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Author Topic: Possible old alignment of Route 70/99 (1950s Route 24) in Sacramento?  (Read 3230 times)

TheStranger

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From the mid-1950s to early 1970s, El Centro Road continued south from West El Camino Avenue in Sacramento's Natomas neighborhood towards Garden Highway, as part of what had been Route 24 originally and was Route 70 & 99 in the 1960s, before the completion of I-5 in the area.

Map from Cahighways website:



Most of the old alignment south of today's I-80 was completely removed in 1995, replaced by residential streets.  But then I see this interesting clearing in google maps and wonder if it is the last extent of that otherwise removed portion of El Centro:

https://goo.gl/maps/i3VkN6pA9Y52

Also on that 1967 map: apparent confirmation that Feather River Boulevard between Rio Oso and Linda is former Route 70 and before that, Route 24 - the current Route 70 freeway north of Rio Oso is shown as proposed in the 1967 map, and is not shown as existing in the 1959 and 1965 maps of the area on Historic Aerials.  One more bonus from it too: a proposed Route 45 bypass of Knights Landing that was never constructed as a state highway, but seems to exist today as County Route E11.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2018, 06:31:14 PM by TheStranger »
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Chris Sampang

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I believe that wide spot in the road off of Garden Highway is a remnant of El Centro Road. If you have Google Earth, use the historical image feature and go back to the 1993 image to confirm.
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sparker

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I believe that wide spot in the road off of Garden Highway is a remnant of El Centro Road. If you have Google Earth, use the historical image feature and go back to the 1993 image to confirm.

That is quite correct.  The original LRN 232 (after 1958 signed as SSR 24) diverged from LRN 50/SSR 16 at the intersection of the I Street extension bridge immediately east of the Sacramento River swing-span (shared with UP/former SP tracks on the lower/ground level deck) and Jibboom Street (both are elevated over the RR tracks).  It headed north on Jibboom over a through-truss bridge crossing the American River; the street ended at Garden Highway -- atop the river levee --, at which point LRN 232/SSR 24 turned west.  About a mile west of there, the state highway diverged from Garden Highway along a broad arc descending north from the levee onto El Centro Avenue, which it utilized north into Sutter County.  LRN 232 and SSR 24 terminated at LRN 3/US 99E at a diamond interchange in Olivehurst. 
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Quillz

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While we're on the subject of historic CA-24, its maximum extent from the East Bay to near the Nevada state line was ridiculous. I'm all for longer routes, but it followed such a bizarre, S-shaped routing that required significant concurrencies and even wrong-way motoring to achieve the routing it did. Makes a lot of sense now why it was eventually broken up into the modern CA-24 and CA-70 (along with parts of other routes). (Although I do wish the modern CA-24 remained the Feather River Highway, as that was historically the original extent of historic CA-24).
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sparker

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While we're on the subject of historic CA-24, its maximum extent from the East Bay to near the Nevada state line was ridiculous. I'm all for longer routes, but it followed such a bizarre, S-shaped routing that required significant concurrencies and even wrong-way motoring to achieve the routing it did. Makes a lot of sense now why it was eventually broken up into the modern CA-24 and CA-70 (along with parts of other routes). (Although I do wish the modern CA-24 remained the Feather River Highway, as that was historically the original extent of historic CA-24).

It's interesting how the original CA 24 was configured when one looks at it as part of the historical original numbering idiom the Division of Highways used for Northern California.  Starting at Stockton (!?), the E-W even number set -- those divisible by 4 -- commenced north: 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20.  But 24 and 28 got weird -- 24 wound its way from Oakland/Berkeley up through the Delta and Sacramento to Woodland (on a reversed multiplex with SSR 16) and then north and east through the Feather River canyon and Plumas County all the way out to US 395 (originally SSR 7) where current CA 70 terminates today.  And SSR 28 wasn't even in line with the rest of the system -- off to the west in "wine country" (today's CA 128) -- until NV wheedled the Division into relocating it at Lake Tahoe to match their route number.  By all means SSR 28 should have been where CA 162 is today.  The string continued "normally" north of there with SSR's 32, 36, and 44 (of course taking into consideration US 40).  But for some reason it was decided to make "24" a functional if convoluted alternative to US 40, crossing the latter in Sacramento.   It was always considered a "all-weather" alternative to US 40 across the Sierras; the protracted shutdown of Donner Pass in the winter of 1952 (both road and rail) prompted AASHO to request renumbering of CA 24 east of Woodland as "Alternate US 40" to shunt traffic to the more benign alignment when US 40 was snowbound (or, in the early spring, occasionally mudbound).   Signed as such during 1953, it led to the "useless multiplex" of CA 24 over CA 16 between Sacramento and Woodland; a situation alleviated five years later with the commissioning of LRN 232 and the rerouting of SSR 24 over it.  Of course, the "24" saga was truncated, along with the route itself, in the '64 renumbering; it hasn't left the East Bay since. 
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TheStranger

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LRN 232 and SSR 24 terminated at LRN 3/US 99E at a diamond interchange in Olivehurst. 

Would that actually be today's Feather River Boulevard exit off of Route 70?  (based on the earlier info of Feather River Boulevard being the original LRN 232/Route 24 and later Route 70)

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Chris Sampang

sparker

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LRN 232 and SSR 24 terminated at LRN 3/US 99E at a diamond interchange in Olivehurst. 

Would that actually be today's Feather River Boulevard exit off of Route 70?  (based on the earlier info of Feather River Boulevard being the original LRN 232/Route 24 and later Route 70)

If it's still signed as such, that would definitely be it.  Of course, the current route (CA 70) occupying the freeway now extends south to a directional "Y" interchange with CA 65 south of there built in the '70's; Feather River Blvd. is now under local maintenance. 
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