U.S. Route 491 (US 491) is a north–south
U.S. Highway serving the
Four Corners
Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...
region of the United States. It was created in 2003 as a renumbering of U.S. Route 666 (US 666). With the US 666 designation, the road was nicknamed the "Devil's Highway" because of the significance of the number
666
666 may refer to:
* 666 (number)
* 666 BC, a year
* AD 666, a year
* The number of the beast, a reference in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament
Places
* 666 Desdemona, a minor planet in the asteroid belt
* List of highways numbered 6 ...
to many
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
denominations as the
Number of the Beast
The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...
.
This
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
ic connotation, combined with a high fatality rate along the New Mexico portion, convinced some people the highway was cursed. The problem was compounded by persistent
sign theft. These factors led to two efforts to renumber the highway, first by officials in
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
, then by those in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. There have been safety improvement projects since the renumbering, and fatality rates have subsequently decreased.
[
The highway, now a spur route of US 91 via its connection to US 191, runs through ]New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
and Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, as well as the tribal nations of the Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...
and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (Ute dialect: Wʉgama Núuchi) is one of three federally recognized tribes of the Ute Nation, and are mostly descendants of the historic Weeminuche Band who moved to the Southern Ute reservation in 1897. Their reservati ...
. The highway passes by two mountains considered sacred by Native Americans: Ute Mountain
Ute Mountain, also known as Ute Peak or Sleeping Ute Mountain (; Ute: ''Wisuv Káruv'', Navajo: ''Dził Naajiní''), is a peak within the Ute Mountains, a small mountain range in the southwestern corner of Colorado. It is on the northern edge o ...
and an extinct volcanic core named Shiprock
Shiprock (, "rock with wings" or "winged rock") is a monadnock rising nearly above the high-desert plain of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. Its peak elevation is above sea level. It is southwest of the town ...
. Other features along the route include Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloa ...
and Dove Creek
Dove Creek is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Dolores County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 635 at the 2020 United States census. The community takes its name from the nearby ...
, Colorado, the self-proclaimed pinto-bean capital of the world.
Route description
US 491 serves the states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Before 1992, US 666 also served Arizona. The Arizona portion was renumbered separately and is now part of US 191. The former US 666 was the only highway to have passed through each of the Four Corners states, even though it never came near the Four Corners Monument
The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the U.S. state, states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to the area ...
, which is accessed via US 160. At several points along US 491, mountain ranges in all of the Four Corners states are visible from a single location. The alignment of the highway is mostly north–south, however the Utah portion was signed east–west.[
]
New Mexico
US 491 begins at Gallup
Gallup may refer to:
* Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll
* Gallup (surname), a surname
*Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States
** Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New ...
, at a junction with Interstate 40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...
(I-40), and currently runs north along Muñoz Drive.[ The routing has changed to bypass the downtown area. The original route used 9th Street, starting at US 66. US 491 leaves Gallup and passes north through the eastern half of the ]Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...
. Along the way, the road passes through the small tribal communities and trading posts of Tohatchi
Tohatchi () is a census-designated place (CDP) in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. It is a health-services and education hub along Highway 491. Its population was reported to be 785 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. As Toh ...
, Buffalo Springs, Naschitti, Sheep Springs and Newcomb.[ The Navajo tribal capital at ]Window Rock, Arizona
Window Rock, known in Navajo language, Navajo as Tségháhoodzání (), is a city and census-designated place that serves as the capital of the Navajo Nation, the largest List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States, Nativ ...
, is just west of the highway corridor, accessed by State Road 264 (NM 264). The largest city served by US 491 is Shiprock
Shiprock (, "rock with wings" or "winged rock") is a monadnock rising nearly above the high-desert plain of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. Its peak elevation is above sea level. It is southwest of the town ...
, which takes its name from one of several extinct volcano cores in the area. Shiprock is known as "the winged rock" in the Navajo language, and the mountain is considered sacred by the Navajo people.
Shiprock is where the US 491 crosses the San Juan River and is briefly concurrent
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:
Law
* Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea''
* Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
with US 64. After passing Shiprock, the route continues north to the Colorado state line. The New Mexico portion has been designated the " John Pinto Highway" by the New Mexico state legislature.
It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways
Scenic and Historic Byways are highways in New Mexico known for their scenic beauty or historic significance. The New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department Scenic and Historic Byways Program was made effective July 31, 1998 to establ ...
.
