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This is a complete archive of Did you knows... for the roads portal. For new additions add them to the bottom of this archives as well as to
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...that there is no nationwide numbering system in
Canada , but the
Trans-Canada Highway (pictured) provides a continuous network through all the provinces?
...that there are no continuous
motorway links through
London inside the
M25 orbital motorway ?
...that the entire
McMurdo-South Pole highway was successfully traversed in 2006?
...that there are trans-national highways and road networks that span entire continents, including the
Pan-American Highway and the continental road networks in
Asia ,
Africa , and
Europe ?
...that
Saskatchewan Highway 39 is one of the nation of Canada's busiest highways, providing ease of transport for $6 billion in trade goods via approximately 100,000 trucks over the year?"
...that 250,000 kilometers (150,000 miles) of roads complement air, pipeline, hiking trail, and waterway travel to provide
transportation in Saskatchewan ?"
...that the
Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure employs 1,476 employees diversified amongst 105 communities, maintaining 198,239 kilometers (123,180 mi) of roads and highways?"
...that
speed limits on
Guam Highway 1 may differ depending on which side of the road you are on?
...that
British Columbia provincial highway 2 is a short road from
Dawson Creek to the
B.C. /
Alberta border?
... that
Pinkie Road , a part of the Global Transportation Hub intermodal port authority facility, will link the
Trans Canada
Highway 1 and
Highway 11 as a part of the
Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative ?
...that the site of the early
Viking
hill fort of
Alaborg ,
Russia , was turned into a
quarry for construction of a
highway during the years of
Stalinism ?
...that completion of the
West Coast Highway
viaduct — the longest in
Singapore — was delayed for more than two years because of the
contractor 's financial problems?
...that
Berlinka (
pictured ) was a partially constructed
highway built by
Nazi Germany that was intended to span the
Polish Corridor from
Berlin to
Königsberg ,
Prussia ?
...that
Saskatchewan Highway 58 travels the
Missouri Coteau to an important
shore bird site on
Canada 's second largest
saline lake ?
...that
Manitoba Provincial Road 373 became famous after a band from
Norway House won an award for an album
named after the highway?
... that labourers paving
Saskatchewan Highway 641 in 1942 earned 35
cents an hour and a labourer with a
tractor -drawn
drag earned 50 cents an hour?
... that a 25-foot (7.6 m) tall, traditionally-dressed
Ukrainian woman offers bread and salt to
Saskatchewan Highway 5 travelers at
Canora , a town in
Saskatchewan ,
Canada ?
... that in a
toll dispute between residents of
Bandar Mahkota Cheras and the
Cheras-Kajang Highway concessionaire, a barrier blocking a
shunpike was repeatedly torn down and rebuilt?
... that the
Northern Woods and Water Route is a 2,400 km (1,500 mi) highway route through northern
Canada , from
Dawson Creek, British Columbia , to
Winnipeg, Manitoba ?
... that a
dendrochronological study suggests the
Corlea Trackway , a kilometre-long
corduroy road in
County Longford ,
Ireland , was built around 148 BC?
...that most of
Petroleum Road , a privately owned
asphalt road in the
Golan Heights , is marked on maps as inaccessible to traffic because of poor road quality?
...that in
Upper and
Lower Canada , the colonial government used
concession roads to define lots which were to be developed?
...that
cross-country cyclists are more prone to injury than
road cyclists but the injuries sustained by the former are less severe on average?
...that bridges carrying
India 's
Grand Trunk Road over the
Barakar River were washed away in 1913 and 1946?
...that
day beacons and other navigational aids vary in standard designation worldwide much like
driving on the right or left ?
... that the
Khardungla Pass is the highest motorable road in the world?
...that
Gustavus Blin Wright , a pioneer road builder and entrepreneur in
British Columbia ,
Canada , built the 127-mile (204 km)-long
Old Cariboo Road in 1862–3?
...that the 1957
accident on the Saint-Paul ramps claimed twenty-seven lives, making it among
Réunion 's deadliest road accidents?
...that the
Gough Map , housed at the
Bodleian Library in
Oxford , is the oldest surviving road map of
Great Britain and is believed to date from sometime between
1355 and
1366 ?
...that the last male-line descendant of
Alexander III of Russia , Count
George Brasov , died in a road accident whilst exiled in France at the age of 20?
...that
Dogs Trust , a
British
animal welfare
charity , provided
AA wardens with pistols to painlessly
euthanise animals injured in road accidents?
