California State Route 77; the real "Shortest Signed" State Highway

Over the last two weeks I visited almost every State Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area. The shortest State Highway by a large margin in the Bay Area is California State Route 77.

CA 77 is presently only 0.45 miles in length and is located entirely within the City of Oakland. CA 77 begins at Interstate 880 and heads eastward on 42nd Avenue to CA 185 on 14th Street.

As presently completed CA 77 would rank as the fourth shortest State Highway only behind CA 225, CA 275 and CA 283.

CAhighways.org list of Shortest State Highways

CA 77 presently has a 13.4 mile portion that has not been constructed. CA 77 as originally envisioned would have continued northeast towards Concord and would have junctions with; I-580, unbuilt CA 93, CA 24, I-680 and CA 242. According to CAhighways.org the present route of CA 77 was designated as Legislative Route Number 233 which was approved by the State Legislature in 1953. The legislative description of LRN 233 was changed to LRN 235 by 1957.

CAhighways.org on CA 77

CAhighways.org on LRN 235

The path of LRN 233 first appears on the 1954 State Highway Map City Insert.

The designation of LRN 235 replaces LRN 233 on the 1958 State Highway Map City Insert.

By 1963 the portion of LRN 235 between CA 17 on the Nimitz Freeway (current I-880) and LRN 105 (present CA 185) is shown completed.

During the 1964 State Highway Renumbering LRN 235 was reassigned as CA 77.

According to CA 77 the planned route of CA 77 was cut back to CA 24 in Layayette by 1975. This is reflected on the 1977 State Highway Map City Insert.

Note; as completed in 1963 the configuration of LRN 235/CA 77 was a freeway with free flowing ramps to/from CA 17/I-880 northbound. Said ramps were reconfigured in 2012 into the at-grade ramps present at the western terminus of CA 77.

Access to CA 77 can be obtained from I-880 via Exit 38. Oddly High Street is signed from I-880 and not 42nd Avenue even though that is the direct connection. From I-880 there is not CA 77 signage, the downpour was about as miserable as it looks.

From the exit ramp CA 77 begins with a left hand turn onto 42nd Avenue. Again there is no CA 77 shields to be found.

CA 77 east travels under both travel lanes of I-880 and essentially is limited access (albeit not a freeway).

Between the northbound lanes of I-880 and on-ramp from Coliseum Way the first CA 77 reassurance shield appears. CA 77 east even features an off-ramp to 12th Street which can be seen in the second photo below.

The CA 77 reassurance shield makes it the real "shortest" signed State Highway and not CA 153 which is often proclaimed as such. My previous blog entry on CA 153 can be found below.

California State Route 153; the supposedly shortest State Highway

CA 77 east even has a second reassurance shield before it terminates at CA 185 at 14th Street.

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

Littledots said…

Hi, I was researching the 42nd Ave freeway entrance for my blog and came across your page. Great photos. I am writing a page on the "Bancroft Parkway" which began at the San Leandro border on Bancroft and ended at 42nd Ave with entrance to the Nimitz (880) Freeway. Bancroft Parkway - Oakland Tribune November 25, 1956 -https://www.newspapers.com/clip/67723058/bancroft-parkway-nov-25-1956/
Littledots@yahoo.com

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