Unknown Proposed Freeways In So Cal?

[Bigmikelakers]

I was looking at my 1968 San Bernardino County Thomas Guide which has a LA metro area freeway map with proposed routes included. Some of theses routes I never heard of.

Looking at this map CA 22 was supposed to be extended western to the Harbor Freeway. Does anyone know why it never was finished?

Thomas Bros Map Circa 1968 Los Angeles Metro Freeway Map by bigmikelakers, on Flickr

On this map it has a proposed freeway for US 395 called the Adelanto Freeway. Has anyone heard of this before?
I also see a proposed mountain freeway north of Lake Gregory. I think its CA 138. Maybe its part of the Metro Bypass.
In Lucerne Valley, CA 247 is proposed as a freeway. Where was it planned to go? Twentynine Palms/Yucca Valley?

Thomas Bros Map Circa 1968 Los Angeles Metro Freeway Map by bigmikelakers, on Flickr

[nexus73]

I bought a map of LA from 1950 that shows a LaBrea Freeway section as built.  Looking up that name shows nada for info.  Does anyone here know what the deal with the LaBrea Freeway was?

Rick

[NE2]

I bought a map of LA from 1950 that shows a LaBrea Freeway section as built.  Looking up that name shows nada for info.  Does anyone here know what the deal with the LaBrea Freeway was?

Rick

Is this the same as the "Brea Canyon Freeway" (SR 57)?

[SimMoonXP]

Very interesting pics of 1968 LA and SB Metros area freeway map inside 1968 San Bernardino County Thomas Bros Map. What page numbers are that? I am wondering what is inside 1968 San Bernardino County Thomas Guide have? I do have mine 1969 San Bernardino & Riverside Counties Thomas Bros map. It does show the I-15 near Cajon Pass was solid black line as opened on Spring 1969. I have San Bernardino & Riverside Counties Thomas Bros Mapbooks are: 1969, 1971, 1977, 1988, 1990, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. And San Bernardino County Thomas Guide mapbooks are: 1984 and 1996.

My 1969 mapbook of San Bernardino County are:
San Bernardino County price was $4.50
San Bernardino/Riverside Counties price was $8.25
Highlight of this edition: Enlarged Key Maps. Latest Freeway and Street Information.
Page IV: San Bernardino Valley Key to Detail Map Pages
Page V: Yucca Valley Area Key to Detail Map Pages
Page VI: Barstow Area Key to Detail Map Pages
Page VII: Key to Arterial Map Pages
Page VIII: San Bernardino County Community Index
Page 1 to 250: Detail Pages
Page 251-699: Key to Arterial Map Pages (ONE page)
Page 700 to 729: Arterial Map Pages
Page 730 to on: Street Index.

Page 8: CA-30 Freeway end at Highland Av (Dashed line begin eastward)
Page 22: CA-60 Freeway line end at Euclid Av (Dashed line begin eastward)
Page 69 and 71 (Quad) I-15 freeway line is solid as it says "Est. Completion Spring 1969"

If you having any more questions, then let me know.

[nexus73]

I bought a map of LA from 1950 that shows a LaBrea Freeway section as built.  Looking up that name shows nada for info.  Does anyone here know what the deal with the LaBrea Freeway was?

Rick

Is this the same as the "Brea Canyon Freeway" (SR 57)?

The freeway runs along a part of LaBrea according to the map.  No numerical designator is given.  Since 57 is much further east, I'd say the 1950 freeway was not part of that route.

Rick

[DTComposer]

Looking at this map CA 22 was supposed to be extended western to the Harbor Freeway. Does anyone know why it never was finished?

I had found this information in the Long Beach Library a couple of years ago (I'm quoting myself from Dan Faigin's cahighways.org):
According to a 1971 report by the City of Long Beach about the Pacific Coast Freeway (Route 1), most of the freeway proposals for the route in adjoining cities had been killed (with the exceptions of the route adoptions in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach), so that the freeway, once envisioned as running from Oxnard to San Juan Capistrano, would only run from the Harbor Freeway across Long Beach to the San Gabriel River Freeway (indeed, the report refers to the route as the Crosstown Freeway as often as it refers to it as the Pacific Coast Freeway). Since the truncated freeway would be of little benefit, the Long Beach City Manager requested that the State Division of Highways remove the route from the Freeway and Expressway system. The proposed route in Long Beach would have run to the south of Pacific Coast Highway (between Anaheim Street and 10th Street) and a portion of the Pacific Electric right-of-way; the truncated route would have then turned northeast to connect to the western stub of the Route 22 freeway (7th Street) and I-405 and I-605.