...that the
Transport typeface was created for use on
British road signs (pictured) following the introduction of the
motorway network?
A road sign with the Transport typeface
...that a
table bridge is a
moveable bridge (pictured ) that looks like an ordinary road when closed but appears monstrous when open, while a similarly appearing
submersible bridge vanishes when open? (
Pont levant Notre Dame )
...that
cyclist
Gerald Ciolek became the youngest ever
German National Cycling Champion, aged just 18 in 2005?
...that 24
Royal Marines
cadets aged 10 to 13 were killed when a
double-decker bus ploughed into their marching column in the
1951 Gillingham bus disaster , setting a new British record of fatalities in a road accident?
...that
Maes Titianus penetrated farther along the
Silk Road than any other Westerner in
Antiquity , reaching the Stone Tower of
Tashkurgan in the
Pamirs ?
...that
Rapides-des-Joachims, Quebec has no paved road connection with the rest of
Quebec ?
...that
The New 7th Storey Hotel , a
budget hotel catering to
backpackers in
Singapore , is actually nine storeys high and was the tallest building in the
Beach Road area in the
1950s ?
...that the
Glasgow Inner Ring Road was only half complete when it was abandoned in
1980 , leaving several incomplete
junctions , one of which ends abruptly in mid-air?
...that
John Vesey , a 16th-century
bishop of
Exeter , had a fordkeeper's
cottage built along
Plants Brook to help provide security for travelers on the Wylde Green Road?
...that
road maintenance depots have been used as
fronts to disguise entrances to military installations?
...that
road slipperiness causes over 53,000 accidents a year in the United Kingdom alone?
...that there is more variation in the design of
direction signs (
example pictured ) internationally than in any other class of
road sign ?
...that the current
Northam Bridge in
Southampton ,
England was the first major road bridge to be built using
prestressed concrete in the
United Kingdom ?
...that
Horseferry Road takes its name from a horse-ferry from
The Embankment to
Lambeth Stairs, once one of the most important
Thames crossings in
London , and which was owned by the
Archbishop of Canterbury ?
...that
Mooney Mooney Bridge (
pictured ) is the highest road bridge in the
southern hemisphere ?
...that famous tenor
Antonio Giuglini used to
jaywalk through traffic on
London 's
Brompton Road while flying his
kite ?
...that, as well as being used to clear
snow ,
winter service vehicles (
pictured ) can be used to repair roads which have melted in hot weather?
...that the four corners of the main crossroads in the historic town of
Ross in
Tasmania are known as
Temptation ,
Recreation ,
Salvation and
Damnation ?
...that a road in
Charlcombe ,
Somerset ,
England is closed for two months every spring to allow
frogs and
toads to cross safely?
...that the
Battle of Dombås was a
German attempt during the 1940
Norwegian Campaign at using
Fallschirmjägers to cut rail and road links in central
Norway ?
...that a proposed
strategic road link through
Bangladesh and its capital
Dhaka will reduce the travel distance between the
Indian cities of
Agartala and
Kolkata from 1,700 km to 400 km?
...that
La Salle Road in
Hong Kong is named after
French educator
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle ?
... that the
2008 Irish flash floods submerged one of the busiest
roads in Northern Ireland under six metres of
water ?
... that
Hubert Shirley-Smith wrote the
Encyclopaedia Britannica article on
bridges ?
... that the
King road drag , a
road grader widely used across North America for
grading
dirt roads in the early 20th century, was invented by
D. Ward King ?
... that
India and
Pakistan have expanded
cross-border road and rail transport links , including across the
disputed region of
Kashmir ?
... that the
Royal Road leading into
Wawel Castle (
pictured ) through the
medieval
Old Town , goes by way of the only
defensive gate still standing after the modernization of
Kraków ?
... that in building
Arthur De Wint Foote ' s
Foote's Crossing Road ,
Italian
stonemasons constructed high
embankment walls above the Middle
Yuba River ?
... that
British Columbia 's
Disaster Response Route network, while mostly consisting of roads, also includes marine routes?
... that from 1945 until 1978, cars in
Okinawa Prefecture drove on the right side of the road until a switch to
left-hand drive as part of the
730 Conversion Plan , to match the rest of
Japan ?
... that construction of
Mughal Road in the
Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir was opposed because it impeded the movement of the
Markhor goat ?