CA 77

[Max Rockatansky]

Another one of the more interesting Bay Area highways I recently visited was CA 77.  As completed CA 77 presently beats out CA 153 barely for the shortest "signed" State Highway at 0.45 miles in length.  CA 77 eastbound presently has two reassurance shields along 42nd Avenue but none from I-880.  The remaining portion to CA 242 didn't seem very logical but the cut-back route to CA 24 seemed much more feasible.  Apparently the constructed section of CA 77 was signed as CA 185 at one point.

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2019/02/california-state-route-77-real-shortest.html

My photo set for CA 77 can be found below:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskNr96Tk

[sparker]

Another one of the more interesting Bay Area highways I recently visited was CA 77.  As completed CA 77 presently beats out CA 153 barely for the shortest "signed" State Highway at 0.45 miles in length.  CA 77 eastbound presently has two reassurance shields along 42nd Avenue but none from I-880.  The remaining portion to CA 242 didn't seem very logical but the cut-back route to CA 24 seemed much more feasible.  Apparently the constructed section of CA 77 was signed as CA 185 at one point.

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2019/02/california-state-route-77-real-shortest.html

My photo set for CA 77 can be found below:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskNr96Tk

From your pix, it looks like there aren't any CA 185 trailblazers on EB CA 77; wonder about how the approach to the intersection is signed from NB CA 185 (if signed at all).  IIRC, since there is no adopted CA 77 alignment east of CA 185, it appears that the High Street/East 14th interchange is a common terminus for both routes. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Another one of the more interesting Bay Area highways I recently visited was CA 77.  As completed CA 77 presently beats out CA 153 barely for the shortest "signed" State Highway at 0.45 miles in length.  CA 77 eastbound presently has two reassurance shields along 42nd Avenue but none from I-880.  The remaining portion to CA 242 didn't seem very logical but the cut-back route to CA 24 seemed much more feasible.  Apparently the constructed section of CA 77 was signed as CA 185 at one point.

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2019/02/california-state-route-77-real-shortest.html

My photo set for CA 77 can be found below:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskNr96Tk

From your pix, it looks like there aren't any CA 185 trailblazers on EB CA 77; wonder about how the approach to the intersection is signed from NB CA 185 (if signed at all).  IIRC, since there is no adopted CA 77 alignment east of CA 185, it appears that the High Street/East 14th interchange is a common terminus for both routes.

77 is still just mostly a line on a map as of 2005:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/ll/thumbnailView.html?startUrl=%2F%2Fwww.davidrumsey.com%2Fluna%2Fservlet%2Fas%2Fsearch%3Fos%3D0%26lc%3DRUMSEY~8~1%26q%3DCaltrans%202005%26sort%3DPub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%26bs%3D10#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=2734%2C1963%2C469%2C832

Definitely wasn't any CA 185 shields on my last trip on CA 77 eastbound.  For that matter the only 185 shield I saw at all was on I-238.  In the case of 185 the only part of it not up for relinquishment right now is in Oakland, it doesn't appear to be long for this world. 

[TheStranger]

Just drove all of 77 last night while on my way to Oakland International Airport: I took it east from the Nimitz Freeway all the way to International Boulevard/Route 185, then west back to I-880, then east to the offramp to High Street (which I took to then head out to Alameda and eventually the airport).

Observations:

- the narrow 4 lane corridor reminds me in some ways of the "slot" segment of the Santa Ana Freeway/US 101 east of downtown Los Angeles, albeit quite a bit grittier here with graffiti on some overpasses, etc.

- Both eastbound and westbound, one will encounter two Route 77 shields.  No directional indicators whatsoever.

- No Route 185 shields at International.  (For comparison, an hour later I made it to the Davis Street/East 14th Street junction in San Leandro, where Route 112 terminates right where the first Lucky supermarket had been...and there is a 185 double-arrow trailblazer at the intersection.)

- Looking at Historic Aerials, 77/880 used to be a full system interchange (likely in anticipation of the eastward extension towards the MacArthur Freeway and to Orinda etc. that never happened).  The ramps (and for that matter, the 42nd Avenue freeway itself) first show up on their aerial photos ca. 1958, curiously with the southbound offramp from the Nimitz Freeway/Route 17 coming off on the left side!  By 1968 this was replaced with a more standard semi-directional ramp from the right-hand side southbound.  The current diamond interchange with 77 was installed sometime between 2010 and 2012.

In some ways this explains the reason the exit was signed for High Street all these years, even though direct access from southbound 880 to High was only created in 2012:  a driver would have to get onto eastbound 77 and then take the only offramp to East 12th/High intersection to access High Street itself.

