California SR 19 (Rosemead Blvd.; Lakewood Blvd.)

Started by M3100, July 26, 2020, 11:22:20 PM

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M3100

This highway runs mostly through built up areas, from I-210 in the north (at the edge of Pasadena) to California SR 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) at a traffic circle in Long Beach.  Other than on the I-210 Freeway, signing was next to nonexistent in the northern and southern segments, but there were several signs in the mid-section (Temple City, Rosemead, Pico Rivera, Downey).

My 1989 Thomas Guide shows the northern segment as California SR 164 on the "Key to Atlas Pages", but the detail pages all show it as California SR 19.

From north to south, here are some pics from today (7-26-20):
1. Eastbound I-210 sign


2. Immediately after leaving the freeway, this sign at Colorado Blvd. directs one how to get back on.  US 66 ran on Colorado Blvd. years ago.


3. The first southbound shield I saw was is at Las Tunas in Temple City.


4. This mileage sign was at Beverly Blvd. in Pico Rivera; Beverly Blvd. was an early route of US 101 [details in subsequent posts below].


The intersection with Whittier Blvd. was a mile south of here, and there were no mileage signs at that intersection. Whittier Blvd. was US 101 at one time, and later California SR 72. (no picture)

5. This historic McDonalds sign is at the corner of Florence in Downey.


6. This mileage sign appears at the corner of Artesia Blvd., just south of the Calidornia SR 91 overpass.


Further south the route passes Long Beach Airport and then ends at the traffic circle.  I did not have time to backtrack northbound on Lakewood Blvd. to see if there were any shields in the Long Beach area.




RZF

Why did they feel the need to sign a certain portion as CA-164?

sparker

Quote from: RZF on July 27, 2020, 12:00:26 AM
Why did they feel the need to sign a certain portion as CA-164?

CA 164 was to be a stand-alone sub-regional freeway (variously called the "Rosemead", "Santa Anita", and "Sierra Madre" freeways.  It was to effectively subsume the northern portion of (then) SSR 19 north of the Whittier Narrows; it would have terminated at I-605 north of the Beverly Blvd. exit and headed northwest near the Narrows dam, coming close to Rosemead Blvd just south of CA 60.  It was intended to serve as a "cutoff" from I-605 to Pasadena.  There was never any intent to extend it further south along CA 19; south of Whittier Narrows it was always intended to remain a surface facility.  Within the scope of the 1964 renumbering the Division of Highways elected to make the whole freeway corridor one individual route; it was subsequently assigned the number 164.  Apparently there was no intention of ever signing 164 until such time as the freeway was (a) adopted and (b) constructed -- neither of which ever happened.  In 1969, when D7 (which included O.C. at the time) was busy slapping shields on any and all facilities under their aegis, some signage crew took the number 164 literally and manufactured and erected a limited number of small/medium green signs with a 164 spade in place of 19; these were deployed on the C/D roads at the I-10/Rosemead cloverleaf as well as at the foot of the Rosemead ramps on CA 60.  At the time I was still attending UCR and passed through that area a couple times a month en route to my home in Glendale; my reaction to seeing the signs was definitely WTF?, prompting a phone call to my cousin who worked at DOH's Sacramento HQ.  He said he'd contact D7 to see what was up -- and the answer was a misunderstanding with the field crews tasked with replacing the old original white-on-black signs that had hung around since the mid-'50's.  The 164-shielded green signs on the CA 60 ramps were gone by late 1970, while the ones on I-10 hung around for at least another year and a half.  Eventually all were replaced by CA 19 signs, since that was the signed route at the time.  So far, that's been the extent of any driving-public-related reference to CA 164, although the bridge inventory signs and mileposts on Rosemead north of the Narrows dam reflected the legislated route, which still carried CA 19 reassurance shields. 

mrsman

Beverly Blvd was the original alignment of US 101 in the area, even before Whittier Blvd.

https://www.aaroads.com/california/us-101hd_ca.html

Now, of course, Beverly was no longer a state highway long before that mileage sign came to be.

sparker

Quote from: mrsman on July 27, 2020, 08:13:55 AM
Beverly Blvd was the original alignment of US 101 in the area, even before Whittier Blvd.

https://www.aaroads.com/california/us-101hd_ca.html

Now, of course, Beverly was no longer a state highway long before that mileage sign came to be.

One can drive down Beverly east of Workman Mill in Whittier and still see traces of the original 2-lane LRN 2 concrete pavement as per usual construction practices of the late '20's and early '30's.  That was one of the original "through-the-business-district" state routings that quickly became a local-traffic problem (mixing through trucks with local vehicular & pedestrian usage), solved in the early '30's by means of the Whittier Blvd. "bypass" route -- close enough to the business districts of Montebello and Whittier to still provide some level of service, but far enough away to isolate through traffic from local.  Also, Whittier Blvd.'s deployment came just in time to get the full US 101 signage treatment after 1934, notably lacking with the old Beverly Blvd. alignment, where navigation was primarily via ACSC (Auto Club)-erected directional signage. 

