The Yolo Causeway is a long elevated highway viaduct on
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...
that crosses the
Yolo Bypass
The Yolo Bypass is one of the two flood bypasses in California's Sacramento Valley located in Yolo and Solano Counties. Through a system of weirs, the bypass diverts floodwaters from the Sacramento River away from the state's capital city of Sac ...
floodplain, connecting the cities of
West Sacramento, California
West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River, which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the p ...
and
Davis, California
Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...
. It is officially named the Blecher-Freeman Memorial Causeway after two
California Highway Patrol
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enfor ...
officers who were killed in the line of duty just east of the causeway.
History
Ferry service was usually required to cross the Yolo Bypass basin during seasonal flooding; the first county seat of Yolo County was the town of Fremont, built near the ferry crossing near the confluence of the
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
and
Feather River
The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather R ...
s. Fremont was wiped out during the floods of 1851.
As an alternative, settlers established the Yolo Plankroad, which was a route that ended close to present-day
Woodland, California
Woodland is a city in and the county seat of Yolo County, California, located approximately northwest of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, and is a part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. The population was 61,032 at the 2020 United States ...
.
[
Before a causeway was built, wheeled vehicles between Davis and Sacramento were forced to detour south through Tracy and Stockton during seasonal flooding.] Once the ground was sufficiently dry to support vehicle traffic, the first vehicle to make it across the Yolo Bypass established the seasonal "Tule Jake" Road, which was typically passable only during the summer months.
1916 causeway
The original Yolo Causeway opened on 18 March 1916 as a two-lane structure wide and long, connecting what is now the city of West Sacramento with Davis, California. Residents celebrated with the four day-long Causeway Celebration, held from May 11–14, 1916.[
Initially, the causeway was composed of a timber trestle section ( long on the west) and a concrete trestle section (remaining length), with a plate girder bascule span, which was opened to permit passage of levee maintenance barges.] The causeway width was doubled in 1933 when a new all-timber viaduct was added just south of the 1916 reinforced concrete structure; lights were added in 1950.
The Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...
association initially declined to shift its route to take advantage of the Yolo Causeway, but in 1928, following the completion of the Carquinez Bridge
The Carquinez Bridge is a pair of parallel (geometry), parallel bridges spanning the Carquinez Strait at the northeastern end of San Francisco Bay. They form the part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 between Crockett, California, Cro ...
, it was made a part of the re-routed Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Later, the causeway became a part of US Highways 40 and 99W.
1962 causeway
The current causeway was built in 1962. From west to east, the causeway is composed of twinned concrete trestles, a earth fill segment, and twinned concrete trestles. The easternmost of the two bridges is the longer of the two and traffic reporters will sometimes refer to the two structures as the "long bridge" and the "short bridge". Each trestle carries a , three-lane roadway.
It was renamed the "Blecher-Freeman Memorial Causeway" in 1994, after two California Highway Patrol officers who were shot to death in 1978 after a highway stop near the causeway.
Proposed improvements
In 2018, Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
announced plans to extend the carpool lane along I-80 from Solano County to Sacramento County, which includes plans to widen the causeway to four lanes in each direction. The proposed widening would not start until at least 2024, and the project is estimated to cost $800 million. One proposed alternative would use the extra lane as a toll lane.
Bypass
The Yolo Bypass
The Yolo Bypass is one of the two flood bypasses in California's Sacramento Valley located in Yolo and Solano Counties. Through a system of weirs, the bypass diverts floodwaters from the Sacramento River away from the state's capital city of Sac ...
protects Sacramento and other California Central Valley
The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers ...
communities from flooding. During wet seasons, it can be full of water. It contains the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area
The Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area is a wetland restoration project constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Ducks Unlimited within the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area located in the Yolo Bypass in Yolo County, California, between the ...
, the largest ecological restoration project west of the Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...
. Other nature preserves in it include the Fremont Weir Wildlife Area
Fremont Weir Wildlife Area is 1,461 acres at the north end of the Yolo Bypass floodway along the Sacramento River in Sutter County and Yolo County. It is 6 miles north-east of the city of Woodland and 15 miles north of Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area a ...
and Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area
The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is located within the Yolo Bypass in Yolo County, California. The wildlife area is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with the intent of restoring and managing a variety of wildlife habitats in ...
.
The Yolo Bypass begins at the Fremont Weir Wildlife Area, located approximately northwest of Sacramento and lying south of the Sacramento River
The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...
, upstream from its confluence with the Feather River
The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather R ...
. When seasonal rains cause the river to rise, water is diverted via the concrete Fremont Weir into the Yolo Bypass floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
. The Yolo Bypass can carry up to five times the capacity of the Sacramento River, preventing it from flooding Sacramento. The diverted water re-enters the Sacramento River delta near Rio Vista. A 2002 study showed that water begins to flow from the Sacramento into the Fremont Weir when the flow reaches approximately ; for comparison, the capacity of the Yolo Bypass is .
Approximately 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bat
The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been ...
s migrate to the Yolo Causeway every June. They roost in the expansion joints between the causeway segments, and feed on the insects that live in the wetlands formed by the Yolo Bypass.
Causeway Classic
The Causeway Classic
The Causeway Classic is the annual college football game between the Sacramento State Hornets and the UC Davis Aggies in the United States. The teams exchange a Causeway Classic Trophy made from cement taken from the Yolo Causeway.
History of ...
, an annual college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
game between the Aggies of the University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
and the Hornets
Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...
of California State University, Sacramento
California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...
, is named after the causeway. A trophy made from a concrete core sample
A core sample is a cylindrical section of (usually) a naturally-occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, such as sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube, called a core drill. The h ...
taken from the causeway is awarded to the winner.
See also
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References
External links
Yolo Causeway - Davis Wiki
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*
* {{cite web , url=https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-3/d3-projects/d3-yolo-80-corridor-improvement , title=Yolo 80 Corridor Improvement Project , publisher=Caltrans
Bridges over the Sacramento River
Bridges in Yolo County, California
Causeways in the United States
Concrete bridges in California
Roads in Yolo County, California
Interstate 80
U.S. Route 99
Bridges on the Interstate Highway System
Viaducts in the United States
Road bridges in California