Aininian Autoroute 371
|
Aininian Autoroute 371 (ex-666) Highway of Death | |
|---|---|
| Major junctions | |
| East end | A66 (Marlane-la-Prairie, Linack) |
| A71, A271, LK42, LK102 | |
| West end | Mount St. Catherine, Linack |
Aininian Autoroute 371 (previously Aininian Autoroute 666), nicknamed the Highway of Death, is a four-lane dual carriageway in the Aininian province of Linack. Actually a spur route of Autoroute 66, it's however considered an auxiliary of Autoroute 71 due to a decision by the Ministry of Transport after being petitioned to abolish the designation Autoroute 666 because of the bad reputation caused by its Satanic connotations, being the number of the beast, by the city of Mount St. Catherine.
The 124 km long highway links the city of Marlane-la-Prairie in south-central Linack with the resort town of Mount St. Catherine in the Salter mountain chain spanning the centre of Linack. Mostly mountainous and with several sharp turns, it had an unusually high fatality rate which, along with its previous designation of A666, made it the most notorious road in Ainin according to the national newspaper of record The Aininian.
Due to pressure from the municipal governments near the road, lobbying by local merchants whose businesses were affected by the road's negative reputation and high occurrences of sign theft, which at one point became so bad that they had to be nailed deep into large boulders, the road was renamed A371 in December 2007.
Route Description
Marlane-la-Prairie
A371 begins in Marlane-la-Prairie, Linack as Exit 104 of A66 and heads west, being a four-lane dual carriageway in this stretch of the road and going through the city's industrial park for the first 5 kilometres. At km 6, the road curves and heads north-west, through a low-density residential neighbourhood, crossing provincial highway Linack Road 42 at km 22. It exits the city's boundaries shortly after and enters the bounds of the Marlane Forest Nature Reserve, from where it exits at km 40.
Sainte-Marthe Prefecture
A371, after exiting Marlane-la-Prairie Prefecture, then enters an area that is mostly agricultural, passing through the small towns of Val-Fabien, Adamsbourg and Triton and merging at km 69 with Autoroute 271 to form a concurrency that lasts until km 73, near the town of Sainte-Marthe, when the combined road intersects with Autoroute 71 and A271 ends. A371 continues past the junction and then intersects Linack Route 102 at km 80 before exiting Sainte-Marthe Prefecture and entering the Salter Mountains.
Salter Mountains
The road narrows to a two-lane dual carriageway shortly after entering Salter Prefecture before turning into a four-lane highway once again at km 89. Starting from km 91, the road begins to turn sharply around the mountains through a route that roughly follows the same lanes created in 1923, however expanded to four lanes. At km 112 is located Mount Elysée National Park and a rest area. Following this point, there are no more exits until the end of the road.
Mount St. Catherine
The road ends at km 124.5, prior to which the speed limit dropped from 90 km/h to 50 km/h. The end of the road is a T-shaped intersection with traffic lights, the road A371's west end intersecting with being the resort town's Main Street.
History
Origins
In 1923, engineers from Aininian National Railways built a narrow road starting from the small logging community of Saltpeter Falls at the foot of Mount Leandra through the Salter Mountains, eventually reaching their target, a large lake and surrounding clearing in the heart of the mountain chain. There, the ANR established a vacation colony, which soon became a resort town due to high popularity with hikers and skiers alike. The road was paved in the late 1930s and was a two lane road without a median, usually only used by coach buses of the ANR shuttling in tourists. It was then extended east from Saltpeter Falls, by then a ghost town to Marlane-la-Prairie.
Creation of Autoroute 666
In 1951, the government of Ainin nationalised Aininian National Railways and control of the road fell to the Ministry of Transport, which slightly widened the road and added a median barrier and built a modern four-lane dual carriageway from the base of the mountains to Marlane-la-Prairie, before incorporating it into the national expressway system, the Autoroute, in 1961, as the A666, because it was the sixth auxiliary road of existing Autoroute 66, a major east-west artery connecting Marlane-la-Prairie with Hartly, to be established.
Notoriety
As early as 1967, stories that the road was cursed began to emerge, gaining a big publicity boost when local Church of Ainin diocese gave support to the reports. This had come after a turbulent news year for the road, after a landslide killed 12 people in a bus on the road and several other smaller incidents killed 5. The mountainous span of the road continued to suffer from high accident rates due to its narrow design and sharp turns, which continued to amplify the reports. By 1981, sign thefts had become chronic and an increasingly frustrated government had them all welded onto metal poles dug over 3 metres into the ground. To their surprise, this did not stop the trend, thieves instead stealing the entire pole. During the 1990s and early 2000s, aided by the Internet and globalisation, A666's notoriety became internationally known and business along it and in Mount St. Catherine suffered.
Renaming and present
The area's chambers of commerce, supported by the local governments, the Diocese of Marlane-la-Prairie and the Linish Ministry of Transport, petitioned the national government for a new number being assigned to A666, proposing Autoroute 566-B. This proposed number was rejected because letters in highway names were reserved for bypass roads, of which A666 was not. It was given the name A371 instead, being declared a branch road of A71, which A666 crosses, instead of A66. Shortly after the change of name to A371, the spans of the road in the mountains were widened to two lanes in each direction, with sharp turns being redesigned, severely reducing the fatality rate by upwards of 80%. However, it remains known as the Highway of Death due to public perception of its history.
In popular culture
Due to the road's association with horror and the occult, it has proven to be a popular setting for many films, television series and books.
- Kilometre 91 is a horror novel written by Aininian author Maurice Duquarter set in the mountains around the "curve of death".
- The music video for the single The Banner by Aininian rock band Piece of Work was filmed on Autoroute 371.
- An episode of Practical Pranks was filmed on A371, where host Mark Swards disguised himself as Satan and tried to scare motorists, was filmed there.
- Its notoriety was the basis of the ABC made-for-TV film A Day to Remember.