Museum of Ridiculous Highway Design
Ridiculous Freeway Design

This page is devoted to the artistic and eccentric side of interchange and freeway design. Some of these concepts simply haven't gotten their share of recognition.

What the %($# is this??. I mean this is creative, but aren't there guidelines that say when you design things like this that people get killed? Note how frontage road traffic crosses freeway entrance/exit ramps at perpendicular angles. Boy, it is soooo easy to miss those yield signs. This is Interstate 35 at Indian Hills Road in rural Moore. I'm going to call this design the Keating Knot in lieu of a better term.

Comments from the engineer: Damn, did I do that? Well, you've got the documents, you're the boss. You gotta understand I was doing a lot of pot in those days, well at least until the fuzz busted our field in '74. Wanna hear about that? -- Francis "Farty" Drake

The "Taylor Turnaround", Taylor, MI. Bobby Peacock reports: "This skewed cloverleaf-like thing was built in the mid 1950's. Note how the ramps are skewed. Despite the tight ramps and left exits, this interchange has no weaving problems! To me, it looks like two trumpets going through mitosis."

Comments from the engineer: Isn't this thing positively magnificent? Have you ever seen such a fantastic use of 90 acres? Think of it as a wildlife preserve, if you will. -- Midge R. Heffson

U.S. 23 at Lee Road, Brighton, Michigan. Bobby Peacock says: US-23 goes north-south, Lee Road goes east to west here. The frontage road is old US-23. The result of afterthoughts: This one is a pain. I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

Comments from the engineer: This represents the fusion of Star Trek ideas -- note the swirled offramps which hint at the decaying orbits of interstellar wormholes. See those buildings off to the left? That's drydock. And I made that mass transit parking lot nearby to be like the nacelle of the USS Enterprise. -- Tom Tiberius Kirkwood

This is a classic "Arkansas Interchange", and boy do they have a lot of these. This example is near Little Rock. It must be an Arkansas invention as I can't find an close example of this type in any of the interchange listings. Does anyone know what this is? Imagine working at that factory on the right side and having to leave the parking lot to go westbound on this freeway.

Comments from the engineer: Clearly you fail to see the aesthetics of this design. This interview is over! -- Roderick W. Johnson

This is the only "Arkansas Interchange" I can think of in Texas. Note how it's not quite as contorted as the example above. This is U.S. 90 at Hunt Lane in southwest San Antonio. Notice the tangled knot of frontage road lanes off to the left. Good grief!

Comments from the engineer: My brother in Little Rock said this would be a great idea! -- Emerson Johnson