Planned CA 48 (ii), CA 122, CA 196, and CA 249

[Max Rockatansky]

Since I don't have a ton better to do I've been taking up digging into the histories of California State Highways that never existed beyond paper again (CA 48 ii kind of did west of Lancaster).  That being the case this time I looked at the histories of the planned State Highways in the Mojave Desert and San Gabriel Mountains; CA 48, CA 122, CA 196, and CA 249:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2020/04/paper-highways-of-mojave-desert-and-san.html

[sparker]

Interestingly, the 2005 Caltrans state highway map shown indicates a new alignment for CA 138 heading north from a bit east of Pearblossom, then turning west on what is markedly close to the alignment for the now-roadless High Desert Corridor.  Since that map was published about the same time as the initial HDC plans were floated, it seems to indicate that CA 138 would have, at least at the time, been designated over the western half of that proposed corridor.   It now appears, however, that pretty much every proposed route serving that area has been eliminated, shelved, or truncated, with the only tangible activity being a series of modest improvements to CA 138 on its historic alignment.   

[Occidental Tourist]

I drove Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Angeles Forest Highway this weekend.  At the south end they've got safety upgrades to Big Tujunga Canyon including a VMS, but then oddly the road terminates with a 90 degree turn into a residential neighborhood with a two-lane road, a 25 mph speed limit- and multiple stop signs to the nearest arterial (Sunland Blvd).  There's a little church on the two-lane, and this weekend they had a food pantry open, so for folks who were screaming down the mountain, suddenly they were dodging folks in a crowded residential street lining up to get food.

Were there ever plans to extend Big Tujunga Canyon to Foothill Blvd. or to the 210?

[sparker]

I drove Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Angeles Forest Highway this weekend.  At the south end they've got safety upgrades to Big Tujunga Canyon including a VMS, but then oddly the road terminates with a 90 degree turn into a residential neighborhood with a two-lane road, a 25 mph speed limit- and multiple stop signs to the nearest arterial (Sunland Blvd).  There's a little church on the two-lane, and this weekend they had a food pantry open, so for folks who were screaming down the mountain, suddenly they were dodging folks in a crowded residential street lining up to get food.

Were there ever plans to extend Big Tujunga Canyon to Foothill Blvd. or to the 210?

Quite definitely.  The original canyon road emptied out onto Mt. Gleason Ave., a 2-lane local street; its connector down into the canyon was characterized by horseshoe curves and switchbacks -- slow going.  An extension was built in the late '70's, about the time I-210 was being constructed to the area.  The idea was to skirt the floodplain below the canyon on its south side and intersect Foothill Blvd. at the Wentworth Ave. intersection (I-210 crossed Wentworth about a quarter-mile west of Foothill).  A number of new housing tracts were planned along the new Tujunga Canyon extension -- but that area was considered environmentally sensitive, and those never materialized due to permit denials.  The extension was built to Oro Vista Avenue, which paralleled Mt.Gleason to the west; canyon traffic now is diverted to that street.  It never reached Foothill; a golf course was constructed directly in its path south of the Tujunga Creek channel.  And of course, the CA 118 extension up the canyon, planned since 1959, never happened either (and in all probability never will!).