M3100

Thx for the updates; I have edited the caption regarding the mileage sign at the Beverly Blvd. intersection.  Maybe that mileage sign replaced earlier versions, including an ACSC sign way back when.

DTComposer

Quote from: M3100 on July 26, 2020, 11:22:20 PM
This highway runs mostly through built up areas, from I-210 in the north (at the edge of Pasadena) to California SR 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) at a traffic circle in Long Beach.  Other than on the I-210 Freeway, signing was next to nonexistent in the northern and southern segments, but there were several signs in the mid-section (Temple City, Rosemead, Pico Rivera, Downey).

Most of the actual CA-19 route (i.e., not CA-164) has been relinquished, so that the only state-maintained section is in the city of Bellflower, and even that is up for relinquishment. It makes sense, as its functionality was replaced long ago by I-605.

Even though the section in Long Beach was relinquished as far back as 2010, the signs on the I-405 exits still have CA-19 shields (including on southbound I-405, which is a new sign from c. 2013).

On CA-1 and Los Coyotes Diagonal approaching the Traffic Circle, Lakewood Blvd. is still indicated as CA-19 (and those signs date to about 2016), but within the Circle itself, the Lakewood "exit" has not been signed as CA-19 since at least 2008.

Once the final section in Bellflower is relinquished, they should just formally change CA-164 to CA-19.

sparker

Quote from: DTComposer on July 28, 2020, 01:06:07 AM
Quote from: M3100 on July 26, 2020, 11:22:20 PM
This highway runs mostly through built up areas, from I-210 in the north (at the edge of Pasadena) to California SR 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) at a traffic circle in Long Beach.  Other than on the I-210 Freeway, signing was next to nonexistent in the northern and southern segments, but there were several signs in the mid-section (Temple City, Rosemead, Pico Rivera, Downey).

Most of the actual CA-19 route (i.e., not CA-164) has been relinquished, so that the only state-maintained section is in the city of Bellflower, and even that is up for relinquishment. It makes sense, as its functionality was replaced long ago by I-605.

Even though the section in Long Beach was relinquished as far back as 2010, the signs on the I-405 exits still have CA-19 shields (including on southbound I-405, which is a new sign from c. 2013).

On CA-1 and Los Coyotes Diagonal approaching the Traffic Circle, Lakewood Blvd. is still indicated as CA-19 (and those signs date to about 2016), but within the Circle itself, the Lakewood "exit" has not been signed as CA-19 since at least 2008.

Once the final section in Bellflower is relinquished, they should just formally change CA-164 to CA-19.

Seeing as how the CA 164 freeway will never see the light of day, that's probably a good idea.  However, it would require Caltrans to actually draw up the legislative change and walk it across N Street to the Capitol building and get it inserted into the Assembly Transportation Committee agenda.  Therefore, it's unlikely to happen, given the agency's current abject disinterest in designation and/or signage details (this ain't 1969, folks!). 

OTOH, maybe down the line some D7 crew will once again goof up, take things literally, and actually erect CA 164 signage along everything north of the dam.  If so, I'd like to purchase one of the newer CA 19 shields -- with that shield edition, it looks like they were trying to get back to the original "bear" shield profile.     

Occidental Tourist

By my math, there's less than four total miles of state route 164 remaining, broken into three disconnected segments.  That's more than the three miles of state route 19 remaining, but at least the state route 19 segment is continuous.  It's probably best to quit signing both of them at all as the remaining segments don't really aid motorist travel.

If you're going to sign them both, sign state route 19 between the 91 and the 105 (which basically is all that's remaining on the books other than a portion of that extending south of the 91), and sign state route 164 between the 60 and the 10, which would exclude a little bit of the route south of the 60, a little bit north of the 10, and a discontinuous 500-foot segment north of the 210.

sparker

Quote from: Occidental Tourist on July 29, 2020, 01:03:38 AM
By my math, there's less than four total miles of state route 164 remaining, broken into three disconnected segments.  That's more than the three miles of state route 19 remaining, but at least the state route 19 segment is continuous.  It's probably best to quit signing both of them at all as the remaining segments don't really aid motorist travel.

If you're going to sign them both, sign state route 19 between the 91 and the 105 (which basically is all that's remaining on the books other than a portion of that extending south of the 91), and sign state route 164 between the 60 and the 10, which would exclude a little bit of the route south of the 60, a little bit north of the 10, and a discontinuous 500-foot segment north of the 210.

That 500-foot segment is a leftover from the original LRN 168 alignment, which terminated at Foothill Blvd. (old LRN 9) rather than Colorado Blvd. (old LRN 161/US 66) a couple of blocks south.  Apparently it still is inventoried to ensure partial state funding for the maintenance of the Gold Line transit bridge over Rosemead, situated in the median of I-210 -- itself a "legacy" bridge from the old Santa Fe Pasadena line days (I-210 was originally built straddling those tracks). 

Max Rockatansky

Put something together for CA 19 and CA 164.  I captured what Sparker noted above regarding the freeway plans for CA 164.  I think the biggest thing I contributed was the interim alignments of LRN 168 and CA 19 before Lakewood Boulevard and Rosemead Boulevard were built:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2022/04/california-state-route-19-and-unsigned.html



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