cahwyguy | Oct. 14th, 2013

userpic=roadgeeking Yup, I’m posting the headlines a day early. You can guess what that means… highway updates to be uploaded later today:

Caltrans told to sell homes along route of 710 gap . The California Department of Transportation must quickly sell some of the nearly 500 properties it owns in Los Angeles, South Pasadena and Pasadena, according to a bill by Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge), which was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Caltrans entirely rebuilds I-80 from Auburn to Nevada state line. A half-dozen years ago, then-Caltrans Director Will Kempton says he was so embarrassed by the cracks and ruts while driving Interstate 80 that he wanted to pull over and cover the Caltrans logo on his car.
Highway 101 bypassed in plans for traffic improvements. THE FLAWED PLANNING PROCESS over the ballyhooed $143 million Highway 101-Greenbrae Interchange-Corte Madera scheme is finished. The upshot is there will not be a single change made to 101. The Marin Transportation Authority approved spending $39.6 million. Except for $4 million directed for construction of an Interstate 580 auxiliary lane leading to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, not a penny is slated for highway construction.
Maze of oil wells, utility lines complicates Gerald Desmond Bridge project. When crews started clearing the path for a new 1.5 mile-long span to replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge two years ago, they encountered more than a few pipes. What lurked beneath the surface was a mishmash of old and active oil wells tangled with 10 miles of utility lines, many of them unmapped or deeper than expected.

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National Lampoon Dog Have you been wondering how I’ve been keeping out of trouble during the govt. shutdown? Wonder no more (by the way, this time my usericon of the highway change actually links to that issue)

Ah, October. A time when a new government fiscal year starts, and our congress’ mind turns to … shutdown. As a result, I’m using an unexpected furlough to work on the highway pages.

Started a methodical review of the archived California Highways and Public Works. In addition to a number of specific route updates, this review left me with a number of general observations that don’t fit with any particular route:

The CHPWs seem to follow a pattern, with regular reports in the winter months about storm damage to freeways, and regular calls to increase the funding for highway work. The latter seemed to grow more common as California’s road system grew and grew.
There also seemed to be regular reminders — especially as the state moved into the freeway era — of the benefits the freeway would bring to the local communities — in particular the communities or business bypassed.
Route construction also seemed to follow a pattern. First an initial roadway would be built — or more likely, acquired from the county. This road would be improved to an asphalt-concrete two-lane route. The route would then be rerouted along a route that eliminated a large number of curves and improved the grade. When this was done, often the old road was turned back to the county or city, and you can still find them on the maps. The land for the new road was often donated.
The new roads would eventually prove inadequate. It would then be turned into a divided highway, and perhaps later, into what was called a limited-freeway (expressway) that limited the number of ingress and egress points. Usually this was done by turning the original road into one side of the expressway, and building a new road on the other.
The expressway would soon become inadequate. Construction would then start on a grade-separated full freeway, often on a nearby alignment to permit the original route to remain open. The construction process would take multiple years, resulting in many articles on the same subject describing the incremental process.
There was similar evolution into signage and control devices. Lines came first — first a solid white line, then later the double lines and the lines on the side of the road. Dashed lines seem to have come out of the war as a paint saving device, and they worked so well they were kept. Signage started out as all uppercase button copy, large fonts, white on black signage except for a few caution and stop signs. Lower case came in during the early 1950s, but signs remained just one or two lines, white button copy on a black porcelein steel. The green signs came in the early 1960s, as a response from the national system of interstate highways and their standardization of signs.
Another form of propaganda in CHPW were the articles on right of way relocation. In the 1950s there were fewer fights on clearing houses. Often, major structures were moved (churches, meeting halls, etc.) at state expense, and there would be a great public interest article on the move. This included a move of a 200 year old church in Fresno, and the Womens Shakespeare Club in Placerville. There were also a lot of articles, especially for Southern California, of how homes were moved and turned into even nicer residences.
People had different attitudes then. 20th Century Fox donated the land for Olympic Blvd (LRN 173, Route 26) in West LA. Don Adolpho Camarillo donated the land for the Conejo Grade on US 101, personally hosted a party for 500 when it opened, and served as “sidewalk supervisor” for the construction of the railroad grade separation at the current intersection of Route 34 and US 101 in Camarillo in 1953.

A number of the items seen had to do with particular routes, but I didn’t feel like incorporating that level of detail. This included numerous detailed discussions over many months about the construction of the first freeways (the Ramona, Santa Ana, Hollywood, Arroyo Seco), numerous discussions about freeways in San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Diego, and various discussions about construction materials and processes. The specific changes I identifled resulted in updates to the following routes: Route 1, Route 2, LRN 2, Route 3, Route 4, I-5, LRN 5, Route 7, Route 9, I-10, Route 12, Route 13, Route 14, I-15, Route 17, Route 18, LRN 19, Route 20, Route 21, LRN 21, Route 23, Route 24, LRN 26, Route 27, Route 28, Route 29, Route 30, Route 33, Route 37, Route 39, US 40, I-40, Route 42, LRN 43, Route 44, Route 47, US 48, Route 48, US 50, LRN 56, Route 57, Route 58, LRN 59, Route 59, Route 60, US 60, LRN 61, LRN 63, LRN 64, Route 64, US 66, Route 68, Route 70, US 70, Route 71, Route 74, LRN 74, LRN 75, Route 75, LRN 77, Route 77, LRN 78, LRN 79, US 80, LRN 80, I-80, Route 82, Route 84, Route 85, Route 86, Route 87, Route 90, US 91, Route 92, US 97, US 99, US 101, LRN 105, I-105, Route 108, Route 117, Route 119, Route 125, Route 126, Route 128, Route 134, Route 138, LRN 149, Route 150, Route 152, Route 154, Route 157, Route 160, LRN 163, LRN 167, Route 170, LRN 173, Route 186, Route 187, Route 188, Route 190, US 199, I-210, LRN 213, LRN 233, LRN 237, Route 242, Route 246, Route 248, Route 252, LRN 253, Route 266, Route 268, US 299, I-380 (Southern Crossing), US 395, US 399, I-405, Route 440, US 466, I-605, I-680, I-710, Route 740, I-805, I-880, I-905. Added a picture of one of the first callboxes to the postmile page, and added the 1963 LA freeway and expressway system map to the LA map page 3. Note that I often didn’t incorporate all the information in the issues on a highway — in particular, I didn’t capture every route relocation (as some were simple straightenings and such), nor did I note the freeway adoptions for every segment. I tended only to note something if it had a significant effect on numbering or it caught my eye for some other purpose.

Updated the chronology pages to reflect the primary routes defined in 1927, and to reflect the summary changes since 2007, when I had last updated the chronology pages.

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