California State Route 275
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State Route 275 (SR 275) is an unsigned state highway connecting
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 ...
and
Downtown Sacramento Downtown Sacramento is the central business district of the city of Sacramento. Downtown is generally defined as the area south of the American River, east of the Sacramento River, north of Broadway, and west of 16th Street. The central business ...
. Since 1996, the highway has been legally defined to be the length of the
Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames clos ...
crossing 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†...
. Prior to that year, SR 275 was also known as the West Sacramento Freeway, and was a short spur connecting Interstate 80 Business / U.S. Route 50 in West Sacramento, and the Tower Bridge. SR 275 also extended east into Sacramento along the
Capitol Mall The Capitol Mall or Capitol Mall Boulevard is a major street and landscaped parkway in the state capital city of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. It connects the city of West Sacramento in Yolo County, California, Yolo County to ...
from the bridge to 9th Street, just west of the
California State Capitol The California State Capitol is the seat of the California state government, located in Sacramento, the state capital of California. The building houses the chambers of the California State Legislature, made up of the Assembly and the Senate, a ...
. West Sacramento completed a project to replace the freeway with a
pedestrian-friendly Walkability is a term for planning concepts best understood by the mixed-use of amenities in high-density neighborhoods where people can access said amenities by foot. It is based on the idea that urban spaces should be more than just transport ...
street named Tower Bridge Gateway.


Route description

Since 1996, SR 275 has been defined to be the length of the
Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames clos ...
, a four-lane
lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and sw ...
across 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†...
that formerly carried a
Sacramento Northern Railroad The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland ...
track in the center. Prior to 1996, SR 275 was part of the West Sacramento Freeway. The West Sacramento Freeway designation begins on Interstate 80 at exit 81 (West Capitol Avenue), the east end of the
Yolo Causeway The Yolo Causeway is a long elevated highway viaduct on Interstate 80 that crosses the Yolo Bypass floodplain, connecting the cities of West Sacramento, California and Davis, California. It is officially named the Blecher-Freeman Memorial Caus ...
. It soon splits, with I-80 exiting to bypass Sacramento to the north and Interstate 80 Business (legislatively U.S. Route 50) continuing east via exit 82 towards downtown. After one interchange, at Harbor Boulevard (exit 1/1B), the freeway splits again, with Bus. 80 turning abruptly southeast over the Pioneer Memorial Bridge to avoid downtown Sacramento. The original SR 275 designation then began here, at exit 3 of Bus. 80, with full access to and from the intersecting Jefferson Boulevard ( State Route 84).
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street maps and
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topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...
s, accessed December 2007 vi
ACME Mapper
/ref> After the Jefferson Boulevard interchange, the road — now maintained by the city of West Sacramento as Tower Bridge Gateway — crosses the new Grand Street at an at-grade intersection. This intersection replaced a partial
trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, usi ...
, oriented towards West Capitol Avenue with a missing westbound entrance, in 2007. After Tower Bridge Gateway crosses under the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
line that used to cross the Tower Bridge, it approaches an intersection with 5th Street. It was formerly a ramp that entered the westbound lanes from the intersection of West Capitol Avenue and 5th Street, which completed the former interchange at Riske Lane. Two blocks to the east, Tower Bridge Gateway approaches its final intersection in West Sacramento with 3rd and Riverfront Streets. A westbound offramp formerly led to West Capitol Avenue and 3rd Street, with eastbound access to
Broderick Broderick is a surname of early medieval English origin and subsequently the Anglicised versions of names of Irish and Welsh origin. It is also a given name. English origin A toponymic name the broad ridge and Bawdrip, a manor near Bridgwater ...
to the north and the formerly industrial area to the south, now containing Sutter Health Park. State maintenance resumes once again as SR 275 as the road crosses the Sacramento River on the Tower Bridge. At the east end of the bridge, SR 275 ends and the roadway becomes
Capitol Mall The Capitol Mall or Capitol Mall Boulevard is a major street and landscaped parkway in the state capital city of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. It connects the city of West Sacramento in Yolo County, California, Yolo County to ...
, maintained by the city of Sacramento, and crosses over
Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
. Seven blocks later, the main road ends at 9th Street; the last block of Capitol Mall to 10th Street, on which the State Capitol fronts, is a two-lane road with a mid-block
traffic circle A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...
around a
fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...
. SR 275 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 ...
.


