| Country: | USA |
| Type: | US |
| Route: | 30 |
| Map Custom: | yes |
| Map Notes: | US 30 highlighted in red |
| Length Mi: | 3072 |
| Established: | 1926 |
| Direction A: | West |
| Terminus A: | in Astoria, OR |
| Junction: |
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| Direction B: | East |
| Terminus B: | Virginia Avenue/Absecon Boulevard in Atlantic City, NJ |
| States: | Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey |
| Previous Type: | US |
| Previous Route: | 29 |
| Next Type: | US |
| Next Route: | 31 |
U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of 3072miles, it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, after US 20 and US 6. The western end of the highway is at US 101 in Astoria, Oregon; the eastern end is at Virginia Avenue, Absecon Boulevard, and Adriatic Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The "0" as the last digit in the number indicates that it is a coast-to-coast route and a major east–west route. Despite long stretches of parallel and concurrent Interstate Highways, it has not been decommissioned unlike other long-haul routes such as US 66. It is also the only U.S. Highway that has always been coast-to-coast since the beginning of U.S. Numbered Highway System.
US 20 and US 30 break the general U.S. Highway numbering rules in Oregon, since US 20 actually starts south of US 30 in Newport, running through the middle of Oregon, while US 30 runs parallel to the north of the state (the Columbia River and Interstate 84, or I-84). The two run concurrently and continue in the correct positioning near Caldwell, Idaho. This situation is because US 20 was not a planned coast-to-coast route while US 30 was.
Much of the historic Lincoln Highway, the first road across the U.S. (from New York City to San Francisco), became part of US 30; it is still known by that name in many areas.
|-|OR|NaNmiles[1] |-|ID|NaNmiles[2] |-|WY|NaNmiles[3] |-|NE|451miles[4] |-|IA|NaNmiles[5] |-|IL|NaNmiles[6] |-|IN|NaNmiles[7] |-|OH|NaNmiles[8] |-|WV|NaNmiles[9] |-|PA|333miles|-|NJ|NaNmiles[10] |-|Total|NaNmiles|}
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Oregon. The western terminus of US 30 is at an intersection with US 101 at the southern end of the Astoria–Megler Bridge in downtown Astoria, Oregon, approximately 5miles from the Pacific Ocean. It heads east to Portland, where it uses a short section of freeway built for the canceled I-505. From there, it heads around the north side of downtown on I-405 and I-5 to reach I-84. Most of the rest of the route is concurrent with I‑84, with only about 70miles, under a fifth of its remaining length, off the freeway, mainly on old alignments.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Idaho. 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 I-86, US 30 continues east with I‑86 almost to its end at Pocatello. US 30 cuts southeast through downtown Pocatello to I-15, where it heads south to McCammon. There, it exits and heads east and southeast into Wyoming, not paralleling an Interstate Highway for the first time since Portland.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Wyoming. In Wyoming, US 30 heads southeast through Kemmerer to Granger, where it joins I-80 across the southern part of the state. It is also here that it joins the historic Lincoln Highway. As in the previous two states, US 30 remains with the Interstate highway for most of its path, only leaving for the old route in the following places:
See 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 (I-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 toward Columbus on a highway parallel to the Platte River. At Columbus, it turns east toward Schuyler and Fremont and crosses the Missouri River into Iowa east of Blair.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Iowa. US 30 crosses Iowa from west to east approximately 20miles north of I-80. Between Missouri Valley and Denison, US 30 runs in a southwest–northeast direction. The majority of`US 30 east of Ames and west of the Mount Vernon–Cedar Rapids area (138miles) is a rural four-lane divided highway. A portion of the highway in Tama County is being upgraded to a divided highway. US 30 between Mount Vernon and Dewitt is a two–lane highway. It crosses the Mississippi River into Illinois on the Gateway Bridge at Clinton.
US 30S and US 30A are two previous alternate alignments of US 30 in Iowa. They followed the original alignment of US 30 in the state. They both began in Nebraska, entered Iowa in Council Bluffs, and extended north to Missouri Valley via Crescent to meet the current highway.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Illinois. US 30 heads east in Illinois to Rock Falls, where it begins to parallel I-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 New Lenox, Frankfort, Mokena, Matteson, Olympia Fields, Park Forest, Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, and Lynwood to the Indiana state line, bypassing Chicago to the south. Notwithstanding, the original 1926 routing of US 30 ran directly through downtown Chicago.
