Green Springs Road of Tuolumne County is a short, bypassed segment servicing Keystone siding which was once part of California State Route 120. The corridor is notable for having not only visible portions of Portland Cement but also the very early era State Highway bridge at Green Springs Run. The Green Springs Run Bridge was constructed in 1914 and still displays plaques indicating it to be a State Highway component. California State Route 120 was realigned around Keystone siding during the mid-1950s.
California State Route 120 can be seen passing through Keystone siding and crossing Green Springs Run on the 1935 Division of Highways map of Tuolumne County.
Part 1; the history of California State Route 120 at Keystone siding
Keystone is a siding of the Sierra Railroad (formerly the Sierra Railway) located at the intersection of Green Springs Road and La Grange Road (Tuolumne County Route J59). Keystone is one of many sidings which were established by the Sierra Railway after the company incorporated during February 1897. The line was opened between Oakdale and a temporary terminus at Cooperstown by June 1897. The siding facility at Cooperstown included a wye which trains could use to turn around.
The Sierra Railway completed tracks east of Cooperstown to Chinese Camp by November 1897. The company would plot Occidential, Paulsell, Warnerville, Copperstown, Crimea (now Keystone) and Chinese siding during the initial run of line construction. The line would later be extended further east of Jamestown to the community of Tuolumne by 1900. The Sierra Railway from the outset has been a freight corridor which has mostly been focused on the hauling of lumber.
Crimea siding (now Keystone) can be seen one of the two branches of the Sierra Railway between Cooperstown and Chinese siding on the 1914 Weber's map of Stanislaus County (which also shows part of Tuolumne County). Crimea siding is shown to be located at the intersection of Green Springs Road and La Grange Road.
Green Springs Road was added to the State Highway System as an extension Legislative Route Number 13 by the 1909 First State Highway Bond Act. Said Bond Act created a segment extending from Sonora west to Salida.
The January 1915 California Highway Bulletin announced the nearing completion of Legislative Route Number 13 at Keystone siding. The 10.9-mile corridor is noted extend from the Stanislaus/Tuolumne County line to approximately 2 miles east of Keystone. Said corridor was noted include an 18-foot-wide graded roadway which was then 82.2% complete. While not overtly stated this contract included a concrete spandrel bridge at Green Springs Run.
The June 1927 California Highways & Public Works announced Legislative Route Number 13 had been recently surfaced from Keystone east to Jamestown.
Legislative Route Number 13 through Keystone would be assigned as part of California State Route 120 when the initial run of Sign State Routes was announced in the August 1934 California Highways & Public Works. The State Highway corridor at Keystone and Green Springs Run can be seen on the 1935 Division of Highway map of Tuolumne County.
The July/August 1955 California Highways & Public Works announced a contract awarded to realign California State Route 120 from the Stanislaus/Tuolumne County line east to La Grange Road as a bypass of Keystone. The project is noted to have been part of Federal Aid Secondary program 919. The corridor appears to have been constructed fairly quickly as no major announcement came within the volumes published in 1956.
Modern eastbound California State Routes 120 and 108 now multiplex in the vicinity of Keystone. The former alignment of California State Route 120 can be found at Green Springs Road.
Green Springs Road is presently surfaced by a decaying later of asphalt which covers earlier Portland Cement. The roadway dives down to the 1914 era Green Springs Run Bridge which still displays placards indicating it as a State Highway Bridge.
Green Springs Road climbs east from Green Springs Run and terminates at La Grange Road (now County Route J59) at Keystone siding. Keystone remains an active siding of the Sierra Railroad despite the line converting to diesel locomotives in 1955.
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