CA 137, the weird valley highway

[Max Rockatansky]

Took a 30 mile detour to clinch CA 137 west of Tulare to CA 43.  This a strange route with lots of sudden 90 degree shifts and really no true directional alignment...maybe south/southwest is the best way to describe it?  This was one of the original unsigned LRNs back in 1934, in this case 134.  Really not much has changed with the route alignment other than it being cut back about a quarter mile at the western terminus when the modern Corcoran bypass on LRN 135 (modern CA 43) was opened in 1953. 

Things are slightly interesting with the CA 137 designation in 1964 because it cut back SSR 63 to the current southern terminus.  Prior to CA 137 being numbered, SSR 63 went west into Tulare where it terminated at US 99.  But really the references are pretty obvious with this route, they can be found here:

CA 137/LRN 134:

http://www.cahighways.org/137-144.html

1963 State Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239528~5511852:State-Highway-Map,-California,-1963?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=29&trs=86

1964 State Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239525~5511850:State-Highway-Map,-California,-1964?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=27&trs=86

1952 State Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239561~5511874:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=51&trs=86

1953 State Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239558~5511872:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=49&trs=86

Starting out from CA 65 west of Lindsay CA 137 continues straight while the former heads north to CA 198:

IMG_4913 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

This 12 mile stretch to Tulare is actually pretty heavily traversed by commercial farm traffic:

IMG_4916 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Apparently there are helicopters also, I missed it when he was doing a climb to avoid the power line in the field on the left:

IMG_4917 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Where LRN 134 would have picked up SSR 63 to head west to US 99:

IMG_4918 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_4919 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

137 follows Tulare Avenue into downtown Tulare:

IMG_4920 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Where it takes a south turn on M Street:

IMG_4922 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Then west again on Inyo Avenue.  Apparently there was a Tulare PD officer tagging people at the stop sign up ahead, he got the guy behind me:

IMG_4925 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

137 uses Inyo Avenue west out of Tulare where it takes a 90 degree turn at Road 36:

IMG_4928 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[Max Rockatansky]

West on Avenue 199:

IMG_4929 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Quickly south again:

IMG_4930 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Several minor shifts west before shifting south again out off of Waukena Avenue:

IMG_4931 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

One more western shift on 176 Avenue:

IMG_4933 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

With the terminus at CA 43 which had no junction sign, but 137 has this nice end placard.  LRN 134 would have ended a block up ahead until 1953:

IMG_4935 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Love the "build water storage now" political sign on the right, funny how those stayed up during all this rain. 

[sparker]

CA 137, and LRN 134 before it, generally followed land-grant lines established well before the area was subdivided in the late '30's and '40's.  This was similar to the convoluted alignment of LRN 140 east of US 99/LRN 4 south of Bakersfield; while the portion west of 99 was more or less a straight line (now CA 119), the original route (after '64 CA 223) took a number of right-angle turns en route to LRN 143/CA 184 and Arvin; CA 223 was straightened out to its present alignment by early '67, which was eventually extended to I-5 after that freeway was completed.  There were more examples of such routing anomalies in the Valley (like the original CA 33 alignment NW of Los Banos on the Ingomar diagonal "grade"), but most had been ameliorated by the time of the '64 renumbering. 

As per your usual -- great pix, Max!

[Max Rockatansky]

Much appreciated.  Yeah 201, 216, 63, and 245 all have those sudden 90 degree angles...some not softened at all.  198 (see other thread) had a ton of 90 degree turns in both Kings and Tulare County, 41 had a bunch before the expressway upgrades, even LRN 135 (later CA 43) was kind of all over the place before the upgrades I mentioned.  Even still its weird as all hell to have basically an entire alignment from the early highway years basically completely intact into modern times.  You'd think that at some point the Division of Highways would have gotten interested in the 1950s or 60s in straightening LRN 134 out, even back then it was probably low the priority list considering all the upgrades that happened in the era.  I guess it makes for a more interesting routing on the Valley floor.

[sparker]

I guess it makes for a more interesting routing on the Valley floor.

Seeing as how it didn't even get signage until 1965, this particular route, particularly between CA 43 and CA 99, seems to have functioned a bit below the radar, so to speak.  But as long as ag trucks and UPS/FedEx drivers aren't raising a ruckus about the jagged nature of the route, it seems like a case of "no harm, no foul!".

[Max Rockatansky]

I guess it makes for a more interesting routing on the Valley floor.

Seeing as how it didn't even get signage until 1965, this particular route, particularly between CA 43 and CA 99, seems to have functioned a bit below the radar, so to speak.  But as long as ag trucks and UPS/FedEx drivers aren't raising a ruckus about the jagged nature of the route, it seems like a case of "no harm, no foul!".

I doubt any of them really even care about what is going west of 99, didn't see a truck or commercial vehicle the entire time.  East of 99 to 65 the route is straight as an arrow and is chock full of truckers. 

[sparker]

I doubt any of them really even care about what is going west of 99, didn't see a truck or commercial vehicle the entire time.  East of 99 to 65 the route is straight as an arrow and is chock full of truckers. 

Actually, I've only clinched the part east of 99; that was done back in '97 when CA 99 was shut down between Delano and Tulare due to flooding that spring; used 65/137 as detour.  Never had much cause to use the route between Corcoran and Tulare; impressions were based on the 65-to-99 segment.  I'm going to take a guess that the convoluted section west of Tulare doesn't really see much through traffic save sporadic local usage.