U.S. Route 93 - History

History

U.S. Route 93 was not one of the original U.S. highways proposed in the 1925 Bureau of Public Roads plan. However, the revised numbering plan approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on November 11, 1926, established US 93 from the Canadian border near Eureka, Montana south through Montana and Idaho to a southern terminus at Wells, Nevada.

AASHO, at its June 8, 1931, meeting, approved a southerly extension of US 93 south to Glendale, Nevada. By 1932, the Nevada Department of Highways had marked the continuation of the highway using the routing of several preexisting state highways.

At the request of the Arizona State Highway Department, the AASHO route numbering committee approved another extension of US 93 in 1935. This shifted the southern terminus south to Kingman, Arizona by way of Las Vegas. Nevada officials again extended the route along preexisting highways; however, they may not have signed the extension right away as it was not shown on Nevada's state-published maps until 1939.

Until 1993, US 93 ended a short distance north of Wickenburg, Arizona at a junction with U.S. Highway 89. When US 89 was decommissioned in the area, the US 93 designation was carried on into Wickenburg.

A new highway segment opened in October 2010 in the area of Hoover Dam; the Hoover Dam Bypass replaces a highway that had been closed to truck traffic due to security concerns over the dam since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The bypass crosses the Colorado River on a new bridge downstream of the dam. The new bypass will now make the truck detour through either Laughlin, Nevada or Needles, California unnecessary.