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I-383: it's time Back-door designations Look around the world of highways, and you'll find examples of a phenomenon that you might call "back-door designations" (not to be confused with Back Door Invitations, a famous adult film from the 1970s). Interstates and US route numbers follow (or are supposed to follow) strict numbering guidelines, but state DOTs can number any state route as they please and will sometimes use the number of a US route or an Interstate that has been axed or imitate Interstate numbering. For example, US 309 once ran from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre and beyond, but when it was killed in 1968, PennDOT decided to keep the number on life support as PA 309. Since most people would probably say "route 309" or just "309," the change didn't matter all that much. There's also PA 581 that runs from I-81 eastward into Harrisburg. It could be Interstate 581, although it is pretty narrow in places and might not be eligible for Interstate status, but in any case, it serves the purpose that a true I-581 would serve. Building a problem Then we have 283, which comes in two formulas: I-283 and PA 283. The two routes are not continuous, but in a way, the pair replaces the deceased US 230, a route connecting Harrisburg to Lancaster and all of the cities in between.
283 seems to have been designed by a committee: the Interstate portion connects I-83 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) near Highspire, and the state route portion runs from Eisenhower Boulevard in Highspire to US 30 in Lancaster. The two segments meet at a full eight-ramp cloverleaf.
The trouble with this arrangement is that most southbound vehicles are not headed for the Turnpike; they are going to the airport, to Middletown, Elizabethtown, or Lancaster and are funneled through the smallest of the four loop ramps. Come through this section of I-283 during rush hour, and you'll see a backlog of vehicles in the right lane waiting to fight their way onto the PA 283 ramp.
Does PennDOT want the two 283s to be thought of a single package, one continuous route from Harrisburg to Lancaster? That would make the most sense, but PennDOT couldn't allow all of this "making sense" to go on, so they came up with the wacky arrangement that is in place today. And the situation was rather avoidable: the I-283 portion was opened in 1970 while PA 283 was on the drawing boards and ready to begin construction the following year.
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