Methods and apparatus are provided with improved routing techniques for bifurcated flows. Routing methods and apparatus are provided that obtain a fractional flow from a set of nodes to a given destination having a maximum load, L, on any link between a node in the set and the given destination; and generate a bifurcated flow between the set of nodes and the given destination from the fractional flow such that the maximum load on any link in the bifurcated flow does not exceed 2L, wherein the bifurcated flow allows a flow from a given node to be sent on at most two outgoing links. The fractional flow can be, for example, a fractional single-sink multicommodity flow.