Colorado
The New Mexico-Colorado state line is where the highway passes from the Navajo Nation to Ute Mountain Ute tribal lands. The highway passes to the east of the tribe's namesake, Ute Mountain
Ute Mountain, also known as Ute Peak or Sleeping Ute Mountain (; Ute: ''Wisuv Káruv'', Navajo: ''Dził Naajiní''), is a peak within the Ute Mountains, a small mountain range in the southwestern corner of Colorado. It is on the northern edge o ...
, believed to belong to a great warrior god of the Ute People. US 491 proceeds diagonally to the northwest in the extreme southwestern corner of the state. The highway exits tribal lands near Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloa ...
. After leaving Cortez, the road gradually rises in elevation while proceeding towards Utah. Here, the route features large pinto bean farming regions including Dove Creek, which bills itself as the "pinto bean capital of the world". Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado. The monument's are managed by the Bureau of Land Management ...
is located along the ascent, just west of the highway. Along this ascent is an access road for Hovenweep National Monument
Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into ...
at the state line. A portion of the road in Colorado has been designated the Trail of the Ancients
The Trail of the Ancients is a collection of National Scenic Byways located in the U.S. Four Corners states of Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. These byways comprise:
*The Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway in San Juan County, Utah;
*The ...
, a National Scenic Byway
A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...
, which uses US 491 as an access for these parks and monuments in southwest Colorado.
Utah
Once in Utah, US 491 gradually ascends to the Abajo Mountains
The Abajo Mountains, sometimes referred to as the Blue Mountains, are a small mountain range west of Monticello, Utah, south of Canyonlands National Park and north of Blanding, Utah. The mountain range is located within the Manti–La Sal Natio ...
. Still visible are large farming regions. Upon reaching an elevation of , the highway arrives at a weigh station
A weigh station is a checkpoint along a highway to inspect vehicular weights and safety compliance criteria. Usually, trucks and commercial vehicles are subject to the inspection.
Weigh stations are equipped with truck scales, some of which are ...
and reaches the town of Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
. US 491 enters the town on Central Street and terminates near the city park at an intersection with US 191, which runs along Main Street. All highways in Utah are codified into law; US 491 is defined at Utah Code Annotated §72-4-137(11).
History
Pre-1926
Before the Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
, when this area was ceded to the United States, the main trade route through this part of Mexico was the Old Spanish Trail. This trail extended from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles. The trail had multiple routes; however, the main route proceeded north towards Moab
Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...
, Utah, one of the few places where the Colorado River
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
can be crossed without having to traverse steep cliffs. The modern US 491 roughly correlates with the main route of the Old Spanish Trail between Cortez, Colorado and its northern terminus.
Before 1926, all of modern US 491 existed as state routes. In New Mexico, US 666 absorbed a portion of State Road 32 (NM 32) from Gallup to Shiprock, and completely replaced NM 121 from Shiprock to the Colorado state line. The portion in Colorado was numbered State Highway 106 (SH 106) from the New Mexico state line to Cortez, and SH 10 from Cortez to Utah. At the time, SH 10 traversed the southern portion of Colorado. While most of this corridor today has a U.S. Highway designation, a portion of SH 10 still exists. In Utah, the route was originally numbered State Route 9 (SR 9), which also included what is now US 191 from Monticello to Crescent Junction. Utah has since re-used the SR 9 designation for a different road.
U.S. Route 666
The route was upgraded to a U.S. Highway in 1926, as U.S. Route 666. This number was appropriate and in accordance with the road numbering guidelines for U.S. Highways, being the sixth spur along the highway's parent highway, the famed cross-continental highway U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...
, from which US 491 breaks around Gallup
Gallup may refer to:
* Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll
* Gallup (surname), a surname
*Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States
** Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New ...
, New Mexico. This number was assigned by the American Association of State Highway Officials
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction throughout the United St ...
(AASHO), a coordinating body that created the U.S. Highway System. At that time, the northern terminus of the route was in Cortez, at an intersection with then US 450 (modern US 160).
Over time the route became known as the "Devil's Highway", a reference to the Number of the Beast
The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...
.[ This nickname and association made some visitors uncomfortable,] as well as making the signs targets for theft
Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...
