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I'm pretty sure there are a couple of 5% grades on I-77 - one in WV between Charleston & Beckley around mile marker 70, and the other in southern Virginia near the NC state line. I at times have put my car in neutral the entire 7 mile descent near Fancy Gap, VA when travelling southbound, and even starting at 65 MPH, my speed will increase to 75-80 easily if I'm not tapping the brakes throughout.
I-77 southbound from Fancy Gap, VA to the NC border is a rather steep decent of 1,300 ft over 6.2 miles. There are four runaway truck ramps. It's a nice road when the weather is fine but is subject to very heavy fog at times. This condition has resulted in some massive pile-ups, most recently in April 2013. There were 95 vehicles involved, 3 fatalities and took 16 hours to clear the road. The northbound side was closed for 11 hours so that emergency vehicles could use it to get to accident victims and for tow trucks to get to disabled cars.
I love foggy cold San Francisco and I prefer to take the 101 so you go from L.A. to Santa Barbara to Pismo Beach and go to Paso Robles all the way to San Franie but the problem is when you take interstate 5. That's terrifying. You have to go the way you would go to Six Flags Magic Mountain you know Valencia and then you have to go through the Tejon pass (much worse that Cajon pass) which is very, very windy. The winds sometimes push your car and with the crazy truck divers you might aswell have a death wish. The drop dead scariest thing is the Tule Fog. The Tule Fog is so dense that you can litterally see only a foot ahead of you. Sorry for my bad English I'm like half European and also I'm only 14 but I know California back and fourth. Cajon pass is pretty scary though, especially when it's foggy. Why is fog in California so so very dense. I love fog and I hate So. Cal it's sunny and fun but I can't take the stupid tan beach girls and thug life thing we've got going on. I simply can't. People in No. Cal are much more refined and much more modest. I hate 24/7 sunny weather. Hell im from Spain and Hawaii but I'd rather live in Qubec in Canada, Ireland, Nordlingen Germany (AOT lol), San Francisco, Oregon, Washington, No. Cal etc.
I'd also love in Japan and I have Japanese cousins but mostly Filipino cousins on my dads side because Hawaiianz got Fillipino ya' know. I could live in Europe too and let me tell you it's cold some places. But yeah nobody beats the Tejon pass unless they go up the Swiss Alps. It may not be steepest but it definetly, definitely has severe winds, crazy drivers, and tule fog.
The Cajon pass isn't 6% for 12 miles. The entire pass is 12 miles but it's only 6% for the initial 5 miles heading south out of Hesperia. After that it "steps down" between 4% and 1%. I live there and drive it almost everyday. But you are absolutely right about the fog.
I-68 through Maryland and West Virginia have some fairly steep downgrades. I know of several of 5 percent; not sure about steeper than that.
This only sort-of counts, but the bottom of a 5 percent downgrade on westbound I-68 at Cheat Lake, WV leads to an off-ramp that is a 7 percent grade. Trucks are prohibited from using that ramp. There is also an off-ramp from I-68 east onto U.S. 220 near Cumberland, MD that is steep enough that trucks are prohibited, though I don't know what its grade is.
Although certainly not a plaque carrying expert, I have worked in the industry. My UNDERSTANDING is 7% grade is the maximum allowed in the US Interstate System, since it was originally conceived with military implications. We them here in Colorado too. Does anybody know anything to the contrary? Other types of roads and highways may not be so strictly regulated.
there's a stretch of 322 on pennsylvania coming off I 80 going into Harrisburgh that has an 8 % grade signs make you stop and start from 0 before going down hill
I-70 west of Denver, from the Continental Divide (Eisenhower Tunnel) west to Silverthorne, is 7% all the way. With two runaway-truck ramps... that get used frequently.
Drove it a whole lot, in my '69 VW bus when I lived in Dillon. That teaches you patience.
"Rental!" Anybody going up the grade at 70mph is assumed to be driving a rental car, nobody would do that in their own car.
Most of the posts in this thread talk about a 7% grade, but in reality they are 6% grades.
But I did find this:
The steepest grade on the Interstate system is on I-24/US-64 Westbound over Monteagle Mountain, TN. It's an 8% grade.
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