Skip to main content

Lockwood-San Lucas Road

By


Lockwood-San Lucas Road is a fifteen-mile rural highway located in Monterey County, California.  As the name suggests, Lockwood-San Lucas Road connects the communities of Lockwood and San Lucas.  The highway begins at Lockwood-Jolon Road in San Antonio Valley.  From San Antonio Valley the highway crosses the Santa Lucia Mountains and enters Salinas Valley where it crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge near San Lucas.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road originally connected with Main Street in San Lucas, but the crossing was removed in the 1970s.  




Part 1; the history of Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Lockwood-San Lucas Roads connects the two namesake communities via the San Lucia Mountains and Salinas River.  Lockwood lies in San Antonio Valley east of Mission San Antonio de Padua.  Lockwood is named in honor of Belva Lockwood who ran for President on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1884 and 1888.  Post Office Service in Lockwood was established in 1888.  

By 1886 the Southern Pacific Railroad was extended southward from Soledad through Rancho San Lucas.  The Southern Pacific Railroad established a railroad siding which took the name of "San Lucas" in honor of the property donated by Alberto Trescony.  By 1887 Post Office service was transferred from nearby Griswold and has remained operating ever since.  

During 1915 a truss bridge over the Salinas River southwest of San Lucas was installed by Monterey County.  The Salinas River Bridge functionally made direct automotive travel between Lockwood and San Lucas possible.  

The entirety of modern Lockwood-San Lucas Road (displayed as Lockwood Grade) appears on the 1919 United States Geological Survey Maps of King City and Bryson.  Lockwood-San Lucas Road is shown to cross the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon and Espinosa Canyon.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road appears as a major local highway on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Monterey County.  

The US Route 101 and California State Route 198 bypasses of San Lucas opened during 1972.  US Route 101 was shifted to a new freeway west of Cattlemen Road and California State Route 198 was extended directly to it via an interchange structure southwest of San Lucas.  The then new terminus of California State Route 198 bisected part of Lockwood-San Lucas between the Salinas River Bridge and San Lucas.  

Former California State Route 198 in San Lucas was also partially severed after the highway was realigned.  Mary Street no longer directly connects traffic from California State Route 198 to Main Street.  The Southern Pacific Railroad crossing from Main Street to Cattlemen Road/Lockwood-San Lucas Road was removed.  The new alignments of US Route 101 and California State Route 198 appear on the 1975 Caltrans Map.




Part 2; a drive on Lockwood-San Lucas Road

Northbound Lockwood-San Lucas Road begins at the outskirts of Lockwood along Lockwood-Jolon Road.  Traffic is notified that San Lucas is fifteen miles away.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road climbs into the Santa Lucia Mountains via San Lucas Canyon as a single lane.  The road crests at an elevation of 1,673 feet above sea level.  


















Lockwood-San Lucas Road descends through Espinosa Canyon and enters Salinas Valley.




















Lockwood-San Lucas Road widens to two-lanes approaching an interchange with US Route 101.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a left-hand turn at Paris Valley Road.  


Lockwood-San Lucas Road makes a right-hand turn at Oasis Road towards the Salinas River.




Lockwood-San Lucas Road crosses the 1915 Salinas River Bridge. 




Below the now missing dedication placard which once was affixed to the Salinas River Bridge (courtesy southern Monterey County historian John Jernigan). 


Lockwood-San Lucas Road approaches another interchange with US Route 101 and the eastbound start of California State Route 198.  




As noted in Part 1, a disconnected segment of Lockwood-San Lucas Road exists east of the US Route 101 freeway.  From the intersection of Cattlemen Road (former US Route 101) and Lockwood-San Lucas Road the razed former grade of California State Route 198 to Main Street in San Lucas can be observed.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bleriot Ferry - Alberta

By
  Alberta operates six ferries scattered throughout the province. Roughly twenty to twenty-five kilometers up the Red Deer River from the town of Drumheller is one of the most scenic ferry crossings in all of Wild Rose Country, the Bleriot Ferry. Using the North Dinosaur Trail (Alberta Highway 838, or AB 838), the Bleriot Ferry provides a scenic river cruise of sorts in the Canadian Badlands. The Bleriot Ferry started operating in 1913 as the Munson Ferry when a few bridges crossed the Red Deer River. The ferry was started by Andre Bleriot, the brother of famed early aviator Louis Bleriot, who became famous for being the first person to fly over the English Channel. At the time, the Alberta provincial government commissioned local residents to run the ferries. There were several ferries along the Red Deer River, and not only did they serve as vital transportation links, but they also served as local social hubs, since everyone had to take the ferries to go places. Over time, as the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
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...
4 comments
Read more

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates Year in Review 2024

By
Welcome to another annual review of progress in constructing North Carolina's New and Future Interstate routes. While 2024 was not too exciting, with no new segments of major routes opening, there was 1 new interstate signing, another proposed new interstate route, and the near opening of a new segment for 2 routes. As tradition, I will start off with a review of what happened with I-73 and I-74 and then move on to the major news of the year about the other new and future routes. Work continued on the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass through the year. The last few months have been hoping for news of its opening before 2025, without luck. Signs of its near completion included the placement of new signs, many with interstate shields uncovered, along the Bypass and intersecting roadways. For example, these went up along US 74 East: Overhead signage at Business 74 exit which contains the future ramp to I-73 North/I-74 West. Signage was also updated heading west on US 74 approaching the unop...
Post a Comment
Read more