U.S. Route 281

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U.S. Route 281

Length:

1872 mi^[1] (3013 km)

Formed:

1931^[2]

South end:

Bus. US 77/SH 48 at Brownsville, TX

Major
junctions:

I-37 at Three Rivers, TX

I-10/I-35 at San Antonio, TX

I-20 at Brazos, TX

I-44 at Wichita Falls, TX

I-40 at Hinton, OK

I-70 at Russell, KS

I-80 at Grand Island, NE

I-90 at Plankinton, SD

I-94 at Jamestown, ND

North end:

ND 3/PTH 10, U.S./Canada border

United States Numbered Highways
Spur of US 81
List - Bannered - Divided - Replaced

U.S. Highway 281 is a north-south United States highway. It is 1,872 miles^[1] (3,013 km) long and is currently the longest continuous three-digit U.S. Route.

The highway's northern terminus is at the International Peace Garden, north of Dunseith, North Dakota, at the Canadian border, where it continues as Highway 10. The route between Dunseith and the border is shared with North Dakota Highway 3. The southern terminus of US 281 is in Brownsville, Texas, just short of the Mexican border.

1 Route description
2 Major intersections
3 See also
- 3.1 Related routes
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Route description

Major cities
Brownsville, Texas McAllen, Texas San Antonio, Texas Wichita Falls, Texas Alice, Texas Lawton, Oklahoma Great Bend, Kansas Hastings, Nebraska Grand Island, Nebraska Aberdeen, South Dakota Jamestown, North Dakota

[edit] Texas

Starting at an intersection with Business US 77 and Texas State Highway 48 about 2 miles from the Mexico border, US 281 travels along the border through the Rio Grande Valley, turning north at Hidalgo, TX, travelling through many small towns, alternating as a divided highway and main street, until joining Interstate 37. It splits with I-37 and travels through Pleasanton, TX, travelling north to San Antonio. In San Antonio, US 281 overlaps Interstate 410 on the south side of the city until the interchange with Interstate 37. US 281 then overlaps I-37 north into downtown San Antonio until I-37 ends at Interstate 35. US 281 continues north from downtown San Antonio as freeway, intersecting Interstate 410 with access to the San Antonio International Airport. There is currently a project underway to construct a stack interchange at interchange of US 281 and I-410. Currently there is no direct access between the two freeways and surface streets are required to connect to each freeway. North of San Antonio, US 281 is not a freeway and is the Main Street of Blanco. It overlaps U.S. Highway 290 south of Johnson City. US 290 continues toward Austin, and thus US 281 and US 290 are used as an alternate route from San Antonio to Austin to avoid congestion on Interstate 35 and to be more scenic.

North of San Antonio, US 281 continues through central and north-central Texas, passing through many cities including Stephenville, Mineral Wells and Jacksboro to Wichita Falls, where the highway begins a concurrency with Interstate 44 north across the Red River into Oklahoma.

[edit] Oklahoma

US-281 enters the state of Oklahoma at the Red River bridge north of Burkburnett, Texas on a route concurrent with Interstate 44 starting in Wichita Falls. About 6 miles north of the Red River, US-281 leaves I-44 at Randlett, Oklahoma and follows a two-lane roadway paralleling I-44, which becomes the Wichita Falls-Lawton section of the H.E. Bailey Turnpike, from Randlett to a point 6 miles south of Lawton.

Through the Lawton/Fort Sill metropolitan area, US-281 again overlaps a free section of I-44, while the former US-281 alignment through the city of Lawton is designated as Business US-281 between I-44 exits 34 and 39B. About 8 miles north of downtown Lawton, US-281 departs from I-44 to continue north through the cities of Apache, Anadarko, Gracemont, Binger and Hinton. About 2 miles north of its junction with Interstate 40 near Hinton, US-281 crosses a 1930's-vintage 38-span steel pony truss bridge over the South Canadian River that served traffic of the former east-west US-66 before that highway was superseded by I-40 in the 1960s. A four-mile section of US-281's paving from north of I-40 to a point south of Geary is the original 18-foot concrete surface of Route 66.

