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California State Route 52

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A recent acquisition in sign collecting renewed my interest in revisiting the history of a freeway I used to frequently drive in northern San Diego; California State Route 52.


CA 52 is a 17.22 mile freeway which connects Interstate 5 in San Diego east to CA 67 in Santee.



Part 1; The History of California State Route 52

The history of CA 52 is fully documented on stub page for the highway on CAhighways.org.   The origin of what became CA 52 was in 1959 when Legislative Route Number 279 was added as a planned highway between La Jolla and Santee.  LRN 279 can be seen for the first time on the 1960 Division of Highways State Map City Insert as a planned highway.


According to CAhighways.org the alignment of LRN 279 between what is now I-5 and I-805 was formally adopted in 1962.  The formal route adoption of LRN 279 between I-5 and I-805 can be seen on the 1963 Division of Highways State Map City Insert.


During the 1964 State Highway Renumbering all Legislative Route Numbers were dropped.  LRN 279 was replaced with the designation of CA 52 which can be seen on the 1964 Division of Highways State Map City Insert.


According to CAhighways.org CA 52 between I-5 and I-805 opened during 1970.  The 1970 Division of Highways State Map City Insert shows CA 52 under construction between I-5 and I-805 whereas the 1975 Caltrans State Map City Insert shows it open.  According to CAhighways the planned route of CA 52 east to I-15 was formally adopted in July 1972 (which can be seen on the 1975 Caltrans Map).



CA 52 was opened east to I-15 in 1988 according to CAhighways and can be seen on the Caltrans State Map City Insert from said year.


According to CAhighways.org the formally planned alignment of CA 52 east to CA 67 was adopted in July of 1989.  CA 52 was completed to Mast Boulevard in 1993 and to CA 125 by November 1998.  CA 52 can be seen on the 2005 Caltrans State Map City Insert opened to CA 125.


CA 52 was completed to CA 67 during the Spring of 2011.  Unfortunately 2005 was the last year Caltrans published a State Highway Map hence why there is no accompanying image below.  CA 52 today is known as the Soledad Freeway but was known as the San Clemente Freeway previously.


Part 2; Some Road Scenes Related to CA 52

As noted above I recently acquired a CA 52 shield for my sign collection.  There was a button-copy variation available but the standard shield was only one third of the price.


Most my drives on CA 52 were during 2011-2013 when I was working frequently in Southern California.  Most of my photo stock from those times was lost in a hard drive crash in 2013.  I recently took some photos related to CA 52 in April/May of 2019.  These photos below were taking from I-5 north approaching the CA 52 interchange.





Below are photos of I-805 southbound approaching the interchange with CA 52.





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