Un-numbered San Bernardino Freeway segment

[TheStranger]

This made me think how the numbering situation will be cleaner if Santa Monica Freeway - Pomona Freeway was I-10, and San Bernardino Freeway be given another number. (another thought, old US-60 was closer to San Bernardino Freeway than Pomona Freeway, so CA-60 as a number would've still worked over there.)

The Pomona-Riverside-Beaumont portion of old US 60 became part of today's Route 60 - and was always where US 60 broke off from the San Bernardino Freeway even before the 1964 renumbering.

But that also leads to an indirect reason why the numbering became what it is:  The Badlands portion of 60 east of 215 was not fully upgraded to freeway until around 2019-2020 (I remember construction work in May 2019 or so).  Not sure that that portion of 60 is up to interstate standards either, given the terrain.

Basically, almost seems like I-10 running where it does was primarily a function of "the San Bernardino Freeway was already complete by 1960" and "We got interstate funding for what had been the Olympic Parkway project".

I missed a couple of words, but I meant to add the old US 60 was closer to SBD Fwy in LA/western San Gabriel Valley

Interestingly, the Valley Boulevard corridor that State Route 60 would eventually follow west of Pomona was in the state LRN system in the 1930s, though not sure it was ever given a sign route number at that time:

https://www.cahighways.org/ROUTE060.html

In 1935 an alternate route was added -- it is unclear if this was signed US 60, US 70, US 99, or some combination. This alternate route ran along Valley Blvd between the east city limits of Los Angeles to El Monte.

LRN 172 correpsonds to this, as did a part of LRN 19 (which corresponds to what became the 60/57 concurrency)

[bugo]

SBD Fwy

@bandit957. is this you?

[mrsman]

This made me think how the numbering situation will be cleaner if Santa Monica Freeway - Pomona Freeway was I-10, and San Bernardino Freeway be given another number. (another thought, old US-60 was closer to San Bernardino Freeway than Pomona Freeway, so CA-60 as a number would've still worked over there.)

The Pomona-Riverside-Beaumont portion of old US 60 became part of today's Route 60 - and was always where US 60 broke off from the San Bernardino Freeway even before the 1964 renumbering.

But that also leads to an indirect reason why the numbering became what it is:  The Badlands portion of 60 east of 215 was not fully upgraded to freeway until around 2019-2020 (I remember construction work in May 2019 or so).  Not sure that that portion of 60 is up to interstate standards either, given the terrain.

Basically, almost seems like I-10 running where it does was primarily a function of "the San Bernardino Freeway was already complete by 1960" and "We got interstate funding for what had been the Olympic Parkway project".

I missed a couple of words, but I meant to add the old US 60 was closer to SBD Fwy in LA/western San Gabriel Valley

Interestingly, the Valley Boulevard corridor that State Route 60 would eventually follow west of Pomona was in the state LRN system in the 1930s, though not sure it was ever given a sign route number at that time:

https://www.cahighways.org/ROUTE060.html

In 1935 an alternate route was added -- it is unclear if this was signed US 60, US 70, US 99, or some combination. This alternate route ran along Valley Blvd between the east city limits of Los Angeles to El Monte.

LRN 172 correpsonds to this, as did a part of LRN 19 (which corresponds to what became the 60/57 concurrency)

Valley Blvd was an old routing of a highway to the east prior to Garvey, but it was probably not signed as such.  It may have been signed for US 99 though, as that pre-dates US 60 or US 70 coming to L.A.

The old routing followed the RR.  Garvey was a later routing and far more direct to connect L.A. to the east.

EDITED TO ADD:

An old map showing US 60 along Pomona Blvd, which is now Valley Blvd:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Boulevard

Click on the link in the above article to Reference 9 which shows an old map that shows Valley Blvd with US 60.  And it is likely a direct continuation from Valley Blvd to Main Street to lead into Downtown LA. 

Here is another article that shows a more official map with US 60 along Valley Blvd (see 10th pic link).  It may have been an interim alignment and may not have been signed on the street, but maps do acknowledge that this was the way between LA and Pomona before Ramona Blvd was finished.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2022/02/the-1935-1963-los-angeles-redlands.html