CA 230 and the Hunters Point Freeway

[Max Rockatansky]

California State Route 230 is an unconstructed State Highway largely in San Francisco which comprises the four miles of the once proposed Hunters Point Freeway corridor.  The Hunters Point Freeway was originally adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors during December 1956.  The Hunters Point Freeway would have been the landing point for the fourth iteration of the proposed Southern Crossing of San Francisco Bay.  The Hunters Point Freeway was adopted into the State Highway System as part of Legislative Route Number 253 and Legislative Route Number 289 during 1959.  During 1964 the California Highway Commission adopted routing for the Hunters Point Freeway which had been renumbered to as California State Route 230 and California State Route 87.  Following the truncation of California State Route 87 during 1970 the entire Hunters Point Freeway corridor was transferred to California State Route 230.  The Hunters Point Freeway was ultimately cancelled by the California Highway Commission during October 1976, but California State Route 230 was never deleted from the State Highway System.  The adopted alignment for the Hunters Point Freeway can be seen as the blog cover as illustrated in the March/April 1964 California Highways & Public Works.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2023/10/california-state-route-230-and-planned.html

[ClassicHasClass]

Cold day in hell/the Tenderloin before that ever gets built.

[Rothman]

Cold day in hell/the Tenderloin before that ever gets built.

When I lived in San Francisco, Tenderloin was just a freak show, while Hunters Point was where you'd get shot.

[Techknow]

Upon seeing the proposed freeway routing, I thought about Heron's Head Park, a park shaped like a bird's head obviously and it's proximity to the routing. Although the routing doesn't show the park I think it would pass very close or even intersect the park. I had no idea when the park was constructed, but the Wikipedia article for it says it was around 1998. But yeah, I don't expect the freeway to be constructed, at least not with that routing

[ClassicHasClass]

Cold day in hell/the Tenderloin before that ever gets built.

When I lived in San Francisco, Tenderloin was just a freak show, while Hunters Point was where you'd get shot.

I had to spend the night in a hotel in the Tenderloin about a decade-ish ago for some mandatory conference (budget cuts). It was a freak show *and* I was afraid I'd get shot.

[Rothman]

Cold day in hell/the Tenderloin before that ever gets built.

When I lived in San Francisco, Tenderloin was just a freak show, while Hunters Point was where you'd get shot.

I had to spend the night in a hotel in the Tenderloin about a decade-ish ago for some mandatory conference (budget cuts). It was a freak show *and* I was afraid I'd get shot.

Yeah, it was a lot more fun in the mid-'90s.

[bing101]

Interestingly Hunters Point Freeway was also supposed to connect to where I-280 to SOMA is located.

[TheStranger]

Interestingly Hunters Point Freeway was also supposed to connect to where I-280 to SOMA is located.

To clarify:

The vast majority of the Hunters Point Freeway route was part of the planned 87 extension from San Jose International Airport to today's 280/Cesar Chavez (Army) junction.  280 north of Cesar Chavez to SOMA was officially part of 87 between 1964-1968, but never signed as such.

230 originally applied to a short connector from near the Candlestick Park exit off 101 east to that 87 extension.

When 87 north of San Jose was permanently nixed, the 230 designation was extended to cover what had been 87 along the Hunters Point corridor.

The configuration of the 280/Cesar Chavez interchange includes some stubs that hint as to how the Hunters Point Freeway would have connected in that area.

[The Ghostbuster]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

[gonealookin]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Forced eviction was certainly part of it.  San Francisco also got an early example of freeways at their absolute worst, the Embarcadero Freeway (did you ever see that atrocity in person?) which helped consolidate the opposition.

[Max Rockatansky]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Forced eviction was certainly part of it.  San Francisco also got an early example of freeways at their absolute worst, the Embarcadero Freeway (did you ever see that atrocity in person?) which helped consolidate the opposition.

The Hunters Point Freeway was one of the least outlandish.  I would imagine the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard closing in 1974 probably eased the decision to cancel the freeway in 1976.

[heynow415]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Most of them were dropped because of neighborhood uprisings.  Once the Embarcadero Freeway went up, along with the Central Freeway, people freaked out.  That one of the plans, the extension of I-80 through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to connect to what was supposed to be the I-280 freeway between Daly City and the GG Bridge (generally following the 19th Ave/Park Presidio corridor that SR1 does today) really fired folks up.  If you Google San Francisco Freeway Revolt you'll find all sorts of links and discussions. 

The number of housing units that would be lost and long-established neighborhoods cut off from one another from needed right of way acquisition was another deal breaker, both from a political and a cost standpoint.  Density was certainly a factor, but it was the residents living in those dense environments rising up that had the greater impact.  Many cities with dense urban cores nationwide had freeway/expressway projects cancelled during the same period and beyond for similar reasons, including I-95 and others through Boston, the Midtown Expressway in Manhattan, whatever the expressway down the west shore of Lake Washington in Seattle, and several in Washington DC.  One common theme, however, is that the places that freeways were cancelled tended to be wealthier areas that could fight the projects; those in less-affluent areas were not as successful.

[Alps]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Most of them were dropped because of neighborhood uprisings.  Once the Embarcadero Freeway went up, along with the Central Freeway, people freaked out.  That one of the plans, the extension of I-80 through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to connect to what was supposed to be the I-280 freeway between Daly City and the GG Bridge (generally following the 19th Ave/Park Presidio corridor that SR1 does today) really fired folks up.  If you Google San Francisco Freeway Revolt you'll find all sorts of links and discussions.

If I-280 had been built up CA 1, what would the current routing have become?

[cl94]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Most of them were dropped because of neighborhood uprisings.  Once the Embarcadero Freeway went up, along with the Central Freeway, people freaked out.  That one of the plans, the extension of I-80 through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to connect to what was supposed to be the I-280 freeway between Daly City and the GG Bridge (generally following the 19th Ave/Park Presidio corridor that SR1 does today) really fired folks up.  If you Google San Francisco Freeway Revolt you'll find all sorts of links and discussions.

If I-280 had been built up CA 1, what would the current routing have become?

80, 480, 980 may have worked depending on what year we're talking.

[Max Rockatansky]

I wonder what freeway planners were thinking when they proposed building all those freeways in the city of San Francisco? Most of them were never built, probably because the city is so densely populated. Would that be accurate?

Most of them were dropped because of neighborhood uprisings.  Once the Embarcadero Freeway went up, along with the Central Freeway, people freaked out.  That one of the plans, the extension of I-80 through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to connect to what was supposed to be the I-280 freeway between Daly City and the GG Bridge (generally following the 19th Ave/Park Presidio corridor that SR1 does today) really fired folks up.  If you Google San Francisco Freeway Revolt you'll find all sorts of links and discussions.

If I-280 had been built up CA 1, what would the current routing have become?

80, 480, 980 may have worked depending on what year we're talking.

Most likely it would have become part of 82.  The chargeable Interstate miles never would have made it to the corridor if I-280 stayed over on 19th and Park Presidio.