Interstate 280 (California)

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A view of the scenic portion of Interstate 280

Interstate 280 (abbreviated I-280) is a 57-mile-long interstate highway in the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan area of Northern California. I-280 is also known as the Junipero Serra Freeway. It runs from the US 101/Interstate 680 interchange in San Jose to the South of Market area in San Francisco, just south of AT&T Park.

Route description

I-280, a little north of Sand Hill Road, near Stanford University, crosses through scenic rolling hills

In between San Jose and San Francisco, Interstate 280 passes through Santa Clara, Cupertino, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills before it settles along its scenic route just to the west of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County and just to the east of the Santa Cruz Mountains. When Interstate 280 re-emerges in a decidedly urbanized area, it does so in the city of San Bruno and the interstate passes through South San Francisco and Daly City before it runs across a southeastern swath of the city of San Francisco on the way to its northern terminus.

Interstate 280, or at least the segment between Cupertino and San Bruno, has been called "the most beautiful freeway in the world." Drivers along this portion of Interstate 280 are treated to scenic views of the Santa Cruz Mountains to their west, and are isolated by hills from the suburban sprawl that lies just to their east. Through much of this segment, the freeway is actually running just inside the eastern rim of the canyon of the San Andreas Fault. A particularly attractive six mile (ten kilometer) stretch of the freeway from Hillsborough to Belmont provides a beautiful look at Crystal Springs Reservoir, formed by water piped hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, filling the bottom of the fault canyon.

For nearly all of its length, Interstate 280 runs roughly parallel and several miles to the west of US 101 (designated as the Bayshore Freeway). Both freeways are north-south routes connecting San Jose with San Francisco; however, unlike I-280, the route that US 101 takes between the two cities goes entirely through urbanized areas. The majority of the population of the San Francisco Peninsula lives somewhere between Interstate 280 and US 101.

Interestingly, I-280 never intersects with its ostensible "parent" interstate, I-80. The northern terminus of I-280 is within about a mile of I-80's western terminus (at the approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), but the two interstates do not actually intersect. Although San Francisco has had several opportunities to connect I-280 to I-80, it has chosen to use the money for other purposes. Connecting the two freeways is considered to be politically and financially infeasible at this time, due to the city's strong anti-freeway stance. (Instead, 280's northernmost extension primarily functions not as a through route but as a spur into Downtown San Francisco, as suggested by signage on northbound US 101 at its San Francisco interchange with 280.) For further details, read below.

Most of Interstate 280, from San Jose to San Bruno, is designated as the Junipero Serra Freeway in honor of Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, who founded many of California's missions in the 18th century. A 26-foot (8 meter) high faux-sandstone statue of Father Serra kneeling and pointing over the freeway is located at a highway rest area just north of the Highway 92 intersection between the Bunker Hill Drive and Black Mountain Road exits on northbound I-280 in Hillsborough, and can be clearly seen by drivers in both directions. The segment of Interstate 280 north of Route 1 in San Francisco was the original Southern Freeway, but has since been renamed the John F. Foran Freeway.

Interstate 280 in San Jose

History

Late 1940s San Francisco Planning Department Freeway Plan

Interstate 280 was added to the Interstate Highway System on September 15, 1955 as a route from San Jose north to San Francisco. This ran along the present alignment of I-280 south of San Francisco, but in San Francisco it ran north parallel to State Route 1, past the planned west end of Interstate 80, to the south approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. At that point, Interstate 480 began and headed east on Doyle Drive (U.S. Route 101), the Golden Gate Freeway, and onto the Embarcadero Freeway to reach the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. I-480 would continue south on the never-built Southern Embarcadero Freeway to meet the Southern Freeway (now I-280), and meet up with I-280 again near Alemany Boulevard. The I-280 number was approved on November 10, 1958.

In the 1964 renumbering, the Route 280 designation was officially applied to the planned route. This replaced SR 1 in San Francisco; the new SR 1 alignment turned northeast where I-280 now runs, quickly ending at State Route 82 (San Jose Avenue/Alemany Boulevard). SR 1 however continued to be signed along its former (and current) alignment, which had not been upgraded to freeway standards.

A realignment approved January 1968 took I-280 onto its current route. This ran along what had been SR 1, SR 82, State Route 87 and I-480 (downgraded to a State Route then), ending at Interstate 80 at the west end of the Bay Bridge. This change was made on the state level in 1968, restoring SR 1 to its current alignment and truncating SR 82, SR 87 and SR 480.[California Highways: Interstate 280]

The short piece of I-280 between 3rd Street and SR 480 in downtown San Francisco was never built, and the piece from 3rd Street south to U.S. Route 101 was reconstructed after it was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The piece between SR 480 and I-80 was torn down along with the rest of the Embarcadero Freeway; all that remains of the I-80 interchange is a few ramp stubs.

State law

Designation

635.
(b) State highway routes embracing portions of Routes 280, 82,
238, 101, 5, 72, 12, 37, 121, 87, 162, 185, 92, and 123 and
connecting city streets and county roads thereto, and extending in a
continuous route from Sonoma southerly to the international border
and near the route historically known as El Camino Real shall be
known and designated as "El Camino Real."

Exit list

Interstate 680 - Sacramento

U.S. Route 101 - San Francisco; Los Angeles

State Route 82 - Virginia Street; 7th Street

State Route 87 - Guadalupe Parkway

Interstate 880 North; State Route 17 South - Oakland; Santa Cruz

State Route 85 - Mountain View; Gilroy

State Route 84 - Woodside Road; Woodside

State Route 92 - San Mateo; Hayward; Half Moon Bay

State Route 35 South to State Route 92 West - Half Moon Bay; Bunker Hill Drive

State Route 35 north - Pacifica

Interstate 380 to 
U.S. Route 101 -
San Francisco International Airport

State Route 1 South - Pacifica; Mission Street

State Route 1 North - 19th Avenue; Golden Gate Bridge

State Route 82 to State Route 1 North - Mission Street; Daly City

U.S. Route 101 South - San Jose

U.S. Route 101 North - Civic Center; Bay Bridge

References