Beltway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ring road" redirects here. For other uses, see Ring road (disambiguation).

For the beltway surrounding the District of Columbia, see Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway).

For the American political term, see Inside the Beltway and Beltway bandits.

A sign on the Hampton Roads Beltway in Virginia, United States, traveling on the outer loop (counterclockwise).

A beltway, loop (American English), ring road, or orbital motorway (British English) is a circumferential highway found around or within many cities.

Beltway, orbital motorway, perimeter loop, beltline, and similar terms refer to an expressway/motorway/freeway style standard road that often originally enclosed the built up area and was later encroached upon by developed areas.

Ring road may sometimes refer to a beltway-style road, but more commonly indicates a road or series of roads within a city or town that have been joined together by town planners to form an orbital distributor style road, but where the standard of road could be anything from an ordinary city street up to an expressway level. The principal difference is that a ring road is an orbital distributor road system designed from already existing roads, as opposed to a beltway which is designed from new as such a road system. A ring road designation also implies a more inner-city road designed to route traffic around a city centre, as opposed to routing traffic around a larger conurbation.

Many beltway-style roads are part of a wider highway system; for example, in the United States, beltways are commonly a part of the Interstate Highway System. Using inner/outer directions is a common way of uniformly signing the directions of travel on beltways in America.

In the United States, beltway also has a political connotation (e.g., politics inside the Beltway), derived metonymically from the Capital Beltway encircling Washington, D.C.

Geography can sometimes complicate the construction of a beltway. One example is Stockholm, where there is a semi-beltway (Essingeleden). To be completed, most of it will have to run in submarine tunnels.

[edit] Cities with notable beltways or ring roads

Many cities and metropolitan areas deal with ring roads and beltways in unique ways, giving the roads recognizable differences. Some cities have elected to construct multiple ring roads and beltways.

[edit] North America

[edit] Atlanta

Atlanta has one loop, Interstate 285, referred to as the "Perimeter Highway".

[edit] Baltimore

Baltimore has one loop, Interstate 695 (also known as the Baltimore Beltway; officially designated as the McKeldin Beltway).

[edit] Boston

Boston has two loops, Interstate 495, and a section of Interstate 95, multiplexed with Route 128, known as the Yankee Division Highway.

[edit] Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina has two freeway loops, Interstate 277 and Interstate 485, and one city-designated ring route, Charlotte Route 4.

[edit] Chicago

Chicago has a beltway around downtown Chicago (Loop Chicago) and a few highways half surrounding the city close to the city centre (Highway90, Highway55 & Route 41.

[edit] Columbus

Columbus, Ohio has one loop, Interstate 270.

[edit] Dallas

Dallas has several loops: Loop 12, the LBJ Freeway, the George Bush Turnpike, and Belt Line Road.

[edit] Hampton Roads

The Hampton Roads Beltway runs through all of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia. The Beltway carries Interstate 64 for much of its distance as well as Interstate 664 on its western side. The southern portion of the Beltway, carrying the eastern terminus of I-64, is signed in a rather confusing manner: I-64 West actually runs east (and vice versa) because this stretch of road is a fishhook.

The Beltway is also notable for featuring two bridge-tunnel structures: the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, connecting Norfolk and Hampton; and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, connecting Suffolk and Newport News. Together with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (situated farther east and not part of the Beltway), Hampton Roads is home to the only three bridge-tunnel structures in the United States.

[edit] Houston

Houston has three loops and a proposed fourth and fifth: the small loop around downtown, the inner Interstate 610, intermediate Beltway 8, the outer Grand Parkway with currently only one section completed. Further construction is temporarily halted because of controversies of the SH99 passing through some neighborhoods and groups protesting the extensive environmental and quality of life damage to the region. There are also plans for a Prairie Parkway even further out.

[edit] Indianapolis

Indianapolis has one loop, Interstate 465.

[edit] Memphis

Memphis has one completed freeway loop, I-240, and one under construction, I-269. In addition, Memphis has a parkway system forming an inner beltway around the downtown area – the South Parkway, East Parkway, and North Parkway – which was built in the early 20th century.

[edit] Mexico City

Mexico City has the Anillo Periférico, a complete freeway loop with a double-decker road in some sections, the latter of which gained major media attention when Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador began the project, which was completed in 2006.

[edit] Minneapolis/Saint Paul

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have one beltway signed as two different interstates bisected by Interstate 94, the northern portion being Interstate 694 and the southern half Interstate 494.

[edit] Phoenix

Phoenix has three freeway loops: Loop 101, Loop 202, and Loop 303.

[edit] Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a series of color-coded ring roads known as the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System.

[edit] Raleigh

Raleigh, North Carolina has one completed beltway, known as the Capital Beltline or Interstate 440, which pioneered the Inner/outer directional system. The system, however, is being phased out to prevent confusion with the city's second beltway, known as the "Outer Loop" or Interstate 540, which is under construction.

[edit] Washington, D.C.

Washington D.C.'s beltway (Interstate 495) is called the Capital Beltway and is the source of the phrase "inside the Beltway".

[edit] Europe

[edit] Amsterdam

The S100 that circles central Amsterdam (yellow) and the larger A10 (red) and its numerous connecting highways.

