Interstate 280 (California)

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Template:Infobox CA Route Image:Scenic-portion-of-280.jpg Interstate 280 (abbreviated I-280) is a 57-mile-long interstate highway in the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan area of Northern California. I-280 is also known as the Junipero Serra Freeway. It 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.

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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. When Interstate 280 re-emerges in a decidedly urbanized area, it does so in the city of San Bruno and the interstate passes 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 San Bruno, has been called "the most beautiful freeway in the world." Drivers along this portion of Interstate 280 are treated to scenic views of the Santa Cruz Mountains to their west, and are isolated by hills from the suburban sprawl that lies just to their 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 (kilometers) 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 (designated as 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.

Interestingly, I-280 never intersects with its ostensible "parent" interstate, I-80. 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 not as a through route but as a spur into Downtown San Francisco, as suggested by signage on northbound US 101 at its San Francisco interchange with 280.)

Most of Interstate 280, from San Jose to San Bruno, 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 within San Francisco proper is designated as the John F. Foran Freeway. Image:280 San Jose.jpg

History

Image:San Francisco, California 1955 Yellow Book.jpg 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 on 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) to reach the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The I-280 number was approved on November 10, 1958.<ref name="cah Interstates"/>

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.<ref name="cah Interstates"/> 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.<ref name="cah 280">California Highways: Interstate 280</ref>

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.

State law

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Designation

635.
 (b) State highway routes embracing portions of Routes 280, 82,
238, 101, 5, 72, 12, 37, 121, 87, 162, 185, 92, and 123 and
connecting city streets and county roads thereto, and extending in a
continuous route from Sonoma southerly to the international border
and near the route historically known as El Camino Real shall be
known and designated as "El Camino Real."

Source: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 2.5, Section 635

Exit list

Postmile<ref name="bridge log"/> Municipality #<ref>Cal-NExUS Interchange Exit Numbering</ref> Destinations Notes
SCL 0.00 San Jose Image:Interstate 680 (California).svg Interstate 680 - Sacramento southbound exit and northbound entrance
SCL 0.00 Image:US 101 (CA).svg U.S. Route 101 - San Francisco; Los Angeles 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 Image:California 82.svg State Route 82 - Virginia Street; 7th Street exit 2 northbound
2B Vine Street; Almaden Boulevard southbound exit and northbound entrance
SCL 2.52 3A Image:California 87.svg State Route 87 - Guadalupe Parkway
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 Image:Interstate 880 (California).svgImage:California 17.svg Interstate 880 north; State Route 17 south - Oakland; Santa Cruz split into 5B and 5C 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 Image:California 85.svg State Route 85 - Mountain View; Gilroy split into 12A and 12B
SCL 11.47 12.49 Los Altos 13 Foothill Expressway; Grant Road
SCL 14.10 15.12 15 Magdalena Avenue
SCL 15.05 16.07 Los Altos Hills 16 El Monte Road; Moody Road
SCL 18.38 19.40 20 Page Mill Road - Palo Alto; Arastradero Road
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
SM 3.32 24.97 Woodside 25 Image:California 84.svg State Route 84 - Woodside Road; Woodside
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 Image:California 92.svg State Route 92 - San Mateo; Hayward; Half Moon Bay
SM 12.32 34.51 34 Image:California 35.svg State Route 35 south to State Route 92 west - Half Moon Bay; Bunker Hill Drive SR 35 joins northbound and leaves southbound
SM 14.22 36.41 Hillsborough 36 Black Mountain Road; Hayne Road
SM 17.16 39.35 39 Trousdale Drive - Burlingame
SM 17.92 40.11 Millbrae 40 Millbrae Avenue northbound exit and southbound entrance
SM 18.52 40.71 41 Larkspur Drive; Millbrae Avenue southbound exit and northbound entrance
SM 19.29 41.48 San Bruno 41 Image:California 35.svg State Route 35 north - Pacifica northbound exit and southbound entrance; SR 35 joins southbound and leaves northbound
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 Image:Interstate 380 (California).svg Interstate 380 to
U.S. Route 101 - San Francisco International Airport
exit 43A southbound
SM 22.04 44.23 South San Francisco 44 Avalon Drive - Westborough Boulevard northbound exit and southbound entrance
SM 22.62 44.81 45 Westborough Boulevard no northbound exit
SM 24.20 46.39 Daly City 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 Image:California 1.svg State Route 1 south - Pacifica; Mission Street exit 47 northbound; SR 1 joins northbound and leaves southbound
SM 25.78 47.97 48 Eastmoor Avenue; Mission Street northbound exit is combined with exit 47
SM 27.17 49.36 49A Daly City; Westlake District exit 49 southbound
SM 27.12 49.31 49B Image:California 1.svg State Route 1 north - 19th Avenue; Golden Gate Bridge northbound exit and southbound entrance; SR 1 joins southbound and leaves northbound
SF 0.74 50.36 San Francisco 50 Image:California 82.svg State Route 82 to State Route 1 north - Mission Street; Daly City 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 Image:US 101 (CA).svg U.S. Route 101 south - San Jose exit 54 southbound
SF 4.34 53.96 54B Image:US 101 (CA).svg U.S. Route 101 north - Civic Center; Bay Bridge northbound exit and southbound entrance
55 Cesar Chavez Street; 25th Street
56 Mariposa Street; 18th Street
57 Sixth Street northbound exit and southbound entrance
SF 7.26 56.88 King Street; Embarcadero northbound exit and southbound entrance

References

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External links

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