State Route 46 (SR 46) is an east–west

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 of

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 ...

. It is a major crossing of the

Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although the ...

and it is the southernmost crossing of the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

, connecting SR 1 on the Central Coast near

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity). It emerged later, in the medieval period, a ...

and

US 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

Paso Robles Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot ...

with SR 99 at Famoso in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

. The road that is now SR 46 was built and improved during the 1920s and was fully paved by 1930. The majority of SR 46 was originally designated as

U.S. Route 466 U.S. Route 466 (US 466) was an east–west United States highway. Though it reached a length of around 500 miles (805 km), the route was co-signed with other US routes for much of its length. When California deleted most of its U.S. High ...

; however, after the latter was entirely removed from the

U.S. Highway system The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these hi ...

, the eastern portion of the route became SR 46.

Route description

State Route 46 begins at SR 1 southeast of Cambria, about from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. It heads east as the

Eric Seastrand Eric Seastrand (February 7, 1938 – June 20, 1990) was an American businessman and politician. Born in Fresno, California, Seastrand served in the United States Army and the United States Air Force. Seastrand graduated from San Jose State U ...

Highway across the Santa Lucia Range on a relatively straight roadway built in the 1970s, bypassing the steep, curvy Santa Rosa Creek Road. After passing near several wineries, this first segment ends at US 101 north of Templeton, where SR 46 turns north, overlapping the US 101

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

through the valley formed by the Salinas River to central Paso Robles. Immediately after splitting from US 101, SR 46 crosses the Salinas River, passing near the

Paso Robles Municipal Airport Paso Robles Municipal Airport is four miles (6 km) northeast of downtown Paso Robles, in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Facilities The airport covers 1,300 acres (5.3 km²) and has two runways and one helipad: * 1 ...

, and then heads east through a hilly area with several wineries and the community of Whitley Gardens. It then runs partially alongside the

Estrella River The Estrella River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 tributary river in eastern San Luis Obispo County, California. The river forms at the confluence of ...

to a merge with SR 41 near Shandon and a rest area. There, it turns northeast, following

Cholame Creek Cholame (; Salinan: ''Tco'alam'') is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It sits within a mile of the San Andreas Fault at an elevation of above sea level and is located at . Cholame is reached via ...

through Cholame Pass between the

Cholame Hills The Cholame Hills are a low mountain range in extreme southeastern Monterey County, California. They are a northern extension of the Temblor Range, both of the California Coast Ranges System. To the south of the range lie California State Route ...

and

Temblor Range The Temblor Range is a mountain range within the California Coast Ranges, at the southwestern extremity of the San Joaquin Valley in California in the United States. It runs in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the borders of Kern County a ...

to the settlement of Cholame and the split with SR 41. After crossing into Kern County, the highway continues to rise as it heads east up the Antelope Grade to a summit near Bluestone Ridge before descending through

Polonio Pass Polonio Pass is a low mountain pass that separates the Temblor Range to the south, and the Diablo Range to the north, linking Kern County, California, in the Central Valley, to Shandon and Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County, both in the Ame ...

into the

. State Route 46 takes the southernmost crossing of the

, which is one of the routes linking the Central Valley to the coast. Interstate 580, State Route 152, and State Route 46 are the major routes that cross the

. This route is heavily used when the Grapevine is closed. Truckers who do not want to take SR 58 through Tehachapi can use this route to head to I-5 to the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

, Northern California, and vice versa. Many people from the Bay Area also use this route to head to

Tehachapi Pass Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapis and the south end of the Sierra Neva ...

to head to Interstate 40, the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the ...

, Las Vegas, and

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: Tumanguya; ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'') is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of . It is in East–Central California, on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tu ...

if they do not want to use I-5. Polonio Pass

Once it enters the San Joaquin Valley, SR 46, known as the Paso Robles Highway, follows an almost perfectly straight eastward alignment, crossing SR 33 at Blackwells Corner, passing through the

Lost Hills Oil Field The Lost Hills Oil Field is a large oil field in the Lost Hills Range, north of the town of Lost Hills in western Kern County, California, in the United States. Production While only the 18th-largest oil field in California in size, in total rema ...

, and intersecting I-5 about past

Lost Hills The Lost Hills are a low mountain range in the Transverse Ranges, near Lost Hills, California and Interstate 5 in western Kern County, California. They contain the Lost Hills Oil Field, the largest oil field in Kern County, and are located in t ...

and the crossing of the

California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Cali ...

. SR 46 then passes through the Semitropic Oil Field about west of

Wasco Wasco is the name of four places in the United States: Places United States * Wasco, California, a city in California ** Wasco State Prison, located in Wasco, California * Wasco, Illinois, a former hamlet (unincorporated town) in Illinois, now pa ...

