Completion dates for California I-80 (Sacramento and east)

[J N Winkler]

Does anyone happen to have completion dates for I-80 in District 3 (basically, Yolo County line just west of Sacramento east to the Nevada state line)?  Alternatively, is anyone aware of online resources which can be used to develop this information?

I am starting to research the signing along this length of I-80 and I think it will be helpful to have a general idea of how it was divided into lengths for original construction; I don't need dates exact to the day or segments exact to the postmile.  I have already had a preliminary look at what is available online and Caltrans' Interstate 50th website just has bare-bones information--"I-80 in the Sierras finished around 1966," that kind of thing.  Google Earth has historical aerials, but that is a bit hit and miss.  I don't have ready access to California Highways or a collection of California state maps with year-by-year coverage of the period of original Interstate construction.

I'm much obliged for any help.

[NE2]

Except where bridges have been rebuilt, you can use the dates in the bridge log.

[J N Winkler]

Thanks for this--it looks like the bridge log should be good enough for what I am hoping to do.

[TheStranger]

Does anyone happen to have completion dates for I-80 in District 3 (basically, Yolo County line just west of Sacramento east to the Nevada state line)? 

Out of curiosity, are you looking up the existing northside bypass (the former I-880 of 1968-1982), or what is now Business 80 (US 50 east of I-80 to Route 99, and Route 51)?

I know Joel Windmiller's pages cover the latter route's construction in some detail.

[J N Winkler]

Actually, I am prioritizing lengths of freeway that were built before 1958.  For my purposes the North Sacramento Freeway length of SR 160 (most bridges built 1947) is actually better than both legs of Business 80 (most bridges built from late 1950's to mid-1960's) and the former I-880 (most bridges built 1970).  I have also looked closely at the Roseville Bypass (then US 40, now part of I-80) since that was the site of a major experiment into Scotchlite retroreflective sheeting versus button copy in the late 1950's, but so far I haven't managed to tease likely project limits out of the bridge log.  I think I will probably have to go to the experiment report to get a better idea of where the bypass started and ended.

My reason for focusing on pre-1958 freeways is to try to catch the signing when it was still in the experimental phase, with all-uppercase ground-mounted signs, 3:2 uppercase/lowercase ratio in mixed-case legend (as opposed to the present 4:3), interchange sequence signs using miles and tenths, etc.

[TheStranger]

Actually, I am prioritizing lengths of freeway that were built before 1958.  For my purposes the North Sacramento Freeway length of SR 160 (most bridges built 1947) is actually better than both legs of Business 80 (most bridges built from late 1950's to mid-1960's) and the former I-880 (most bridges built 1970).  I have also looked closely at the Roseville Bypass (then US 40, now part of I-80) since that was the site of a major experiment into Scotchlite retroreflective sheeting versus button copy in the late 1950's, but so far I haven't managed to tease likely project limits out of the bridge log.  I think I will probably have to go to the experiment report to get a better idea of where the bypass started and ended.

Would this also include what is now Tower Bridge Gateway/former Route 275, which was the original eastern segment of the West Sacramento Freeway/US 99W and US 40?  There's a couple of bridges there but not sure how many remain now that the city of West Sacramento has converted part of it to surface boulevard.

The segment of Business 80 from Route 160 northeast to I-80 - part of the old North Sacramento Freeway and Roseville Freeway, as US 99E/US 40...I wonder if the Marconi Avenue overpass and the Fulton Avenue overpass are old enough to fit into your search timeline.

From Joel Windmiller's page...
http://www.goldenstatehwys.net/us%20routes/Elvas_Freeway_001.htm

...some pics of the original Elvas/North Sacramento split (now Capital City/North Sacramento), with the older white-on-black signs and mid-50s fonts.

[NE2]

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/us_states/california/topos/15index.htm Fair Oaks and Lincoln (remove the final e in each URL if you don't care to use the plugin)

[Chris]

Actually AAroads itself has a list of key opening dates:

https://www.aaroads.com/california/i-080_ca.html

Unfortunately most are "circa" dates, but I guess it's hard to retrieve the real opening dates, especially with Google Archive Search gone since August this year.

It's a real pity they didn't really keep an official log of opening dates of the Interstate Highway system. Many people now rely on old Rand McNally Road Atlases for opening years, which may not be entirely accurate.