I can't tell you why the portions north (west) of Long Beach were canceled, but the portions south (Huntington Beach/etc) run through some sensitive wetland areas.

I bought a map of LA from 1950 that shows a LaBrea Freeway section as built.  Looking up that name shows nada for info.  Does anyone here know what the deal with the LaBrea Freeway was?

Rick

Is this the same as the "Brea Canyon Freeway" (SR 57)?

The freeway runs along a part of LaBrea according to the map.  No numerical designator is given.  Since 57 is much further east, I'd say the 1950 freeway was not part of that route.

Rick

This may have been a version of the La Cienega or Crenshaw Freeways....could this be why the La Brea interchange with I-10 has a full cloverleaf, as opposed to the other interchanges which are mostly diamonds?

[NE2]

The freeway runs along a part of LaBrea according to the map.  No numerical designator is given.  Since 57 is much further east, I'd say the 1950 freeway was not part of that route.

http://cahighways.org/maps/1947feplan.jpg "Crenshaw (La Brea) Parkway"
Does this match?

[Bigmikelakers]

Thanks for that info, DTComposer. I never knew about the precise routing of it through Long Beach.

[SimMoonXP]

I am wondering what does the 1968 San Bernardino County Key map looks like?

Bizzare Proposed Euclid Freeway (CA-83). Hint: Look at very far page with only three dotted. It never called "Euclid Freeway" for now. It shown on my 1966 Los Angeles Thomas Bros map.

[nexus73]

The freeway runs along a part of LaBrea according to the map.  No numerical designator is given.  Since 57 is much further east, I'd say the 1950 freeway was not part of that route.

http://cahighways.org/maps/1947feplan.jpg "Crenshaw (La Brea) Parkway"
Does this match?

I can't say with 100% accuracy it does but it's at least close.  Now I add the Crenshaw Freeway to the stack of info and will wait to see what else comes up.  Thanks for the link!

Rick

[Desert Man]

In the 1950's and 60's with the California economy boomed and America thrived as the main super power, the need for more freeways proposed on the map appeared. The issue why the Cal. desert freeway plans were scrapped was the 1970s economic recessions and Cal. Trans budget cuts in the 1980s. These areas were sparsely populated, except the Lancaster-Palmdale and Victorville-Yucca areas grew in population right after the freeway plans were disapproved. The real estate booms during the 1990's revived debates on road improvements on the very roads expected to become freeways, including Cal. Route 62 that was a U.S. route from Amboy down to Desert Hot Springs in the late 1940's to the early 1960's.

[TheStranger]

including Cal. Route 62 that was a U.S. route from Amboy down to Desert Hot Springs in the late 1940's to the early 1960's.

As far as I know, Route 62 was never on the US system, though it has an unnumbered connection to former US 66.

[agentsteel53]

As far as I know, Route 62 was never on the US system, though it has an unnumbered connection to former US 66.

correct.  the corridor was not even a part of CA's state highway system until 1966, when it was decided to add the route, as it served some points on the aqueduct system being built around that time.

it is interesting to note, though, that Caltrans had signed some of the corridor before 1966.  there was a sign on a side street to 62 in Morongo Valley that dated to 1962 and said "TO US 60-70-99, [N] MILES" (where I forget what N is ... 11?  12?)  It was all spelled out in text; no shields.  The sign later had the button copy elements for 70 and 99 removed, around 1964 when US-60 was the only route that was granted a stay of execution when California decommissioned its US routes wholesale. 

the sign survived, mentioning US-60, until sometime between December, 2004 and February, 2005.  It was the last mention of US-60 in the state of California, as far as I know.  I believe AARoads has a photo of it somewhere, but I cannot find it offhand.

there is, btw, at the terminus of CA-247 at US-62, a green sign from 1973 that has a US shield clearly peeled off.  It has an extant, accurate I-10 shield, and the smudge with a US outline that is the glue that once held on a US-60 shield.

a 1974 sign, down 62 about three miles to the west, has no evidence whatsoever of US-60, indicating correctly that US-60 was removed from California sometime in 1974.