The only vestige of the old semi-directional T remaining is the now superfluous ramp from High Street to 880 north that allows one to skip over the stoplight at 77 and Coliseum Way: prior to 2012, the left lane served as an onramp from High to eastbound 77, with the flyover being the only access to the northbound Nimitz.

[Max Rockatansky]

Now that's interesting to see that old ramp interchange between I-580 and CA 77.  That would certainly explain why the remainder of the route appears as a limited access grade...it actually was!  So technically that would make 77 a "lost freeway" of sorts, albeit a short one.

[TheStranger]

I'm amused that 77 is not only signed at all, but with 4 total trailblazers (two in each direction) it is signed at a rate of what, once every 0.2 miles?  That's much better than some significantly longer and more important routes:

- Route 128 west of Winters ca. 2010
- Route 18 east of Palmdale ca. 2013
- Route 221 in Napa
- Route 262 (not significantly longer, but certainly much more important)

I wish we had photos of the original 1950s-1960s Nimitz/42nd junction (with the left-hand ramp southbound) to see if that exit was originally called "High Street" or had labeling for either the actual street it connects to, or if 77 might have already been signed at that point.  I strongly doubt it has ever been signed on that exit ever since the late-1960s reconfiguration.

I do recall maps showing the 77 freeway as part of 185 though not sure if this was ever the case in the field.  And am super curious how long 77 has even been acknowledged on this road to begin with
-

[bing101]

Wasn't CA-77 also going to be a bypass for CA-24 though before that got cancelled.

[Max Rockatansky]

Wasn't CA-77 also going to be a bypass for CA-24 though before that got cancelled.

Yes, it was originally planned to connect all the way up to the vicinity of Concord before being cut back to Lafayette.

I'm amused that 77 is not only signed at all, but with 4 total trailblazers (two in each direction) it is signed at a rate of what, once every 0.2 miles?  That's much better than some significantly longer and more important routes:

- Route 128 west of Winters ca. 2010
- Route 18 east of Palmdale ca. 2013
- Route 221 in Napa
- Route 262 (not significantly longer, but certainly much more important)

I wish we had photos of the original 1950s-1960s Nimitz/42nd junction (with the left-hand ramp southbound) to see if that exit was originally called "High Street" or had labeling for either the actual street it connects to, or if 77 might have already been signed at that point.  I strongly doubt it has ever been signed on that exit ever since the late-1960s reconfiguration.

I do recall maps showing the 77 freeway as part of 185 though not sure if this was ever the case in the field.  And am super curious how long 77 has even been acknowledged on this road to begin with
-

The amount of reassurance shields is actually pretty amusing.  It kind of vexes the mind where D4 got all those 77 shields and who made the decision to install them. 

I would suspect that there had to be some sort of signage for CA 77 or an acknowledgement of some sort of freeway route.  That junction was way too built up at CA 17/I-880 for some sort of signage not to exist.

[TheStranger]

Google Maps sometimes has older street views so let's see what the interchange signage looked like when the free-flowing connection to 77 was there.

Southbound 880
2008:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7721752,-122.2252907,3a,75y,124.16h,83.48t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWvP9u4P32Mj6GPRiyXEj1Q!2e0!5s20080401T000000!7i3328!8i1664

June 2011, when construction began to reconfigure those free-flowing ramps into a simpler diamond
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7722082,-122.225324,3a,75y,136.82h,86.96t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6kHHQPT5cmgeyImTJMC3Zw!2e0!5s20110601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Northbound 880

June 2008:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7643374,-122.216971,3a,75y,330.24h,89.48t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGbxL6KSCpUqIekpAKkFrvg!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

June 2011:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7643207,-122.216975,3a,75y,336.91h,95.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8qlLwf7fGuQxRFuSZ_fbOg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656


So it looks like (as I had remembered) this interchange was primarily marked for "High Street/Alameda" even when all the offramps led directly to Route 77/42nd Avenue freeway eastbound.

Google Street View shows the eastbound 77 shield right before the 12th/High offramp there in 2014, 2016, and 2017.  Shield has the "Property of the State of California" fine print in a rectangular outline, making me think the install was sometime in the last 20 or so years and not at all a shield from decades ago.

[TheStranger]

Just finally had a chance to go on the road at daytime, so an opportunity to get photos of the shields and existing alignment.

EASTBOUND (I-880 to Route 185)

DSC_9914e by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

DSC_9916 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

WESTBOUND (Route 185 to I-880)

DSC_9925 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr
DSC_9926 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

closeup of END sign
DSC_9926c by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

Button copy signage at west terminus
DSC_9927 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

Missing 880 shield at the modern onramp
DSC_9928 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

[Techknow]

Thanks for sharing, what Max said two years ago is still spot on! CA 77 seems very well signed considering it's length, last month I clinched CA 131 and only saw one reassurance sign.