Cave Rock Tunnel; US Route 50 Lake Tahoe

Back in 2016 I visited the Cave Rock Tunnel on US Route 50 on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Douglas County, Nevada.

The Cave Rock Tunnel is a dual-bore tunnel through a rock formation of the same name. The Cave Rock Tunnel was intended as a replacement of the original alignment of US 50 which was routed on the South Branch of the Lincoln Highway. Prior to the Cave Rock Tunnel being built traffic had to use a one-lane swing bridge located on the edge of Cave Rock which dated back to 1863. Ruins of the bridge abutment are still present on the western section of Cave Rock overlooking Lake Tahoe.

The 1931 Cave Rock Tunnel bore is 157 feet in length and presently serves US 50 West traffic. The eastbound Cave Rock Tunnel much longer at 410 feet in length and was completed in 1957. When I arrived at Cave Rock in 2016 the 1931 bore was under going a seismic retrofit which included a concrete liner and a rock shed on the end of the tunnel. In the photo below US 50 traffic is shown two-way via the 1957 Cave Rock bore.

The link below shows a photo of the original Cave Rock alignment of US 50 next to the 1931 bore.

http://www.cityconcierge.com/lake-tahoe/activities/cave-rock.asp

I was provided with a link by NE2 on AAroads for the book; Cave Rock: Climbers, Courts, and a Washoe Indian Scared Place. On page 40 a picture of the Cave Rock Bridge can be seen:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZmpE-AymmsC&pg=PA48-IA1&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

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California State Route 77; the real "Shortest Signed" State Highway

Over the last two weeks I visited almost every State Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area. The shortest State Highway by a large margin in the Bay Area is California State Route 77.

CA 77 is presently only 0.45 miles in length and is located entirely within the City of Oakland. CA 77 begins at Interstate 880 and heads eastward on 42nd Avenue to CA 185 on 14th Street. As presently completed CA 77 would rank as the third shortest State Highway only behind CA 275 and CA 283.

CAhighways.org list of Shortest State Highways

CA 77 presently has a 13.4 mile portion that has not been constructed. CA 77 as originally envisioned would have continued northeast towards Concord and would have junctions with; I-580, unbuilt CA 93, CA 24, I-680 and CA 242. According to CAhighways.org the present route of CA 77 was designated as Legislative Route Number 233 which was approved by the State Legislature in 1953. The legislative description of LRN 233 was changed to LRN 235 by 1957.

CAhighways.org on…

Local Sign Find - Georgia Route 280 found in Sutersville, PA?

Sign errors happen - a US shield in place of a state highway shield or vice versa. It's interesting to some and a pet peeve to others. But when Mike Natale found a Georgia 280 shield in Sutersville, Pennsylvania, you have to think something must be up.
And in this case, there's a reason for it. It's a prop for a television series. Netflix's popular TV series "Mindhunter" is shot in the Pittsburgh area. Mike came across the GA 280 sign in October 2018 and it is possible that the scenes involving Georgia 280 should be in Episode 6 or 7.

Georgia State Highway 280 is located in northwestern and western Atlanta. That's a far cry from the Mon Valley. It is common for television or movie scenes to be shot elsewhere than where they are set at. However, it is very rare to see a sign prop out in the wild while production is on going. This is a great find by Mike!

The strange evolution of Interstate 280 in San Francisco

Recently while in the San Francisco Bay Area I wanted to check out the north terminus of Interstate 280 in downtown San Francisco. I-280 as currently aligned diverges significantly from what was originally planned in the City of San Francisco.

Much of the finalized planning of the Interstate Highway System in the San Francisco Bay Area was largely plotted out by 1956. Between CA 17 in Los Gatos and CA 1 in San Francisco the path of I-280 ultimately followed Legislative Route Number 239 which was designated by the State Legislature in 1957.

CAhighways.org on LRN 239

LRN 239 can be seen appearing on the State Highway Map City Insert of San Francisco connecting to CA 1 by 1958.

1958 State Highway Map City Insert

I-280 was to take a far different route than it currently does in San Francisco. The original plan for I-280 was to follow CA 1 on LRN 56 towards the Golden Gate Bridge where it would terminate at I-480/LRN 224 and US 101. The original planned alignment of I-280 becomes apparen…

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