. SR 46 and SR 43 overlap for a short distance in the city of Wasco, and then SR 46 passes over

Calloway Canal Calloway Canal is an irrigation canal owned by the North Kern Water Storage District in Kern County, California. It originates from the Kern River, just east of Golden State Highway ( SR 204 freeway) in Bakersfield. It terminates at reservoirs loca ...

and Friant Canal before it ends at SR 99 in Famoso. The county-maintained Famoso Road continues east across SR 65 and into the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

foothills. East of Paso Robles, SR 46 is part of the

California Freeway and Expressway System The California Freeway and Expressway System is a system of existing or planned freeways and expressways in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses both State highways and federal highways in California. It is defined by Article 2 (commenci ...

, and east of US 101 is part of 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 ...

. The highway from SR 1 to SR 41 near Cholame is an eligible State Scenic Highway, but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacrame ...

History

As part of the second state highway

bond issue In finance, a bond is a type of security under which the issuer (debtor) owes the holder (creditor) a debt, and is obliged – depending on the terms – to repay the principal (i.e. amount borrowed) of the bond at the maturity date as well as i ...

, approved by the state's voters in 1916, Route 33 was created, linking the

trunk (

Route 4 Route 4, or Highway 4, may refer to several highways in the following countries: International * AH4, Asian Highway 4 * European route E04 * European route E004 * Cairo – Cape Town Highway Albania * SH-4 road in Albania from Durres to Kakav ...

, now SR 99) near

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

with the coast trunk (

Route 2 The following highways are numbered 2. For roads numbered A2, see list of A2 roads. For roads numbered B2, see list of B2 roads. For roads numbered M2, see list of M2 roads. For roads numbered N2, see list of N2 roads. International * AH2, As ...

, now US 101 in Paso Robles, passing through the

via Cholame Pass. The road was not yet built in 1919 when the

Automobile Blue Book The ''Automobile Blue Book'' was an American Book series, series of road Guide book, guides for driving, motoring travelers in the United States and Canada published between 1901 and 1929. It was best known for its point-to-point road directions ...

recommended only the county-maintained "very poor road" (now SR 58) via Simmler as a connection between the valley and Central Coast. By 1925, the Cholame Pass highway had been improved, and paving was completed in December 1930. An extension west to Route 56 (now SR 1) near

was added in 1933; however, it ran along Santa Rosa Creek Road, north of today's alignment. The state sign route system was established in 1934 but the majority of Route 33 did not receive a state route designation, instead becoming part of the new U.S. Route 466. However, US 466 turned southwest from Cholame Pass along Legislative Route 125 (modern SR 41) to Morro Bay. Sign Route 41, which followed Legislative Route 125 northeast of Cholame, continued along Route 33 west to the coast. However, Route 125 had still not been paved between Cholame and

Atascadero Atascadero (Spanish for "Mire") is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, about equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco on U.S. Route 101. Atascadero is part of the San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles metropolitan statistical area, which ...

by the 1950s and so US 466 was moved to the longer but better-quality Route 33 via Paso Robles, replacing SR 41 to Paso Robles and overlapping US 101 to Atascadero. As SR 41 had not been signed over the unpaved road west of Paso Robles, it was truncated to Cholame. US 466 was eliminated in the 1964 renumbering, becoming SR 46 east from Paso Robles. However, instead of going south and west to Morro Bay, SR 46 continued west to Cambria and the road via Creston and Atascadero to Morro Bay (which had since been paved) became part of SR 41. A new two-lane

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

carrying SR 46 west from Paso Robles was built in the mid-1970s, replacing Santa Rosa Creek Road. The two-lane stretch from Paso Robles to Cholame was once known as 'Blood Alley' for the large number of vehicle incidents, mainly

head-on collision A head-on collision is a traffic collision where the front ends of two vehicles such as cars, trains, ships or planes hit each other when travelling in opposite directions, as opposed to a side collision or rear-end collision. Rail transport ...

s, among the high volume of commuters, truck drivers and tourists. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 38 people were killed. As of 2016, 'Blood Alley' was widened to a four-lane expressway from the junction of US 101 to just east of the west junction of SR 41, near the town of Shandon. The east junction of the SR 46/SR 41 split is named after actor

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, ''Rebel Without a Cause' ...

, who was killed in a car crash near this site on September 30, 1955. The current intersection is now marked as the James Dean Memorial Junction. The junction was officially dedicated as the James Dean Memorial Junction on September 30, 2005 as part of the State of California's official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dean's death. However, this is not the actual intersection where the accident occurred, contrary to popular belief. The accident scene is about 100 feet to the south of the current intersection, where the road used to be. The

(Caltrans) carried out an interim safety project west of Cholame in December 1995, mandating daytime headlights and installing thermoplastic striping, a concrete barrier and rumble strips. Caltrans has plans to start widening the section between SR 33 and I-5 in 2017. There are also plans to upgrade SR 46 west of this segment and build an interchange with SR 41 at the James Dean Memorial Junction.

Major intersections

References

External links

California Highway Conditions: SR 46
{{good article 046 State Route 046 State Route 046

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links