2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 1; Return to US 66 in Barstow

This past Thursday was the start of an approximately 1,400 mile road trip through the Mojave Desert. The planned destinations on the trip included Death Valley and Zion National Park. The first stop was in Barstow and there had been some significant changes with how US 66 was signed on Main Street. Up and down Main Street within the city limits of Barstow were new US Route 66 shields mounted on brick spires.

The new US 66 shield spires include a classic car either from the 1950s or Muscle Car era in the 1960s. In the particular case of the shield spire I took a picture of it was a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air.

Given that I was in Barstow the route I took out of town was on 1st Avenue along what was the original southern terminus of US 91 until 1947 when it was extended to Long Beach. I stopped at the Barstow Harvey House and Route 66 Mother Road Museum for new pictures of Old US 91 alignment in addition to the historic rail depot/hotel.

I'm not sure of the vintage of the bridge over the Mojave River but US 91 would have used it head northeast towards Las Vegas. US 91 met US 466 about a block north on the road that is now called Old Highway 58.

Comments

California State Route 190; a Trans-Sierra Highway that could have been

This past week I decided to take a small scale road trip on California State Route 190 from CA 99 east to the unbuilt section over the Sierra Nevada Range. While I was in for what turned out to be a fun drive following the course of the Tule River watershed what I found researching the back story of CA 190 was one of the most complex and unusual stories of any California State Highway. Given that I had a ton of older photos of the eastern segment of CA 190 in the Mojave Desert of Inyo County I thought it was time to put something together for the entire route. The simplified story of CA 190 is that it is a 231 mile state highway that has a 43 mile unbuilt gap in the Sierra Nevada Range. CA 190 is an east/west State Highway running from CA 99 in Tulare County at Tipton east to CA 127 located in Death Valley Junction near the Nevada State Line in rural Inyo County. The routing CA 190 was adopted into the State Highway system as Legislative Route 127 which was adopted in 1933 acc

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates, Year in Review 2022

Another year over, already? 2022 turned out to be quite the year if you are a fan of new interstate routes, and it wasn't bad for some long standing favorites. As per the tradition, I will review what happened with I-73 and I-74, and then the other new and future interstate routes in North Carolina... Work continued on the one segment of I-73 under construction, the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass. As of the beginning of December, work was getting close to being 2/3 complete at 60.1%. Progress could be seen from US 74 on constructing of the future interchange at the Bypass's southern end. Here's a look from US 74 East in September from Google Maps Street View: Here's a photo from US 74 West taken last week by David Gallo: Work is now scheduled to be completed in October 2025, though the road itself could open earlier that year. Progress on I-74 earned more publicity in 2022 with the opening of 7.5 more miles of the Winston-Salem Northern Beltway from US 311 (Exit 49) to NC

Interstate 605

Interstate 605 is a 27.4-mile freeway located in the Los Angeles Metropolitain Area. Interstate 605 begins at Interstate 210 near Duarte and terminates at the Interstate 405/California State Route 22 junction to the south near the boundary to the city of Long Beach. Interstate 605 is known as the San Gabriel River Freeway and has three unconstructed miles which would extend it south to California State Route 1 near Seal Beach. Much of the corridor of Interstate 605 was built up from what was the original California State Route 35. The blog cover photo is taken from the July/August 1964 California Highways & Public Works which featured the initial segment of Interstate 605 to open between Whittier Boulevard and Peck Road Part 1; the history of the San Gabriel River Freeway and Interstate 605 The origin of what is now Interstate 605 begins during 1933 with the addition of Legislative Route Number 170 (LRN 170) to the State Highway System. The original definition of LRN 170 was