Skip to main content

California State Route 29

This past November I took California State Route 29 from the outskirts of Napa to Interstate 80 as part of my route home from Santa Rosa.


California State Route 29 ("CA 29") is a 106 mile north/south highway which begins at CA 20 near Upper Lake of Lake County.  CA 29 is a mostly rural highway which terminates at Interstate 80 in the City of Vallejo of Solano County.




Part 1; the history of California State Route 29

CA 29 was one of the original California Sign State Routes announced in the August 1934 California Highway & Public Works ("CHPW").   CA 29's original definition had it aligned between Vallejo and Upper Lake.



The first map I can find that shows CA 29 in detail is the 1935 Goshua Highway Map of California.  CA 29 is shown aligned through Cobb on what would be present day CA 175.  Within Napa CA 29 was aligned through downtown and followed present day CA 221 towards Vallejo.


CA 29 as originally defined was aligned over the following Legislative Routes Numbers ("LRN"):

LRN 74 from US 40/LRN 7 in Vallejo to LRN 8 near American Canyon.  LRN 74 was added to the State Highway System during 1931 according to CAhighways.org.
LRN 8 from near American Canyon through the City of Napa to LRN 49.  LRN 8 was added to the State Highway System as part of the 1909 First State Highway Bond Act according to CAhighways.org.
LRN 49 from LRN 8 to LRN 89 in Middletown.  LRN 49 between Calistoga and Middletown was added to the State Highway System as part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act according to CAhighways.org.  LRN 49 between Calistoga and LRN 8 was added to the State Highway System during 1933.
LRN 89 between Middletown and Upper Lake.  LRN 89 was added to the State Highway System during 1933 according to CAhighways.org.

CA 29 prior to the 1964 State Highway Renumbering was little changed from it's original 1934 alignment which can be see on the 1963 Division of Highways State Map.



Within the City of Napa CA 29 southbound originally utilized; Trancas Street, Jefferson Street, 3rd Street, and Soscol Avenue.  This early alignment of CA 29 can be seen on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Napa County.


CA 29 was moved to a bypass of downtown Napa via the alignment of the modern freeway circa 1950.  CA 29 appears on it's new alignment on the 1951 Division of Highways State Map.  CA 29 south utilized Imola Avenue to connect to Soscol Avenue.


During the 1964 State Highway Renumbering CA 29 didn't have a change of terminus points.  CA 29 did have a major realignment south of Clear Lake onto what had been LRN 243 and CA 53/LRN 49 between Lower Lake south to Middletown.  What had been previously CA 29 through Cobb was assigned to CA 175.  The changes to the alignment of CA 29 can be seen on the 1964 Division of Highways State Map.



The 1982 Caltrans State Highway Map shows CA 12/29 moved to a new bypass route of Napa via the Napa River.  The original planned route of CA 221 appears to have been abandoned at this point as it is shown shifted to the old alignment of CA 12/29. 


According to CAhighways.org the planned route of CA 221 was likely planned as an freeway or expressway bypass of northern Napa.  CA 221 was officially moved to the former alignment of CA 12/29 legislatively in 1984.  Apparently Caltrans and the legislature wanted to relinquish the old alignment of CA 12/29 but local interests spurred it be kept as a new CA 221. 


Part 2; a drive on California State Route 29 from CA 221 south through Vallejo to Interstate 80

My approach go CA 29/CA 12 began from CA 221 south out of Napa.  I joined CA 29/CA 12 at the south terminus of CA 221 located at Post Mile NAP R6.201.


CA 29 multiplexes CA 12 south to Post Mile NAP 4.71 where the latter splits east on Lincoln Highway.  CA 29 south of the split with CA 12 was part of the 1927 alignment of the Lincoln Highway to the Carquinez Bridge.






CA 29 south enters American Canyon as Broadway at Post Mile NAP 1.442.



CA 29 south enters the City of Vallejo/Solano County as Sonoma Boulevard.









At approximately Post Mile 5.075 CA 29 south intersects CA 37.








CA 29 south on Sonoma Boulevard passes through downtown Vallejo and begins a southeast jog at Post Mile SOL 1.929 at Curtola Parkway.  Notably just north of Curtola Parkway the route of CA 29 south intersects former CA 141 at Maine Street at Post Mile SOL 2.057.  Curtola Parkway is the signed route connector from CA 29 to I-780.




















CA 29 follows Sonoma Boulevard south to a terminus at I-80 approaching the Carquinez Bridge.










Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the s...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and temporary Hawaii Route 11

The 1959 Gousha Road map of Hawaii features two largely unknown references in the form of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11.  Both corridors are shown running from the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park east to Glenwood via Volcano Village.  At the time Hawaii Route 11 was using the so-called "Volcano Road" which was constructed as a modernization of Mamalahoa Highway during 1927-1928.  This blog will examine the two map references and will attempt to determine what they might indicate.  The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11 Hawaii Route 11 is part of Mamalahoa Highway (the Hawaii Belt Road) and is the longest Hawaiian State Route at 121.97 miles.  The highway begins at the mutual junction of Hawaii Route 19 and Hawaii Route 190 in Kailua-Kona.  From Kailua-Kona the routing of Hawaii Route 11 crosses the volcanic landscapes of southern side of the Big Island.  Hawaii Route 11 terminates at Hawaii Route 19/Ka...