Short State Highways of the Santa Barbara Area; CA 217, CA 144, CA 225, CA 224

[Max Rockatansky]

I recently visited the Santa Barbra Area and picked up some new photo albums of the short state highways which presently exist or were deleted.  I don't have a ton of time to go into a great deal of detail at the moment but the photo links are below:

CA 217 Freeway

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGeVbuE


Mostly relinquished CA 225 and the 1998-2013 highway alignment

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGeWdvw


Present CA 144 and relinquished alignment in Santa Barbra

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGf1iPf


Former CA 224 in Carpinteria

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGfRVqX

[Max Rockatansky]

Some thoughts on these highways. 

CA 217

This is a pretty normal freeway from the east terminus at US 101 but the west terminus at UC Santa Barbara is bizarre.  The freeway grade drops to a Super-Two and ends at the gate for UC Santa Barbra.   You can literally use the roundabout in UC Santa Barbra and flip around to head eastbound, I cannot recall another freeway that ended so oddly.  Granted four miles of this highway were planned to loop back to US 101 which probably explains the weirdness. 

CA 225

I drove the 1998 alignment on Los Postias Road, Cliff Drive, Montecito Street and Castillo Street to loop to US 101.  I can see some merit here as a state highway but my speculative guess was that pedestrian features were far more important to Santa Barbra than State Maintenance.  A very small portion of Castillo Street is still post miled as CA 225 and may be in fact the shortest state highway, I'll have to reference the post mile tool to be sure. 

CA 144

Only a mile of Sycamore Canyon Road remains as a state highway and is up for relinquishment.  The original alignment was on Milpas Street, Mason Street and Salinas Street in Santa Barbra.  It isn't difficult to understand the truncation since much of the alignment of CA 144 was simply on neighborhood streets and passed a school. 

CA 224

This route was short at about 1 mile on Castias Pass Road, Carpinteria Avenue and Palm Avenue to Carpinteria State Beach.  I suspect pedestrian features again were the primary driver for relinquishment. 

[oscar]

CA 225

...

A very small portion of Castillo Street is still post miled as CA 225 and may be in fact the shortest state highway, I'll have to reference the post mile tool to be sure.

I checked the Postmile Query tool, which shows a short remnant of CA 225 (looks less than 0.1 mile) still in the system.

Is it still unsigned (aside from the postmiles)? It was last I was there, and for the Travel Mapping project I treated it as "relinquished to death". Well, not quite, though if it's unsigned that makes no difference for TM.

CA 144

Only a mile of Sycamore Canyon Road remains as a state highway and is up for relinquishment.

It's been that way since 1999, but the city of Santa Barbara hasn't followed through on the part north of Alameda Padre Serra. Caltrans later abandoned some adjacent real estate, but the route itself remained intact (as shown in the PQT).

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 225

...

A very small portion of Castillo Street is still post miled as CA 225 and may be in fact the shortest state highway, I'll have to reference the post mile tool to be sure.

I checked the Postmile Query tool, which shows a short remnant of CA 225 (looks less than 0.1 mile) still in the system.

Is it still unsigned (aside from the postmiles)? It was last I was there, and for the Travel Mapping project I treated it as "relinquished to death". Well, not quite, though if it's unsigned that makes no difference for TM.

CA 144

Only a mile of Sycamore Canyon Road remains as a state highway and is up for relinquishment.

It's been that way since 1999, but the city of Santa Barbara hasn't followed through on the part north of Alameda Padre Serra. Caltrans later abandoned some adjacent real estate, but the route itself remained intact (as shown in the PQT).

Regarding 225 I didn't see any indication of signage or Post Mile paddles on Castillo Street.  I suspect the reason it remains state maintained is the rail underpass south of US 101. 

With CA 144 I'm honestly surprised it is as well Signed as it is.  I'm used to the other Caltrans districts removing the signage in anticipation of a relinquishment (at least that seems to how District 4 operates).   

[Max Rockatansky]

First up in the Santa Barbara short highway series is CA 217:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/08/california-state-route-217.html

[Max Rockatansky]

Second up in the Santa Barbara Short Highway Series is CA 225.  Out of all the highways I visited in and Santa Barbara CA 225 might be the most interesting simply due to how bizarre the present 0.081 mile route really is.  CA 225 still effectively exists on Castillo Street between Montecito Street and US 101/CA 1, the 0.081 mile length makes it the shortest State Highway at present moment.  What I can't quite my finger on is why Castillo Street would have been hung onto while the rest of CA 225 was authorized to be relinquished in 2013.  The best I can figure is that the rail underpass Castillo Street has some sort of value to Caltrans as a collateral facility to US 101/CA 1.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/08/california-state-route-225-zombie.html

[Max Rockatansky]

Third up on the Santa Short Highways series is CA 144.  For a short highway existing on 1.1 miles of Sycamore Canyon Road CA 144 is certainly well signed.  CA 144 existed as a spur route of LRN 80 as originally defined in 1933 which made sense since it would have been the defacto connector between US 101 and CA 150.  CA 144 appears to have incorporated some small portions of former US 101/LRN 2 surface route when it was defined in 1964.  The penultimate route of CA 144 before it was truncated in 2000 was from US 101; Milpas Street, Mason Street, Salinas Street and Sycamore Canyon Road to CA 192.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/08/california-state-route-144.html

[Max Rockatansky]

Final route up in the Santa Barbara Short Highway series; Former CA 224:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/08/former-california-state-route-224.html