Through central and northern Oklahoma, US-281 then proceeds through the cities of Geary, Watonga, Seiling and Alva. The highway crosses the Kansas state line about 14 miles north of Alva at Hardtner, Kansas.

[edit] Kansas

Passing largely through sparsely populated areas of central Kansas, US-281 enters the state at Hardtner in Barber County and passes through Medicine Lodge, Pratt, St. John and Great Bend, the only city along the route in Kansas which has more than 7,000 people. Along its venture through southern Kansas, US-281 intersects several major east-west routes: first US-54 and US-400, which heads east to Wichita and west to Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal; US-50, which veers east to Hutchinson and west to Garden City; and US-56, heading to Dodge City westbound and Emporia and Overland Park eastbound.

Following a four-mile concurrency with K-4 near Hoisington, the highway intersects Interstate 70 at Russell before joining K-18 near Paradise for an eight-mile concurrency.

The two highways split at Luray, and US-281 turns north into Osborne County, passing through the town of Osborne before joining US-24 and K-9 for another concurrency. US-281 joins US-36 at Smith Center, turning east before the two highways split, with US-281 turning north for its final stretch in the state, passing through Lebanon. All sections of US-281 in Kansas are two-lane, with portions passing through the downtown areas of Pratt and Hoisington still overlaid with bricks.

[edit] Nebraska

U.S. 281 enters Nebraska south of Red Cloud and meets U.S. Route 136 there. It continues north to Hastings and meets U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 34. Between Hastings and Grand Island, U.S. 281 overlaps U.S. 34 and is designated as the Tom Osborne Expressway after the former Nebraska Cornhuskers football coach and U.S. Representative. At Grand Island, U.S. 281 intersects Interstate 80, loses U.S. 34 and intersects U.S. Route 30. U.S. 281 continues north of Grand Island to St. Libory as expressway. From there northward, U.S. 281 is a two-lane undivided highway passing mostly through unpopulated areas, with the exception of the regional trade center O'Neill, where it junctions U.S. Route 20 and U.S. Route 275. U.S. 281 exits the state north of Spencer.

[edit] South Dakota

U.S. Highway 281 enters South Dakota in Gregory County. Just north of the South Dakota-Nebraska border, it is cosigned with U.S. 18. It crosses the Missouri River at Fort Randall Dam. Just south of Armour, U.S. 18 leaves the U.S. 281 alignment. North of Armour, U.S. 281 makes a short jaunt west on South Dakota Highway 44, then continues north. U.S. 281 and Interstate 90 intersect at Plankinton. West of Huron, U.S. 14 is cosigned with U.S. 281 for 7 miles. U.S. 281 becomes an expressway at South Dakota Highway 20. This expressway continues through Aberdeen to a point near Westport. South Dakota Highway 10 is cosigned with U.S. 281 for 3 miles near Barnard. It exits the state north of Frederick.

U.S. 281 was recently realigned in the city of Aberdeen. A bypass was built that travels on the west side of Aberdeen, and the U.S. 281 designation was moved onto that new roadway. It runs north from U.S. Highway 12 and connects with the old alignment south of 24th Avenue Northeast.

The South Dakota section of U.S. 281, with the exception of concurrencies with U.S. 18 and U.S. 14, is defined at South Dakota Codified Laws § 31-4-229.^[3]

[edit] North Dakota

In North Dakota, U.S. 281 is a major north-south artery. It enters south of Ellendale and intersects Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 52 at Jamestown, ND. 281 and 52 remain paired together to Carrington. From there, U.S. 281 continues northward through Sheyenne. Ten miles north of Sheyenne the highway curves in order to go around Devil's Lake, and then continues to Minnewaukan, North Dakota. From there it goes to North Dakota Highway 5 at Rocklake. U.S. 281 follows ND 5 westward to Dunseith, where 281 turns northward to its end at the Canadian border in the International Peace Garden. The northernmost section of U.S. 281 passes through North Dakota's Turtle Mountains. Recently, 281 was rebuilt near Minnewaukan, North Dakota to accommodate flooding close to the city.