I-880 @ US-101 interchange 1960 San Jose

[bing101]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=850947128268169&set=a.187942584568630.50648.100000586708549&type=1&theater

Why does Caltrans have US-101 "The Alameda" control city in this photo? as far as I know Alameda is much closer to I-880 than US-101.

[kurumi]

The photo is on today's I-880 northbound at CA 82, whose street name is The Alameda: http://goo.gl/maps/67o3d (Notice the Coleman Ave. exit is still further ahead.)

The photo is old enough that El Camino/The Alameda is US 101, and today's 101 freeway is "Bypass 101"; the designations were changed in 1964: http://www.cahighways.org/081-088.html#082

[kkt]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=850947128268169&set=a.187942584568630.50648.100000586708549&type=1&theater

Why does Caltrans have US-101 "The Alameda" control city in this photo? as far as I know Alameda is much closer to I-880 than US-101.

The exit isn't for the City or Island of Alameda, it's for the street named The Alameda in San Jose.  That was US-101's old route before it was routed along Bayshore.

The photo isn't taken from I-280's modern route, it's from the brief period when I-280 was routed along what is now I-880.  Currently that spot is I-880 at exit 2.

[TheStranger]

Since Kurumi pointed out the first thing I noticed as well (that this is actually the 880/82 junction, not the Nimitz/Bayshore cloverleaf)...

The most important aspect of this photo is proof of the 280/17 concurrency that existed pre-1965, when the portion of 280 that goes east from 880 to Downtown San Jose was still on the drawing board (and would later briefly be part of legislative Route 17, though never signed) and 262/today's 880 from Warm Springs in Fremont to the Bayshore Freeway was the original southernmost extent of 680.

[DTComposer]

This picture appeared in California Highways and Public Works magazine in the issue of November-December 1960, which is even earlier than I would have guessed for I-280 signage. Since that stretch of freeway was completed in 1959, might it have been signed that way since its opening?

[myosh_tino]

For what it's worth, here's a photo of the same gantry from 2004 (from the AARoads Gallery)...



You'll notice the pull-through and the Coleman Avenue advance guide signs appear to be original with the following changes...
* I-280 shield is scraped off
* I-880 shield covering CA-17
* "S J Intl Airport" covering "Municipal Airport"
* Greenout of the "EXIT" and down-arrow
* Change in mileage from "3/4" to "1/2"

The The Alameda/CA-82 exit direction sign appears to have been installed sometime in the late 1980's or early 90's as part of a project to add the EXIT ONLY lane.

Unfortunately, those signs were replaced in 2006-07...

[TheStranger]

This picture appeared in California Highways and Public Works magazine in the issue of November-December 1960, which is even earlier than I would have guessed for I-280 signage. Since that stretch of freeway was completed in 1959, might it have been signed that way since its opening?

I'm suspecting so.  If so, does that mean that...

What is now 880 between 280 and 101 was built as Interstate (280/Route 17), then went approximately 17-18 years without interstate signage, only to regain it in 1984?

Other former-Interstate routes in California (the Central Freeway, Kearny Villa Road, Capital City Freeway north of US 50) were grandfathered in and then never regained such signage in the future (or never had it in the first place, i.e. the Santa Ana Freeway portion of US 101 between I-5 and the San Bernardino Split, or the north part of the Junipero Serra Freeway).

EDIT (6-24) - Also forgot the most obvious example, the portion of the Orange Freeway between I-10/Route 71 and Route 210 that was built as I-210 but is now Route 57.

[kkt]

This picture appeared in California Highways and Public Works magazine in the issue of November-December 1960, which is even earlier than I would have guessed for I-280 signage. Since that stretch of freeway was completed in 1959, might it have been signed that way since its opening?

I'm suspecting so.  If so, does that mean that...

What is now 880 between 280 and 101 was built as Interstate (280/Route 17), then went approximately 17-18 years without interstate signage, only to regain it in 1984?

It seems possible that it was built as CA-17 without interstate aid.  I'd like to see sources either way.

Yes to the second part of your question, it was signed as I-280/CA-17 for a while and then after the I-280 route was moved to its present route it was just CA-17, until I-880 came along.

Other former-Interstate routes in California (the Central Freeway, Kearny Villa Road, Capital City Freeway north of US 50) were grandfathered in and then never regained such signage in the future (or never had it in the first place, i.e. the Santa Ana Freeway portion of US 101 between I-5 and the San Bernardino Split, or the north part of the Junipero Serra Freway).

Yes, I guess this road is special in that way.

[TheStranger]

This picture appeared in California Highways and Public Works magazine in the issue of November-December 1960, which is even earlier than I would have guessed for I-280 signage. Since that stretch of freeway was completed in 1959, might it have been signed that way since its opening?

I'm suspecting so.  If so, does that mean that...

What is now 880 between 280 and 101 was built as Interstate (280/Route 17), then went approximately 17-18 years without interstate signage, only to regain it in 1984?

It seems possible that it was built as CA-17 without interstate aid.  I'd like to see sources either way.

Kurumi noted at CAHighways that the freeway south of US 101 was built ca. 1960 (around the time the photo was taken) - which would them firmly put this in the Interstate era!

Also very relevant, from CAHighways: the 1964 map of San Jose showing the proposed Route 17 along today's 280/680 east of 880, and 280 along then-existing 17:

[kkt]

This picture appeared in California Highways and Public Works magazine in the issue of November-December 1960, which is even earlier than I would have guessed for I-280 signage. Since that stretch of freeway was completed in 1959, might it have been signed that way since its opening?

I'm suspecting so.  If so, does that mean that...

What is now 880 between 280 and 101 was built as Interstate (280/Route 17), then went approximately 17-18 years without interstate signage, only to regain it in 1984?

It seems possible that it was built as CA-17 without interstate aid.  I'd like to see sources either way.

Kurumi noted at CAHighways that the freeway south of US 101 was built ca. 1960 (around the time the photo was taken) - which would them firmly put this in the Interstate era!

Also very relevant, from CAHighways: the 1964 map of San Jose showing the proposed Route 17 along today's 280/680 east of 880, and 280 along then-existing 17:

So the Feds actually paid to build I-280 between Winchester Blvd. and 101 twice, first on what is now I-880 and then on what is now I-280.  Wild.

[TheStranger]

So the Feds actually paid to build I-280 between Winchester Blvd. and 101 twice, first on what is now I-880 and then on what is now I-280.  Wild.

To some degree I wonder if this also happened with the move of I-15 from the 395 (215/15E) alignment in San Bernardino to the new-terrain alignment through Ontario along Route 31 and Route 71, where some of the construction work on the existing US 395 freeway would have been Interstate-funded while it was mainline I-15.

Given that 280 was originally meant to be a loop for US 101 (bypassing downtown SF along Route 1 in San Francisco in the pre-1968 plans), I suspect moving it to the then-planned Route 17 realignment through downtown San Jose made perfect sense, as opposed to the wrong-way currency of 280/17 along today's 880 that was in place then. Though with very early planning maps showing 280 continuing on from Monte Sereno instead along today's 85 to south San Jose, it makes me wonder if any usage of 17 for the 280 route was a stopgap.