Sign Route 118 along Telephone Road

[cahwyguy]

I was working on the underlying investigations for the next podcast episode, and was exploring the original definition of LRN 9: [LRN 2] near Montalvo to .... This was along Telephone Road near Ventura, and indeed, it was Sign Route 118 until at least 1957.

Why 1957? The small segment of road between Telephone Road and Sign Route 126, LRN 79, was the second segment of LRN 154. In 1957, that segment was added to LRN 9, and the portion to LRN 2 near Montalvo was dropped from the state highway system.

So here's the question: Did Sign Route 118, in 1957, move to end at Sign Route 126, or did it continue along Telephone Road until 1964? The state highway maps are unclear: They don't label those portions with specific sign routes. The USGS maps seem to show Sign Route 118 along Telephone Road, but I'm not sure the state was signing Sign Routes along roads not in the state highway system in the late 1950s.

Additionally, the 1934 CHPW definition of Sign Route 118 has it starting at US 101 near El Rio, not Montalvo. That would put it along Vineyard, what is now Route 232. Yet I can't find any maps that show Sign Route 118 along Vineyard. It is always shown along Telephone.

Does anyone have access to suitably authoritative maps from that era to answer these questions? Is this something they might have in the LA Metro archives? [I'm planning to visit there on Friday.]

[RZF]

I assume this was signed before CA 126 was constructed? Otherwise, Telephone Rd ends at a T-intersection with CA 118 in East Ventura/Saticoy (this area is the easternmost part of the Ventura city limits).

Now, there's a small section of surface street for CA 118 (Wells Rd) that extends northwest to the CA 126 interchange, wherein lies its terminus.

Maybe CA 118 jotted along Telephone and headed southeast on Wells, with the portion northwest unsigned.

[cahwyguy]

I assume this was signed before CA 126 was constructed? Otherwise, Telephone Rd ends at a T-intersection with CA 118 in East Ventura/Saticoy (this area is the easternmost part of the Ventura city limits).

Now, there's a small section of surface street for CA 118 (Wells Rd) that extends northwest to the CA 126 interchange, wherein lies its terminus.

Maybe CA 118 jotted along Telephone and headed southeast on Wells, with the portion northwest unsigned.

Yes, this is before the Route 126 freeway was constructed. The issue is after 1957, when the state highway was pulled off of Telephone. Some maps were ambiguous, some still showed it along signed along Telephone, although the underlying LRN 9 had moved to Wells Road to terminate at LRN 79/Sign Route 126.  Hence the question: Before 1964, was that small section of LRN 9 signed as Route 118.

[GaryA]

Do we know when the Saticoy bridge over the Santa Clara River was first constructed or opened to automobiles?  If the bridge was not yet built (but expected), I could see the highway being routed temporarily on Vineyard.

When I first heard LRN 9 once ended "near" El Rio, my first thought was that it was continuing straight on Santa Clara Ave where it now turns right towards Saticoy.  That doesn't seem right now, I've never seen anything to indicate Santa Clara was a state highway.

[cahwyguy]

Do we know when the Saticoy bridge over the Santa Clara River was first constructed or opened to automobiles?  If the bridge was not yet built (but expected), I could see the highway being routed temporarily on Vineyard.

It wasn't a temporary routing. The LRN 9 definition from Montalvo was from 1933 to 1957, so it was on Telephone for at least 20 years.

When I first heard LRN 9 once ended "near" El Rio, my first thought was that it was continuing straight on Santa Clara Ave where it now turns right towards Saticoy.  That doesn't seem right now, I've never seen anything to indicate Santa Clara was a state highway.

Nor do any of the state highway maps show Sign Route 118 using the LRN 154 alignments (LRN 154 is the route that went to El Rio that became Route 232 along Vineyard.