Amsterdam has the A10 which circles Amsterdam through it's outer boroughs. It connects to the A1, A2, A4 and A8 motorways. The local S100 serves as the ring around central Amsterdam, and the southernmost section of the A9 connects the southern suburbs such as Osdorp, Amstelveen and Amsterdam Zuidoost.

[edit] Antwerp

The Antwerp ringroad is the busiest highway in Europe with over 400,000 vehicles a day. A motorway bypass encircles much of the city centre. Known locally as the "Ring" it offers motorway connections to Brussels, Dusseldorf (Germany) and Liège, Ghent, Paris (France) and London (United Kingdom) and Rotterdam and Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands). The banks of the Scheldt are linked by three road tunnels (in order of construction): the Waasland Tunnel (1934), the Kennedy Tunnel (1967) and the Liefkenshoek Tunnel (1991). Currently a fourth high volume highway link called "Oosterweel connection" is in the tendering stage. It will entail the construction of a long viaduct and bridge (the Lange Wapper Bridge) over the Scheldt on the north side of the city. The completion date is as yet uncertain. The cost of the connection is estimated at € 2.2 billion.

[edit] Athens

Athens is encircled by the system of Attiki Odos motorway with three main avenues, forming a Π around the Athens Basin. To the northern side, the main section (number 6) connecting Elefsina shipyards-industrial zone with the Athens International Airport in Spata and counts about 50 km. To the western side, Aigaleo Avenue, encircling Mount Aigaleo and to the eastern side, the Hymmetus Ring. As supplementary avenues there are also NATO Avenue, running across the Elefsina Basin next to Mount Aigaleo, Katehaki Avenue, connecting NE (Papagou) and SE (Ilioupoli) suburbs of Athens aligned with Mount Hymmetus and finally Varis-Koropiou Avenue, connecting the vicinity of Athens International Airport and the SE coast of Athens, near the suburb of Voula, in the back side of Mount Hymmetus. To the south side (coast), Poseidonos Avenue (Or "Paraliaki (Παραλιακή): Greek for "Coastal (Road)") runs from Piraeus (Faliro Interchange) to Voula, aligned with the coast, until it meets Varis-Koropiou and then it continues to the countryside Sounio Avenue, towards Sounio and Lavrio.

The quality of the encircling system varies from motorway of high standards and fully computerised control and service (northern section of Attiki Odos) to more simple two-lanes avenue, like Aigaleo Avenue. Most of the system, maybe except the mountainous parts (Aigaleo, Katehaki and Hymmetus Ring), is a high-speed traffic system of roads. Usually the most speedy traffic is noticed on the coastal Poseidonos Avenue, thus making it need increased attention.

[edit] Berlin

Berlin is surrounded by Bundesautobahn 10 as its outer ring which mostly runs in the state of Brandenburg. It is approximately 196 kilometres (122 mi) in length which makes it the longest beltway in Europe. An inner ring was planned, but only half was completed (Bundesautobahn 100).

[edit] Brussels

Brussels is circled by two ring roads

The city centre, sometimes known as "the pentagon", is surrounded by the "Small ring", a sequence of boulevards formally numbered R20. These were built upon the site of the second set of city walls following their demolition. Metro line 2 runs under much of these.

The town is skirted by the European route E19 (N-S) and the E40 (E-W), while the E411 leads away to the SE. Brussels has an orbital motorway, numbered R0 (R-zero) and commonly referred to as the "ring". It is pear-shaped as the southern side was never built as originally conceived, owing to residents' objections.

Currently a high capacity ringroad is in the early stages of planning. It will be built next to the R0 to increase its capacity by 100%. Completion date is set to 2014.

[edit] Dublin

Dublin has three generations of partial ring roads. Due to its location on the sea, there is no complete ring road as yet. with the combined South Circular Road and North Circular Road forming the oldest, and inner pair dating from the 19th century.

The M50 motorway forms the middle, most complete and most heavily trafficked ring road with an eventual plan to form a complete ring via an undersea tunnel.

The Outer Ring Road forms the newest partial ring, running along the west of the cities outer suburbs. Eventual plans are to link it to sections of the R121 road which provides a similar service in the north west of the city, with land being reserved for this.

In addition, Dublin City Council has signed two "orbital routes" consisting of existing roads, but following these requires turning at many junctions.

[edit] The Hague

The Hague is circled by four ring roads:

The "Ring" is the main beltway, roughly 34 km long; It is also called the "International ring".
Around the city centre, there is the "CentrumRING", roughly 11 km long.
The historical downtown is circled by the P-route, a ring road that passes all the main parking spaces in The Hague-downtown. It is roughly 5 km long.
The whole agglomeration of the Hague is partly circled by "Randweg Haaglanden". It is made up of the motorways A20, A12 & N11 & is 65 km long.

[edit] Helsinki

Helsinki has three ring roads, though because of the city's coastal location, all are partial rings. The innermost road is Ring I (Finnish Kehä I) and also Regional Highway 101, the intermediate road is Ring II (partly completed, other portions under study) and the outermost road is Ring III, also Highway 50 (a long segment of Ring III is also designated and signed as European route E18).

