down a bit in the details of how to label the exit-numbered waypoints.
That's what we do here at TM -- get bogged down in minutiae.

AR600
Hoo boy, Now we're getting into the fun stuff...

AR 600 is an umbrella designation

Reminds me of AR980. These are included of course, where signed at least.

for any ARDOT maintained road within the boundaries of an Arkansas state park.

Reminds me of Texas Park Roads.
While those do have different number designations, often all roads within a given park will have the same number.

While these don't show up in the county maps, they are included in ARDOT shapefiles. It'll be possible to search them, dump the data, and laboriously check GMSV... where it exists. We may not get a full view of inside the parks, grumble.

I'll hold off on action here, allowing more time for comment.

Truncations & deletions
AR274: interesting. Apparently the main (Fordyce) segment was also truncated to 1stSt. Periodically checking back into GMSV for confirmation. AR274Eas will be another one to add to the watchlist.
AR172Art: Adding this to the watchlist too.
ARDOT seems to be doing quite a lot of decommissionings lately, whether full or partial. I have quite a few gleaned from the minute orders a while back, just waiting for confirmation on signage.
On that topic, this link hadn't been updated for some time. ISTR it was mapmikey who posted an alternate link on AARoads, with different links to the same document, but more up-to-date, but I never copied the link down. Either way, the existing link is updated now, and I've just finished looking thru the PDFs and adding new items to the watchlist.
In particular, the August 8, 2019 minute orders had four decommissionings in the Tuckerman area. AR145Tuc is alrady removed from TM, we know AR384Bal is gone now, and I've just discovered AR226Tuc is gone too. That leaves just AR224 to look out for. Don't know which one, but I'll keep my eye on both.

ToDo
Add AR270
Delete AR384Bal
Delete AR226Tuc
AR169 N of US82 deleted
AR10 truncated to PreCliAve
AR322Har deleted
AR600

[mapcat]

[Re AR 600 routes] I'll hold off on action here, allowing more time for comment.

I support adding these when we have evidence of signage in a park. It shouldn't be necessary to include all the branches if signage is only present on one route through the park.

[TBKS1]

I genuinely have no idea if there's any other sections that are signed besides Moro Bay. There's 52 state parks in Arkansas, and some of them actually have signed highways that aren't part of the AR 600 umbrella (i.e. AR 400 at Lake Fort Smith SP, AR 382 at Ozark Folk Center SP, AR 386 at Toltec Mounds SP, AR 361 at Davidsonville SP, etc). As I've said before, these normally aren't meant to be signed, and the section at Moro Bay is the exception.

[Duke87]

At the very least, this particular segment of AR 600 should be in because well there it is, signed as a state route just like any other.

If the resources aren't available to exhaustively determine if any other segments of AR 600 are signed... fine, continue leaving them out unless and until evidence of signage surfaces.

[yakra]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

It shouldn't be necessary to include all the branches if signage is only present on one route through the park.

Yes, just the signed bits.
Similarly, I recall a couple OK state routes (just not which ones) that had multiple termini & branches (like OK77S & OK77D, only something else) where not all the branches were signed. So they got added to CHM as a more "normal" route, signed bits only.

If the resources aren't available to exhaustively determine if any other segments of AR 600 are signed... fine, continue leaving them out unless and until evidence of signage surfaces.

Resources we do have:
1. QGIS can convert the ARDOT shapefile to something that stores coords as long/lat doubles, e.g. NAD83 or WGS84.
2. Gisplunge can rip all segments matching AR600, and save them as .wpt files.
3. From there, a shell script can eliminate all points but start/end of segments, or any point that's the start or end of exactly 2 segments, convert what's left to GMSV URLs and automate opening boatloads of firefox tabs.

Incomplete resources:
We won't have GMSV coverage everywhere we need it.

Resource we don't have now, but may come round in the future:
Labor, time, attention span.
#1 & #2 are both pretty easy. #3 will take a bit more effort to get the script weporking working right.
Actually exhaustively looking at however many GMSV links we end up with? Ugh...

[TBKS1]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

Yeah the route ends at that boat ramp. As you said this was an old section of what is now US 63, what was then AR 15 at an old ferry that existed before a bridge was built over the Ouachita River.

[the_spui_ninja]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

Not only that, but the postal service seems to think it's a US route! (attachment)

[rickmastfan67]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

Not only that, but the postal service seems to think it's a US route! (attachment)

Wouldn't be the first state to have that happen. lol.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WezzbqEKbK4StHpm8

[Markkos1992]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

Not only that, but the postal service seems to think it's a US route! (attachment)

Wouldn't be the first state to have that happen. lol.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WezzbqEKbK4StHpm8

Because of all the construction, PA 228 has probably become my most traveled western PA route (outside of US 22 east of PA 66) recently.  Yet I had no idea this was there.

[rickmastfan67]

I just poked around Historic Aerials for a bit, and there's some interesting history here.
The US63 Ouachita River bridge was built between 1983 & 1994. Before that, AR15 followed today's US63 corridor out of El Dorado to the AR275 junction, then went north via Pigeon Hill Landing to a ferry, crossing over to the boat ramp and following AR600 back to today's US63.
If there's any section of AR600 in Moro Bay SP that deserves to be signed as THE AR600, it's the one that used to be AR15, the forerunner to US63.
That'd put the end of AR600 at this boat ramp here. Does that look right?

Not only that, but the postal service seems to think it's a US route! (attachment)

Wouldn't be the first state to have that happen. lol.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WezzbqEKbK4StHpm8

Because of all the construction, PA 228 has probably become my most traveled western PA route (outside of US 22 east of PA 66) recently.  Yet I had no idea this was there.

Been there since at least 2015.  However, between '15 & '18, it was on the other on side of that intersection.

There was even a 'US-228' shield for a little bit of time going EB on the other side of I-79.  GSV caught it amazingly, as it was only up for a short time.

[yakra]

Once upon a time I was looking at a map of Tim Hortons locations in Maine. Every route on the map had a US shield.
"Hey Doug, all those roads in Maine, those routes are all in the US, eh?"

[yakra]

https://github.com/TravelMapping/HighwayData/pull/7597

AR270 can be handled here, as that thread was marked unsolved & moved back to the Updates board.