. Because of the highway's number, accidents and other phenomena, this became repeated as legend. These legends convinced some people the highway was cursed. One unnamed highway patrol officer was quoted in ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' as stating a drunk-driving suspect told him, "Triple 6 is evil. Everyone dies on that highway." Skeptics point out that the highway has a lower than average fatality rate in Utah and Colorado; only the New Mexico portion is statistically a dangerous highway.[ Skeptics further state the high fatality rate in New Mexico can be explained by an inadequate design for the traffic loads at the time. During the renumbering debate, the '']Albuquerque Journal
The ''Albuquerque Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
History
The ''Golden Gate'' newspaper was founded in June 1880. In the fall of 1880, the owner of the ''Golden Gate'' died and Journal Publishing Company was ...
'' opined that the planned highway improvements would do more to reduce fatalities than the renumbering itself.[
The curse of US 666 is briefly discussed in Jonathan D. Rosenblum's book, ''Copper Crucible'', which investigates the ]Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983
The 1983 Arizona copper mine strike began as a labour dispute between the Phelps Dodge Corporation and a group of trade union, union copper mining, copper miners and mill workers, led by the United Steelworkers. The subsequent strike action, stri ...
. This strike occurred along the highway near Morenci, Arizona. The highway was used as a plot element in films and television, including '' Route 666'', ''Natural Born Killers
''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims ...
'',[ and '' Repo Man'', as well as a two-part episode of the series '' Married... with Children'', titled "Route 666".] These pieces are not accurate in portraying the route; for example, one depicts the route in Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
.[
]
Extensions into Arizona and Utah
On December 4, 1938, the southern terminus of the route was extended from Gallup across the Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
state line to US 80 in Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
* Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...
, near the Mexican border. It ran concurrent
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to:
Law
* Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea''
* Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
with US 66 for 30 miles (48.3 km) before the turn south.[ Prior to the extension, the route between Douglas and Sanders was designated as SR 81.] The Arizona portion of the highway is known as the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway, as it approximated the path of the Spanish explorer, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Meaning of the name Francisco
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...
. This portion is noted for mountainous terrain, with hairpin turn
A hairpin turn (also hairpin bend or hairpin corner) is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn about 180° to continue on the road. It is named for its resemblance to a bent metal ha ...
s and steep grades, that reaches an altitude of over . The curves force a speed limit of in spots.[
In 1970, several U.S. Highways in the Four Corners region were re-aligned. As part of this change, US 160 was rerouted west of Cortez to serve the ]Four Corners Monument
The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the U.S. state, states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to the area ...
and enter Arizona instead of Utah. US 666 was extended up part of the old route of US 160 to Monticello, Utah
Monticello ( ) is a city located in San Juan County, Utah, United States and is the county seat. It is the second most populous city in San Juan County, with a population of 1,972 at the 2010 census. The Monticello area was settled in July 18 ...
, at an intersection with then US 163 (now US 191).
In 1985, the Utah Department of Transportation
The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is an agency of the state government of Utah, United States; it is usually referred to by its initials UDOT (pronounced "you-dot"). UDOT is responsible for approximately 5,900 miles (9,495 kilomet ...
petitioned to extend US 666 northwest to Richfield Richfield may refer to:
Places Canada
*Richfield, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighbourhood
* Richfield, Nova Scotia
*Richfield, British Columbia, a ghost town from the Cariboo Gold Rush
United States
* Richfield, California
*Richfield, Idaho
* Richfiel ...
, but the proposal was rejected. The proposed extension followed SR 95, SR 24, and SR 119. A concurrency with US 191 would have been routed through Blanding and Monticello to connect to the rest of the route. One of the reasons cited for rejecting the proposal was that portions of SR 24 were not built to standards desired for additions to the U.S. Highway System.
Elimination and renumbering of US 666
In 1985, the US 66 designation was eliminated, leaving US 666 (and other routes) as "orphans". This fact would be used as a supporting factor in later petitions to renumber the highway. In 1992, the part in Arizona was renumbered as an extension of US 191. This truncated US 666 again at Gallup, New Mexico, now at I-40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and ...
.[
The route in the other three states became U.S. Route 491 in 2003, mainly through efforts of New Mexico Governor ]Bill Richardson
William Blaine Richardson III (November 15, 1947 – September 1, 2023) was an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the List of governors of New Mexico, 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was U.S. ambassador to ...
. He requested the change due to the "infamy brought by the inopportune naming of the road". While campaigning for governor, Richardson promised to renumber the highway as part of a larger plan to improve the highway and build relations between New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.[ Although traditional ]Navajo culture
The Navajo or Diné are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Navajo language, Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language.
