US 6 in Nebraska

According to allcitycodes, US 6 is a US Highway in the US state of Nebraska. The road forms a long east-west route through the south of the state, running from the Colorado border through the state capital Lincoln to the Iowa border in the city of Omaha. The route is 600 kilometers long.

Travel directions

The US 6/Dodge Expressway in Omaha.

US 6 in Colorado comes from Sterling and crosses the border into Nebraska after Holyoke. US 6 then heads east across the agricultural High Plains. Then follows a 140-kilometer stretch in a southeasterly direction to McCook, a regional town on the Republican River. The landscape consists partly of badlands, but without serious elevation changes. Just before McCook, the US 34 from Fort Morgan joins, both routes then coincide. In McCook itself one crosses the US 83.

US 6 follows the Republican River valley about 100 miles east to Arapahoe, where US 136 splits off. US 6 and US 34 then remain double-numbered for a longer period of time, heading northeast across endless meadows via Holdrege and Minden to Hastings. Here US 6/34 gradually moves closer to Interstate 80, which runs further north . Hastings is the largest town on the route in central Nebraska, where US 281 intersects. The US 34 also exits here. The US 6 then continues east for more than 100 kilometers to Dorchester.

From Dorchester the US 6 jumps in the grid and goes north several times, until near the capital Lincoln. West of Lincoln, US 6 begins paralleling I-80 directly. Lincoln is a larger city with a larger center. Interstate 180 and US 34 are crossed here again. From Lincoln, US 6 travels another 31 miles northeast, parallel to I-80, to Gretna, a distant suburb of Omaha.

Just before Gretna, one crosses the Platte River, the largest river in inland Nebraska. US 6 leads north from Gretna through the westernmost suburbs of Omaha, here US 6 is an urban arterial with traffic lights and mostly 5 lanes with center turn lane. West of Omaha, the freeway connects to US 275 toward Fremont. US 6 exits here, then forms a freeway that heads east through the west side of Omaha for 9 miles. The highway has 2×3 lanes and is called Dodge Road or the Dodge Expressway. Just before the Interstate 680. interchangethe main carriageways of the US 6 run on viaducts above the local street network. East of I-680, US 6 is no longer a freeway, but an urban arterial with traffic lights. The road leads past the University of Nebraska. In the older part of Omaha, US 6 splits into two one-way streets with up to 4 lanes of traffic in each direction and intersects Interstate 480 on the west side of downtown. US 6 cuts through downtown Omaha, then merges with I-480 and crosses the Missouri River, which also forms the border with Iowa. US 6 in Iowa then continues through Council Bluffs.

History

The current route was largely numbered as US 38 when the US Highways were created in 1926. US 38 ran from Greeley, Colorado to Omaha, Nebraska. In 1931, US 38 was scrapped and renumbered US 6, which at that time was extended a very great distance west from Erie, Pennsylvania to Greeley, Colorado.

Few upgrades have been made to US 6 outside the Omaha region. It has largely remained a single carriageway through the meadows. The road does have some supraregional importance for the places not served by I-80, such as McCook, Holdrege and Hastings. Between Lincoln and Omaha, the function of US 6 has been completely taken over by I-80, which was already completed in 1962 between the two cities.

Omaha

The route was slightly different in Omaha from the current Dodge Street route. The highway in western Omaha has been converted from a divided highway to a freeway. Until the early 1990s, US 6 had only a few grade separated intersections, by the mid 1990s US 6 had been extended over a length of 6 kilometers into a freeway in western Omaha, following the growth of the city. freeway was completed in 2006. Also in 2006, the US 6 large-scale flyovers opened west of I-680.

The city of Omaha has grown much further west in the corridor of US 6 and even US 275 than in other directions. The western residential areas extend up to 25 kilometers from the center, to the north the city has grown only 8 kilometers and to the south only 10 kilometers.

Traffic intensities

The western portion of US 6, in particular, is very quiet, with I-80 and I-76 handling through traffic, so only 500 vehicles per day cross the Colorado border. To the east this increases somewhat to 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles. There are approximately 5,000 vehicles between Lincoln and Omaha, with approximately 30,000 vehicles in Lincoln. 70,000 vehicles a day drive off I-680 in Omaha.