Skip to main content

Former California State Route 231

By
This past month I drove the entirety of former California State Route 231 west of Mecca in Coachella Valley of Riverside County.


Former CA 231 was an approximately 4 mile State Highway which connected former CA 195 west on 66th Avenue to former CA 86 in Valerie.



Part 1; history of the California State Route 231 designation

The first CA 231 was initially added to the State Highway System as Legislative Route 204 in 1935 according to CAhighways.  The future route of LRN 204 appears on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Riverside County as a heavily traveled County Highway.  


LRN 204 first appears on the 1936-37 Division of Highways Map aligned between US 99 and CA 111.



During the 1964 Highway Renumbering LRN 204 was reassigned as CA 231.  CA 231 first appears routed from CA 86 and CA 195 on the 1964 Division of Highways Map.


According to CAhighways the first CA 231 was deleted from the State Highway System in 1972.  The 1975 Caltrans State Highway Map is the first not to display the original CA 231.


CA 231 was recycled as a designation for a new route between I-5 in Tustin and CA 91 in Irvine according to CAhighways.  The second CA 231 designation first appears on the 1990 Caltrans State Highway Map.


According to CAhighways the proposed route of the second CA 231 was extended via transfer from CA 241 in 1991.  Part of the original planned route of the second CA 231 split into the planned alignment of the second CA 261.  In 1996 the second CA 231 designation was deleted and it's future alignment was eventually assumed by CA 241 and CA 133.


Part 2; a drive on the original California State Route 231

My approach to former CA 231 was via what was CA 195 on 66th Avenue west of Mecca.  At Pierce Street CA 195 would have swung southward whereas CA 231 continued westward on 66th Avenue.   Former CA 231 westward on 66th Avenue faces the Santa Rosa Mountains.



Former CA 231 west on 66th Avenue passes by the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation at Martinez Road.  The Torres-Martinez Reservation is home to the Cahuilla Tribe and the small community of Martinez was a stage stop on the Bradshaw Trail.





Former CA 231 would have continued west on 66th Avenue to Harrison Street in Valerie.  Harrison Street once carried US Route 99 before the 1964 State Highway Renumbering and CA 86 until it was moved to an expressway grade.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more