History

SR 275 began as part of Legislative Route 6, one of the shorter main routes of the initial system funded by the 1910 bond issue. This highway, which included the several-mile-long
Yolo Causeway The Yolo Causeway is a long elevated highway viaduct on Interstate 80 that crosses the Yolo Bypass floodplain, connecting the cities of West Sacramento, California and Davis, California. It is officially named the Blecher-Freeman Memorial Caus ...
, connected Sacramento with the north–south Route 7 at Davis, thereby linking the capital city with the
San Francisco 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 Go ...
. Route 6 traffic initially left Sacramento on the 1911 I Street Bridge, heading southwest through the small settlement of
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
via D Street, 5th Street, and present Tower Court to West Capitol Avenue. The state highway was moved to the M Street Bridge in 1926, as part of an improvement that also took it through a two-lane subway under the
Sacramento Northern Railroad The Sacramento Northern Railway (reporting mark SN) was a electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland ...
, still present on West Capitol Avenue. The M Street Bridge was replaced by the
Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames clos ...
in 1935. U.S. Routes 40 and 99 (soon 99W) were marked along Route 6 in 1928. These two routes remained on West Capitol Avenue until 1954, when the new West Sacramento Freeway opened, connecting the west end of the Tower Bridge with the east end of the Yolo Causeway. Traveler-oriented businesses along the bypassed West Capitol Avenue were hit hard by the shifting of through traffic. The entire freeway was designated as part of Interstate 80 in the late 1950s. However, two bypasses were planned — a realignment of Route 6 that would take I-80 over a new bridge and around the south side of downtown, and a northern bypass of the entire city ( I-880). Since the southerly bypass had not been completed in time for the 1964 renumbering, the route over the Tower Bridge — and along downtown streets — became Route 80, but US 99W signage remained (initially following Capitol Mall to near the State Capitol, later turning south onto 3rd and 5th Streets east of the bridge) until the late 1960s, before
I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
had finished replacing old US 99W north of
Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
. Normally, upon completion of the new I-80 south of downtown, the old alignment over the Tower Bridge and through downtown would be relinquished. The legislature recognized that it might be useful to keep a state highway to the Capitol, and so in 1966 it passed a
concurrent resolution A concurrent resolution is a resolution (a legislative measure) adopted by both houses of a bicameral legislature that lacks the force of law (is non-binding) and does not require the approval of the chief executive (president). Concurrent resolut ...
requesting that the
California Highway Commission The California Highway Commission was established in 1895 and continued until 1978 as the primary state highway bureaucracy in California. Their first noticeable efforts centered on the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road (eventually to become U.S. Route 50) ov ...
delay relinquishment west of 9th Street until the last day of the 1967 legislative session. During that session, a new Route 275 was created from that portion of former Route 80. This consisted of the eastern part of the West Sacramento Freeway, the Tower Bridge, and
Capitol Mall The Capitol Mall or Capitol Mall Boulevard is a major street and landscaped parkway in the state capital city of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. It connects the city of West Sacramento in Yolo County, California, Yolo County to ...
up to 9th Street, just west of the capitol building. The portion in Sacramento, east of the bridge, was not to be beautified with state highway funds. Due to the cancellation of a replacement of the North Sacramento Freeway, I-80 was moved to former I-880 around the city in 1981, giving the West Sacramento Freeway three numbers: I-80,
US 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...
, and SR 275. In 1993, the West Sacramento City Council approved the "Triangle Specific Plan" for a new downtown in the triangle bounded by the Sacramento River, SR 275, and US 50; this plan included downgrading the freeway to a surface road.
Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...
, Appetite for W. Sac Development, July 13, 2000, p. B1
The state legislature passed a law in 1994 that allowed Caltrans to come to an agreement with West Sacramento or Sacramento for the relinquishment of any part of SR 275. Although no portions had yet been relinquished, the legislature deleted Route 275 from the Streets and Highways Code in 1996. The Triangle redevelopment happened slowly, with the first part —
Raley Field Sutter Health Park is the home ballpark of the Sacramento River Cats Minor League Baseball team, which is a member of the Pacific Coast League. Known as Raley Field from 2000 to 2019, the facility was built on the site of old warehouses and rail ...
(now Sutter Health Park) — opening in 2000. Effective January 1, 2001, Caltrans relinquished SR 275 to West Sacramento between postmiles 12.4 (west of Riske Lane) and 13.0 (the west end of the Tower Bridge). The city renamed the road Tower Bridge Gateway and demolished the Riske Lane overpass in early 2007, replacing it with a signalized intersection that now serves the new Garden Street (later renamed Grand Street). The city of Sacramento also wished to modify its section of SR 275, which, while not a freeway, was still designed for motor vehicle traffic. Capitol Mall east of postmile 0.11 (the east end of the Tower Bridge) was relinquished to the city effective January 1, 2006. A ramp from the bridge to N Street was closed in July 2007, allowing the block it had cut diagonally through to be sold. The ramp's counterpart, from L Street to the Tower Bridge, remained open, though the lot that includes it was sold to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency in 2005. The ramp finally closed to traffic in 2016 in conjunction with a project to connect 2nd Street in Old Sacramento to Capitol Mall. These 2001 and 2007 relinquishments left Caltrans maintaining only two pieces of SR 275 — the Tower Bridge and the west end through the Jefferson Boulevard (SR 84) interchange — for a total of about 0.9 miles (1.4 km), under half of the 1967-2001 length. A joint project to widen the bridge sidewalks was carried out by Sacramento, West Sacramento, and Caltrans. The project was completed in May 2008. A second phase to convert the remaining section of freeway of Tower Bridge Gateway to a city street began in 2010. The 3rd Street underpass and subsequent interchange was removed and signalized intersections at 5th and 3rd Streets were constructed. The project was completed in November 2011. The legislature added Route 275 back to the Streets and Highways Code in 2010, but its definition now only includes "Tower Bridge from the west side of the Sacramento River near the City of West Sacramento to the east side of the Sacramento River near the City of Sacramento." As of 2016, only two interchanges of the former SR 275 remain: a diamond interchange at Jefferson Boulevard (SR 84) and the split at Business Loop 80 / US 50.


Major intersections


See also

*


References


External links


California Highways: Route 275
*The Highwayman's Road Reports

an
California Highway Conditions: SR 275
{{good article
275 __NOTOC__ Year 275 ( CCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelianus and Marcellinus (or, less frequently, year 10 ...
275 __NOTOC__ Year 275 ( CCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelianus and Marcellinus (or, less frequently, year 10 ...
Demolished highways in the United States State Route 275 State Route 275 State Route 275 U.S. Route 99 Interstate 5 U.S. Route 40 Interstate 80