Former US Route 99 in Turlock

[Max Rockatansky]

Former US Route 99 in Turlock has an interesting history of delays which put the highway often behind the standards of similarly sized cities in San Joaquin Valley.  The initial route of US 99 through Turlock headed northbound was; 1st Street, Oliver Avenue, and Front Street.  The initial alignment of US 99 included a haggard 90 degree at-grade railroad crossing which had been paved as part of Legislative Route 4 in 1913.  US 99 was improved in 1934 via a temporary 21 degree at-grade rail crossing which transitioned what had been First Street to Golden State Boulevard in downtown Turlock.  This alignment was improved in April 1940 when the Turlock Overhead opened to traffic which eliminated the at-grade Southern Pacific Railroad crossing.  US 99 was pushed to Ashland Oregon in late 1965 which ensured that the highway was never built to a freeway before being decomissioned.  California State Route 99 was realigned onto a bypass of Turlock during the early 1970s.  Interestingly the Turlock Overhead still has a Division of Highways Bridge identifier placard which places it at Route Postmile STA 1.72. 

https://www.gribblenation.org/2021/01/former-us-route-99-in-city-of-turlock.html

[hotdogPi]

Whenever I see the place name Turlock, I always think that you use a turkey to open it.

[sparker]

Back in the day (50's and early '60's) when my folks and I made several trips per year from Glendale to Sacramento to visit relatives, one of our regular stops -- usually SB for breakfast/brunch -- was a coffee shop called Latif's in Turlock on old US 99.  My mother liked the coffee there (she lived on the stuff!), and they had good "combo" breakfasts.  The trips stopped once I was in college, but I remember Turlock as the last sizeable town not to be bypassed on 99 (although the at-grade section through Livingston persisted until the '90's).  But by the late '60's when bypass construction began, the town had expanded to the point where a close-in bypass such as found in Madera, Merced, and Modesto was no longer feasible, so a far-reaching outer arc was planned and subsequently constructed -- and it was 6 lanes from the beginning. 

Turlock further "got on the map" when the Cal State university opened just north of town; it's notability was enhanced earlier in the 2010's as the hometown of erstwhile NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.  As a rail buff, I know it as the southern terminus of the old regional line Tidewater Southern, a Western Pacific subsidiary extending southeast from Stockton to serve agricultural facililties in that area.