CA 32 from CA 99 to CA 36/89

[Max Rockatansky]

Took CA 32 out of Chico to get up to CA 36/89 yesterday, interesting road:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/7D6Q8y

Something odd I noticed in Chico, CA 99 is still signed in downtown!  It isn't a business route either, it is actual CA 99 shields off the freeway on Park Avenue leading up to CA 32.  The rest of CA 32 was pretty vanilla, the road climbs fast eastbound into the Sierras (really it is more like the Cascades here) and is 65 MPH for a good long while.  My photos of a nice 1930s era bridge over Deer Creek were all blurred up which I wasn't too pleased about.  I'll be interested to see what work has been done to this route on the older maps given the high speed section on the uphill climb probably had some big shifts to achieve that kind of grade.

[Max Rockatansky]

For CA 32 there appears to be a major change from the original highway alignment northeast out of Chico.  It would seem that originally SSR 32 originally met US 99 East at Park Avenue but used Humboldt Avenue instead of 8th and 9th Street to exit the city.  It also seems that Humboldt Avenue is the original alignment directly to the hill climb into the Sierras east of Chico.  The original alignment can be seen on the 1935 Butte County Road Map;

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247269~5515345:Butte-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:california%2Bdivision%2Bof%2Bhighways;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=26&trs=163

From a distance the alignment can be seen on the 1938 State Highway Map:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239588~5511892: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=69&trs=86

North to Forest Ranch there doesn't appear to be really any major realigments I can see which is interesting considering much of modern 32 is 65 MPH which suggests much of the original road grade was used.  There appears to be a minor older alignment on Toll Gate Way but really it is too small to pick up on any map.   Really everything north of Forest Ranch to CA 36/89 appears to be mostly on the original alignment of 32.  I can't seem to find any maps that are detailed enough to pinpoint when the modern highway east out of Chico was built.

Something I did find interesting though approaching CA 32 on Park Avenue is that CA 99 is still signed in the city.  It wasn't just a fluke thing either, there was several actual CA 99 shields with nary a trace indicating it was a business route.  I managed to get photo of one facing northbound on Park Avenue:

99CAa by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr