INTERSTATE 280 (CALIFORNIA)

'Interstate 280' (abbreviated 'I-280') is a 57 mile (92 km) long interstate freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan area of Northern California. The freeway runs from the US 101/Interstate 680 interchange in San Jose to the South of Market area in San Francisco, just south of AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. It and I-680 form a partial beltway around the Bay Area.
I-280 is known as the 'Junipero Serra Freeway', but has been also coined as the "World's Most Beautiful Freeway" due to its scenic route though the San Francisco Peninsula.

Contents

Route description

History

State law

Control Cities

Exit list

References

External links

Route description

In between San Jose and San Francisco, Interstate 280 passes through Santa Clara, Cupertino, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills before it settles along its scenic route just to the west of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County and just to the east of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I-280 re-emerges in a decidedly urbanized area in the city of San Bruno, passing through South San Francisco and Daly City before it runs across a southeastern swath of the city of San Francisco on the way to its northern terminus.
Interstate 280, or at least the segment between Cupertino and Daly City, has been called the "World's Most Beautiful Freeway" and there is a sign stating this in Daly City. Drivers along this portion of Interstate 280 are treated to scenic views of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and San Francisco Bay to the east, and are isolated by hills from the cities to the east. Through much of this segment, the freeway is actually running just inside the eastern rim of the canyon of the San Andreas Fault. A particularly attractive six mile (ten kilometer) stretch of the freeway from Hillsborough to Belmont provides a beautiful look at Crystal Springs Reservoir, formed by water piped hundreds of miles from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, filling the bottom of the fault canyon.
For nearly all of its length, Interstate 280 runs roughly parallel and several miles to the west of US 101 (the Bayshore Freeway). Both freeways are north-south routes connecting San Jose with San Francisco; however, unlike I-280, the route that US 101 takes between the two cities goes entirely through urbanized areas. The majority of the population of the San Francisco Peninsula lives somewhere between Interstate 280 and US 101.
I-280 never intersects with Interstate 80, its parent interstate. The northern terminus of I-280 is within about a mile of I-80's western terminus (at the approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), but the two interstates do not actually intersect. Although San Francisco has had several opportunities to connect I-280 to I-80, it has chosen to use the money for other purposes. Connecting the two freeways is considered to be politically and financially infeasible at this time, due to the city's strong anti-freeway stance. Instead, 280's northernmost extension primarily functions as a spur into Downtown San Francisco, as suggested by signage on northbound US 101 at its San Francisco interchange with 280 ''(see history section below)''.
Most of Interstate 280, from San Jose to Daly City, is designated as the Junipero Serra Freeway in honor of Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, who founded many of California's missions in the 18th century. A 26-foot (8 meter) high ''faux''-sandstone statue of Father Serra kneeling and pointing over the freeway is located at a highway rest area just north of the Highway 92 intersection between the Bunker Hill Drive and Black Mountain Road exits on northbound I-280 in Hillsborough, and can be clearly seen by drivers in both directions. The segment of Interstate 280 north of Route 1 in San Francisco was the original Southern Freeway, but has since been renamed the 'John F. Foran Freeway'.
Major intersections include US 101 and State Route 1 in San Francisco, Interstate 380 in San Bruno, and Interstate 880 and 680 and US 101 in San Jose.

History

Interstate 280 was added to the Interstate Highway System on September 15, 1955 as a route from San Jose north to San Francisco. This ran along the present alignment of I-280 south of San Francisco, but in San Francisco it ran north parallel to State Route 1, past the planned west end of Interstate 80, to the south approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. At that point, Interstate 480 began and headed east on Doyle Drive (U.S. Route 101), the Golden Gate Freeway, and onto the Embarcadero Freeway to reach the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. I-480 would continue south on the never-built Southern Embarcadero Freeway to meet the Southern Freeway (now I-280), and meet up with I-280 again near the Alemany Maze, which served as the 101A Bypass until I-280 was built. The I-280 number was approved on November 10, 1958.
In the 1964 renumbering, the Route 280 designation was officially applied to the planned route. This replaced SR 1 in San Francisco; the new SR 1 alignment turned northeast where I-280 now runs, quickly ending at State Route 82 (San Jose Avenue/Alemany Boulevard). SR 1 however continued to be signed along its former (and current) alignment, which had not been upgraded to freeway standards.
A realignment approved January 1968 took I-280 onto its current route. This ran along what had been SR 1, SR 82, State Route 87 and I-480 (downgraded to a State Route then), ending at Interstate 80 at the west end of the Bay Bridge. This change was made on the state level in 1968, restoring SR 1 to its current alignment and truncating SR 82, SR 87 and SR 480.^[4]
The short piece of I-280 between 3rd Street and SR 480 in downtown San Francisco was never built, and the piece from 3rd Street south to U.S. Route 101 was reconstructed after it was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The piece between SR 480 and I-80 was torn down along with the rest of the Embarcadero Freeway; all that remains of the I-80 interchange is a few ramp stubs, which will be removed as part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Western Approach reconstruction project.

State law

The Junipero Serra Freeway is Route 280 from Route 1 in San Francisco to Route 17, as named by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 140, Chapter 208 in 1967.^[5]

Control Cities

'Northbound'

★ Downtown San Jose - between US 101 and CA-87

★ San Francisco - between CA-87 and the north junction with CA-1

★ Sixth Street/Civic Center - between the north junction with CA-1 and the northern terminus
'Southbound'

★ Daly City - between Sixth Street and the north junction with CA-1

★ San Jose - between CA-1 and CA-87

★ Downtown San Jose - between CA-87 and US 101

★ Sacramento - after US 101 (it becomes I-680)

Exit list

Postmiles are derived from and exit numbers derived from^[6].

County	Location	Postmile		#	Destinations	Notes
		County	Statewide
Southbound traffic defaults onto I-680 north.
Santa Clara	San Jose	SCL 0.00				Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SCL 0.00				Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SCL 0.36		1A	Mc Laughlin Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SCL 1.29		1B	11th Street; 10th Street	Exit 1 northbound
		SCL 1.55 SCL 1.86		2A	– Virginia Street; 7th Street	Exit 2 northbound
				2B	Vine Street; Almaden Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SCL 2.52		3A
		SCL 2.87		3B	Bird Avenue
		SCL 3.76 SCL 3.89		4	Race Street; Southwest Expressway	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		SCL 3.99		4	Meridian Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SCL 4.50 SCL 4.94		5A	Leigh Avenue; Bascom Avenue
		SCL 5.42		5B		Split into Exit 5B (SR 17) and Exit 5C (I 880) northbound
		SCL 4.57	5.59	6	Campbell; Winchester Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
				7	Saratoga Avenue - Santa Clara; Saratoga
		SCL 7.12 SCL 7.39	8.14 8.41	9	Lawrence Expressway; Stevens Creek Boulevard
	Cupertino			10	Wolfe Road
		SCL 9.42	10.44	11	De Anza Boulevard
		SCL 10.74	11.76	12		Split into Exit 12A (North - Mountain View) and Exit 12B (South - Gilroy) northbound
	Los Altos	SCL 11.47	12.49	13	Foothill Expressway; Grant Road
		SCL 14.10	15.12	15	Magdalena Avenue
	Los Altos Hills	SCL 15.05	16.07	16	El Monte Road; Moody Road
		SCL 18.38	19.40	20	Page Mill Road - Palo Alto; Arastradero Road
San Mateo		SM 0.01	21.66	22	Alpine Road - Portola Valley
		SM 1.56 SM 1.61	23.21 23.26	24	Sand Hill Road - Menlo Park
	Woodside	SM 3.32	24.97	25
		SM 4.65	26.30	27	Farm Hill Boulevard
		SM 6.60	28.25	Canada Road		Entrances only
		SM 6.65	28.84	29	Edgewood Road
		SM 10.82	33.01	33
		SM 12.32	34.51	34	, Bunker Hill Drive	SR-35 joins northbound and leaves southbound
		Joined with SR 35
	Hillsborough	SM 14.22	36.41	36	Black Mountain Road; Hayne Road
		SM 17.16	39.35	39	Trousdale Drive - Burlingame
	Millbrae	SM 17.92	40.11	40	Millbrae Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		SM 18.52	40.71	41	Larkspur Drive; Millbrae Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	San Bruno	SM 19.29	41.48	41		Northbound exit and southbound entrance; SR-35 joins southbound and leaves northbound
		Split from SR 35
				42	Crystal Springs Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SM 20.75	42.94	43A	San Bruno Avenue; Sneath Lane	Exit 43B southbound
		SM 20.98	43.17	43B	– San Francisco International Airport	Exit 43A southbound
	South San Francisco	SM 22.04	44.23	44	Avalon Drive; Westborough Boulevard	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		SM 22.62	44.81	45	Westborough Boulevard	No northbound exit
	Daly City	SM 24.20	46.39	46	Hickey Boulevard - Colma; South San Francisco
		SM 24.63	46.82	47A	Serramonte Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SM 25.29	47.48	47B	; Mission Street	Exit 47 northbound; SR 1 joins northbound and leaves southbound
		Joined with SR 1
		SM 25.78	47.97	48	Eastmoor Avenue; Mission Street	Combined with Exit 47 northbound
		SM 27.17	49.36	49A	John Daly Blvd Daly City Westlake District	Exit 49 southbound
		SM 27.12	49.31	49B	– 19th Avenue, Golden Gate Bridge	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; SR 1 joins southbound and leaves northbound
		Split from SR 1
San Francisco City and County		SF 0.74	50.36	50	, Mission Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SF 1.65	51.27	51	Ocean Avenue; Geneva Avenue
		SF 2.69	52.31	52	Monterey Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		SF 2.70	52.32	52	San Jose Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		SF 3.28 SF 3.87	52.90 53.49	53	Alemany Boulevard; Mission Street
		SF 4.34	53.96	54A		Exit 54 southbound
		SF 4.34	53.96	54B	– Civic Center; Bay Bridge	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
				55	Cesar Chavez Street; 25th Street
				56	Mariposa Street; 18th Street
				57	Sixth Street Downtown San Francisco	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		SF 7.26	56.88		King Street Embarcadero	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
Northbound traffic defaults onto King Street.

References

1. January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways
2. California Highways: Interstate Highway Types and the History of California's Interstates
3. California Highways: Interstate 280
4. California Highways: Interstate 280
5. 2006 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California, , , , Caltrans, ,
6. Cal-NExUS Interchange Exit Numbering

External links

★ WestCoastRoads - Interstate 280

★ Ladies of 280 - Interstate 280