The states with the largest Din ...
does not share the belief of 666 being an evil number, some Navajos had attempted for years to change the number as a way to raise awareness about the dangerous highway.[ The highway had largely been ignored, with few improvements made since it was first paved.][ By 1997, US 666 was named one of the 20 most dangerous highways in the United States.][ Some Navajo leaders were concerned that efforts to reduce poverty on Navajo lands, via promoting tourism and outside investment, were being hampered by the Christian aversion to the number.][
In New Mexico's motion to renumber the highway, they selected U.S. Route 393. Since the route came nowhere near US 93, ]AASHTO
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control, protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction through ...
instead suggested US 491, noting it as a branch of US 191 at Monticello, Utah. Although the next three-digit child of US 91 would have been U.S. Route 291, both the 291 and 391 designations were already in use as state route numbers in at least one of the affected states.[ At the news that the motion had passed, a New Mexico spokesperson stated, "The devil's out of here, and we say goodbye and good riddance."] Referring to the motion passing with a different number from what New Mexico requested, another spokesperson responded, "As long as it's not 666 and it's nothing satanic, that's OK."[ US 666 officially ceased to exist on May 31, 2003, although temporary "New 491 – Old 666" signs were posted after the change to aid travelers using old maps.]
Although sign theft had always been a problem along this highway, thefts reached epidemic proportions when the pending number change was announced. Within days of the announcement, virtually every US 666 sign had been stolen, some for sale on eBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
. Officials in Utah reported that five entire sign assemblies had been cut down with a chainsaw and stolen, while New Mexico officials reported that even signs welded to metal posts, as a theft deterrent, had been stolen. Officials speculated from one scene that someone had intentionally crashed a car into the sign post to break the welds.
The dedication of the "new" highway was postponed until July 30, 2003, to coincide with the start of construction projects to improve safety on the highway. At the dedication George Blue Horse, a Navajo medicine man, performed a ceremony to remove the curse from the highway. In the Navajo language he stated, "The road itself never ends. It goes on generation to generation. The new number is a good one. The new road will be a medicine."[
Newspapers and television stations interviewed people along the route about their opinions on the changing of the highway's number. Even some people who believed in the 666 curse disagreed with the change. One went on record as stating highway officials, "are messing with the wrong guy. They're making the devil mad. They should have left the 666 alone." Others were more sarcastic. One Monticello resident stated, "We'll really miss all the potheads stopping and taking pictures of the Route 666 sign." Most residents took pride in living along the Devil's Highway and opposed the change. Some commented that no matter the number they would still call the road the Devil's Highway.]
Post-renumbering
Since the renumbering in 2003, portions of US 491 in New Mexico have been upgraded to a four-lane divided highway, with grade separation
In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
s at the busiest interchanges. The New Mexico Department of Transportation has noted that, as sections are upgraded, fatality rates improve on the four-lane portions, but remain high on the two-lane portions. As construction has proceeded, the most dangerous portions of the highway have moved to points where the four-lane portion ends, and traffic merges to two lanes. This has caused the department to coordinate the phases of the upgrades to minimize the number of two-lane/four-lane transitions. Construction on the final phase was originally scheduled to begin January 2008,[ however the state applied for ]American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the G ...
funds to finish the project and completion was delayed until 2012.
Major intersections
Note: The Utah mileposts are posted in a west-to-east direction, while Colorado's and New Mexico's mileposts are posted in a south-to-north direction.
See also
* List of U.S. Highways in Colorado
* List of U.S. Highways in New Mexico
* List of U.S. Highways in Utah
* Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...
, fear of the number 666
* List of highways numbered 666
The following highways are numbered 666:
Belgium
* The pilgrimage centre of Banneux in Belgium is located on the N666 road.
Canada
* Alberta Highway 666
* Ontario Highway 666 (former)
Ireland
* R666 road, R666
Italy
* Strada regionale 666 di ...
* List of highways numbered 491
The following highways are numbered 491:
Canada
*Manitoba Provincial Road 491
Cuba
* San Cristobal–Bahia Honda Road (1–491)
* 2–491 (Cuba)
Israel
*Route 491 (Israel)
Japan
* Japan National Route 491
United States
* Interstate&nb ...
References
External links
Current and historic U.S. highway endpoints at Monticello, Utah, by Dale Sanderson
{{Featured article
1926 establishments in the United States
Transport infrastructure completed in 1926
91-4
91-4
91-4
91-4
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Gallup, New Mexico
Transportation in McKinley County, New Mexico
Transportation in San Juan County, New Mexico
Transportation in Montezuma County, Colorado
Transportation in Dolores County, Colorado
Transportation in San Juan County, Utah