[edit] Lisbon

Lisbon has the Circular Regional Interior de Lisboa and the Circular Regional Exterior de Lisboa. Neither forms a complete loop.

[edit] London

London has the London Inner Ring Road (which circles Central London), the North and South Circulars, at a greater distance from the centre (roughly at the Zone 3/4 boundary), and the larger M25 orbital motorway (which encircles Greater London).

[edit] Madrid

The system of ring roads in the Spanish region of Madrid.

Madrid, Spain is served by three beltways:

M-30, which at a mean distance of 5.17 kilometres (3.21 mi) to the Puerta del Sol has been overtaken by the city in most of its 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) length.
M-40, which borders Madrid at a mean distance of 10.07 kilometres (6.26 mi), with connections to the southern metropolitan towns and projects westwards to reach Pozuelo de Alarcón for a total length of 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi).
M-50, which was planned as a full ring but is not "closed" as of 2008, though projects by the Autonomous Community of Madrid to connect both ends through a tunnel are being aired. It is 85 kilometres (53 mi) long and services mainly the metropolitan area at a mean distance of 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi).

Also, the half-loop M-45 runs between the M-40 and the M-50 at the east, where the two beltways are more separated; and there are plans to build a fourth full loop, the M-60, which would be over 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and encompass the whole metropolitan area of Madrid. This proliferation of orbital motorways is partially due to the traditional high radiality of the Spanish highway network, which routed most cross-country traffic through Madrid.

[edit] Manchester

The M60 Orbital Motorway runs 35 miles (56 km) and was created between 1960-2006 by the amalgamation and renumbering of several existing motorways (M62, M63 and M66) and some new build to create an entirely circular route around the city of Manchester and seven neighbouring Metropolitan Boroughs. In 2004, it briefly held the record for the UK's busiest stretch of road (when a part of the M25 was undergoing roadworks); the northern sector of M60 carried an average of 181,000 vehicles per day between junctions 16 and 17.

[edit] Moscow

Moscow, Russia has three beltways:

MKAD — Moscow Ring Road, which follows city borders, is approximately 109 kilometres (68 mi)
Moscow Small Ring — road A107, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) off MKAD, length is about 320 kilometres (200 mi)
Moscow Big Ring — road A108, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) off MKAD, length is about 550 kilometres (340 mi)

Moscow Central Ring Road is a planned road which will consist of parts of Moscow Small Ring and Moscow Big Ring. Planned length is about 442 kilometres (275 mi), it will be opened in 2015.

[edit] Paris

Paris has the Boulevard Périphérique as its innermost ring. The next ring outwards, the A86 autoroute, is expected to be completed in 2010. And there is also a third long ring road which is named Francilienne or A104.

[edit] Rotterdam

There are several motorways which run to/from Rotterdam. The following four are part of its 'Ring' (ring road): A20 (Ring North): Hoek van Holland - Rotterdam - GoudaA16 ,(Ring East): Rotterdam - Breda (- Belgium) ,A15 (Ring South): Europoort - Rotterdam - NijmegenA4 ,(Ring West).

[edit] Asia

[edit] Beijing

The modern civic scheme of Beijing, China, is based on a number of ring roads, consecutively numbered from 2nd to the projected 7th. The innermost 2nd Ring Road was built on the site previously occupied by the moat of the Beijing city walls.

[edit] Kabul

A long circular beltway connects the Afghan capital Kabul with the large Afghan cities of Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad.

[edit] New Delhi

India's capital has two ring roads running around it.

[edit] Bengaluru

The city of Bengaluru has an Inner Ring Road, an Intermediate Ring Road, an Outer Ring Road, and a Peripheral Ring Road.

[edit] Seoul

Route 100, the Seoul Ring Expressway, encircles the city and is complete. An outer beltway, Route 400, is under construction 60 km south of the city.

[edit] Shanghai

The Chinese city of Shanghai gained its first ring road in the inter-war years in the form of the Zhongshan Road, a partial ring that enclosed the existing urban area, which was primarily made up of foreign concessions.

In the 1990s, an Inner Ring Road was constructed, mainly consisting of elevated roadways built on top of the Zhongshan Road, but which eventually made a complete circle around the urban core. A Middle Ring Road and an Outer Ring Road (the A20 Expressway) were later added.

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Christchurch

Christchurch has a ring road circling the inner suburbs of the city mainly consisting of State Highways 73, 74 and 74A. It is identifiable by a black R on a white pentagonal sign

[edit] Melbourne

The Metropolitan Ring Road, Melbourne circles the city in the outer suburbs.

[edit] Sydney

Sydney has the Sydney Orbital Network, a 110-kilometre (68 mi) ring consisting of several motorways.

[edit] Africa

[edit] Johannesburg

The Johannesburg Ring Road encircles the city of Johannesburg. It consists of three freeways (N1, N3, N12).

[edit] Durban

Durban's Outer Ring Road runs up and down the coast, funnelling traffic away from the CBD through the expanse of the Durban Metro Area.

[edit] Other

Plans for rind roads around Cape Town and Pretoria are in the pipeline.

[edit] See also