Skip to main content

Westside Parkway and the Centennial Corridor; Future California State Route 58

After completing California State Route 43 I doubled back north to Stockdale Highway to check out a major highway construction project which will eventually reroute CA 58; the Westside Parkway and Centennial Corridor.


Currently CA 58 multiplexes CA 99 through central Bakersfield and uses the Rosedale Highway to continue westbound.  Eventually CA 58 will shift south off of the Rosedale Highway onto the Westside Parkway and Stockdale Highway once the Centennial Corridor is completed.  The Westside Parkway has essentially been completed since 2015 aside from the Centennial Corridor.  The Centennial Corridor is a 1 mile gap between the east end of the Westside Parkway and the current ramp junction of CA 58 and CA 99.  At present moment 99% of land parcels required to finish the Centennial Corridor gap have been acquired and construction of rerouting sewers has recently begun.  Information about the Centennial Corridor project can be found on the city of Bakersfield wesbite.

City of Bakersfield; Centennial Corridor Project

I drove the Westside Parkway on a eastern approach.  This picture of CA 43 and the Stockdale Highway is looking northbound.  CA 58 will traverse westbound straight ahead on CA 43 and eastbound on Stockdale Highway.


Once the Centennial Corridor is completed CA 58 will shift onto the Stockdale Highway and the city of Bakersfield will assume maintenance of the Rosedale Highway.  The Stockdale Highway is a fairly decent roadway and does have one rail crossing along the future CA 58 alignment.


East of the rails the Stockdale Highway widens out and the signage for the Westside Parkway appears.


Stockdale Highway traffic is directed to turn right heading eastbound while the primary traffic lanes enter the Westside Parkway freeway grade.



Currently there is no route shields nor exit numbers on the Westside Parkway.  I'm to understand that the mileage and exit numbers will follow what is posted on CA 58 east of CA 99.  The Westside Parkway is nice and has some nice bridgework designs that kind of emulate mid-20th century California Divisions Highways designs.







The Caltrans project sign denotes the beginning of the Centennial Corridor project.


Currently traffic from the Westside Parkway is directed onto Truxtun Avenue which has no access to the current CA 99/58 freeway.  Eventually traffic will continue southeast to the current CA 99/58 interchange.  I actually had to use Oak Street and California Avenue to join the current freeway configuration of CA 99/58.






Currently CA 58 east of CA 99 in Bakersfield is being reconstructed as well.  It doesn't seem at this time that there will be a freeway or expressway configuration continuing west to I-5 any time soon.  The CA 58 corridor has been a popular one for far flung projections about a western extension of I-40.  Personally I think with the Centennial Project and the recently built Hinkley Bypass that CA 58 ought to be adequate to handle traffic from I-15 to CA 99.  Really the only place I see as an issue is Kramer Junction at US 395 where a bypass route or expressway configuration has been needed for decades. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

Interstate 10S and the original Interstate 110 in California

Interstate 10S is a short spur of Interstate 10 along San Bernardino Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.  Interstate 10S begins at the Santa Ana Freeway (US Route 101) and extends east to Interstate 5 where it merges into mainline Interstate 10.  Interstate 10S is one of the oldest freeway segments in Los Angeles having been part of US Routes 60, 70 and 99 when it was part of the corridor of the Ramona Expressway.  The current corridor of Interstate 10S was assigned as Chargeable Corridor H following the passage of the 1956 Federal Highway Aid Act.  Interstate 110 was a short-lived designation which comprised the segment San Bernardino Freeway from US Route 101 to Interstate 5 between 1964-1968.  The original Interstate 110 was dropped as a Chargeable Corridor during 1965 and consolidated as Interstate 10S during 1968.   The original Interstate 110 can be seen as the blog cover photo as it was featured on the 1964 Division of Highways Map.  Below the entire 0.65-mile length of Interstate

Vicksburg Bridge (Vicksburg, MS)

  Located a few hundred feet downriver from the Old Vicksburg Bridge, the Vicksburg Bridge, or the “New” Bridge, serves as the city’s vehicular crossing of the Mississippi River on the main highway connecting Vicksburg with northeastern Louisiana to the west and the state capital of Jackson to the east. The completion of the original Vicksburg Bridge in 1930 was seen as a huge success and the bridge proved to be a profitable entity for both road and railroad interests along the path of the Dixie Overland Highway and the subsequent US Highway 80 corridor. In the years after the creation of the National Interstate Highway System, planning commenced on a new bridge at the site that would relieve the congestion on the existing bridge while providing for a more modern crossing of the river that would be safe for all vehicles. The construction of the new bridge at Vicksburg was completed in 1973 and its design intentionally mimics that of its predecessor nearby. This was due in large part