State Route 188 (SR 188), also known as Tecate Road, is an approximately two-mile (3 km)

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that connects State Route 94 in

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

with the

Mexico – United States border Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. Its southern terminus is at the border near

Tecate, Baja California Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico-US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area has a population of 132,406 inhab ...

and its northern terminus with SR 94 is near

Tecate, California Tecate is an unincorporated community in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, California, directly adjacent to the Mexican city of Tecate, Baja California. The area is best known for its border crossing between the Unite ...

. The route was assigned in the area in 1972, and has remained intact since.

Route description

SR 188, also known as Tecate Road, begins at the U.S.–Mexico border in the community of

; this border crossing handled roughly four percent of all traffic in between

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

and

during 2008. The route progresses northward, passing through a large commercial district in

. The highway heads to an intersection with Thing Road, where it turns to the northeast and out of the commercial district. The route continues to the northeast, intersecting with Humphries Road, where the surroundings become highly undeveloped. SR 188 continues to an intersection with SR 94 a short distance out of Potrero, where the designation ends and right-of-way merges into SR 94. The entire route is in the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

. In 2013, SR 188 had an

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

(AADT) of 5,600 at the northern terminus, and 5,900 at the southern terminus, the latter of which was the highest AADT for the highway.

History

The original alignment of SR 188, when routes where first assigned, was designated as Legislative Route 94. In the 1964 state highway renumbering, SR 188 was officially defined as "the south end of Fallen Leaf Lake to Route 89 near Camp Richardson"; this was later removed in 1965. A road from the town of Potrero to Tecate existed by 1917. The Tecate border crossing originally opened in 1932. In 1938, the San Diego County board of supervisors proposed moving rerouting the road to be shorter and on more level ground, although there was opposition from local residents and businesses who favored the old road. However, the route of the road to Tecate has remained the same since then. The current routing of SR 188 was assigned in 1972. The route has remained virtually unchanged since. The Tecate border crossing expanded through the opening of the Tecate Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility, including truck scales; this was completed in 2008, with past expansions to the crossing having been completed in 2004 and 2005.

Future

Improvements are being planned to connect the two

ports of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internatio ...

with a truck bypass to improve security; these are scheduled for completion by 2015.

Major intersections

References

External links