See 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 I-69 and I-469. Between I-65 (at Merrillville) and I‑69 (at Fort Wayne), there are over 40 traffic signals on this divided highway, hindering smooth traffic flow. This is especially pronounced near Warsaw and Columbia City, where the speed limit is reduced as the highway runs through a commercial section with many businesses and traffic signals. Many of the other signals are concentrated between Hobart and Valparaiso, the two cities being about 20miles apart. It is, however, a four-lane divided road through its entirety within Indiana, generally avoiding small towns. Speed limits range but are generally 60mph.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Ohio. US 30 continues into Ohio, where it is mainly a four-lane divided highway until Canton. A proposal to make US 30 a limited-access freeway from Trump Avenue and State Route 11 (SR 11) was set in 2019 and federal funding set $18 million (equivalent to $ in) to construct the new freeway.[11], the only sections that were limited access freeways are in Van Wert, Bucyrus, Mansfield, Wooster, and Canton. A section between I-71 and US 250 is a divided four-lane highway. A section between SR 57 and SR 172 is a four-lane divided highway, with traffic signals at two intersections. The highway passes through Van Wert. After Van Wert, it travels through Upper Sandusky where the highway runs concurrently with US 23. The section between Mansfield and Canton follows the old Lincoln Highway. The last remaining segments that will be upgraded to a freeway are past Canton; currently, the highway is a two-lane route that passes through East Canton, Minerva, and Lisbon. After Lisbon, it runs concurrently with SR 45 for 3miles and becomes a freeway. Designated with signs marking routes SR 11, SR 7, SR 39, and US 30. After joining SR 11, SR 7 becomes a part of the freeway where all three routes split in East Liverpool where US 30 joins SR 39 for 1miles and US 30 crosses the Ohio River into West Virginia.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in West Virginia. US 30 runs for only about 4miles in West Virginia. It crosses the Ohio River over the Jennings Randolph Bridge, continuing the freeway from the Ohio section. After cutting through the town of Chester with only one interchange, West Virginia Route 2 (Carolina Avenue), the freeway section ends not too long after. US 30 continues across the northernmost piece of the Northern Panhandle on a two-lane road.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania. US 30 heads southeast into Pennsylvania, joining US 22 and then the Penn-Lincoln Parkway West west of Pittsburgh. It heads through downtown Pittsburgh on I-376/US 22, leaving at Wilkinsburg for its own alignment. From there, it roughly parallels the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) to the Philadelphia area, though, in many areas, particularly from York past Lancaster, and bypassing Coatesville, Downingtown, and Exton, it is far enough from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to require its own freeway. As it approaches Philadelphia, US 30 constitutes the main road of the Philadelphia Main Line, a string of affluent suburbs west of the city; often called Lancaster Avenue and Lancaster Pike through this stretch. US 30 then briefly joins I‑76 near Center City, Philadelphia, splitting onto I-676 as it crosses the Delaware River on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
See main article: U.S. Route 30 in New Jersey. US 30 splits from I-676 just east of the Benjamin 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, Virginia Avenue, and Adriatic Avenue, about 0.5miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
US 30 was originally proposed to run from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Atlantic City, New Jersey.[12] 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, US 40 continued to San Francisco, California, although it ran farther north than the Lincoln Highway east of Wadsworth, Nevada, and west of Sacramento, California.[13]
The governments of Idaho and Oregon objected to Salt Lake City as the terminus for US 30 and requested extensions. What is now US 30 through those states (west of Burley, Idaho) had been designated as part of US 20, another transcontinental route, but traveled through Yellowstone National Park and was 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 US 530. (That number was then reused for the spur toward Salt Lake City.) The planned US 530 had ended at US 91 at McCammon, Idaho, where the new US 30 turned north to Pocatello, meeting the planned US 20. (US 20 was truncated to Yellowstone National Park but later extended along its own route to the Pacific Ocean.) What had been designated as US 630, from US 30 at Echo to Ogden, Utah, was to be extended east on former US 30 to US 30 at Granger and northwest on US 91 and what had been designated US 191 to US 30 at Burley.[13]
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 US 30N running along the modern routing US 30, and US 30S taking the route through Utah (planned as US 630). In the final plan (dated November 11, 1926), the route toward Salt Lake City became US 530, ending at US 40 at Kimball Junction, Utah.[13] [14]
Around 1931, a split in Ohio was designated, from Delphos east to Mansfield. The original US 30 was assigned US 30S, and a straighter route became US 30N. US 30S was eliminated, putting US 30 on former US 30N.
US 30 was rerouted to bypass Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the north. The former route, from Fremont, Nebraska, to Missouri Valley, Iowa, was designated US 30S. Around 1934, it was truncated to Omaha and it was changed from US 30S to US 30A and was removed from service in 1969 when the historic Douglas Street bridge was demolished. Later sections were relocated to parallel Interstate Highways in several states, including I-84 in Oregon and Idaho.
A signed US 30 Bypass was created in Portland, Oregon, beginning at the St. Johns Bridge, following (roughly) Lombard Street in North Portland, continuing along Sandy Boulevard, and rejoining the I-84/US 30 route in the center of the town of Wood Village. Portland also had a US 30 Business route along Northeast Sandy Boulevard; the route, however, was decommissioned in 2007.
In 1988, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) engineers proposed that US 30 be rerouted and upgraded to a four-lane controlled-access expressway through a portion of Lancaster County. The American Farmland Trust (AFT) opposed the plan because, according to Jim Riggle, then Director of Operations at AFT, it "would have cut right through the heart of the best farmland [and] would probably have been the death knell of the Amish community". The plans were averted when more than a thousand Amish people, people who do not usually participate in the public process, "drove their buggies to the meeting hall and expressed their concern by simply sitting quietly in the audience in their black homespun suits".[15]
See main article: Special routes of U.S. Route 30.