Talk:Central Freeway

Notes from the 1948 plan

Freeways

• S-1 Central Freeway - South Section, Bayshore Freeway to Market Street, with connection to Mission Freeway.
• S-2 Central Freeway - North Section, Market Street to Broadway, Connections to Panhandle Freeway.
• Bayshore Freeway
• S-3 Mission Freeway - South Section, Alemany Boulevard to Havelock Street
• S-4 Mission Freeway - Central Section, Havelock Street to Esmeralda Avenue, Connections to Alemany Freeway.
• S-5 Mission Freeway - North Section - Esmeralda Avenue to Central Freeway.
• S-6 Richmond Freeway - Park Presidio Boulevard to Panhandle Freeway
• S-7 Sunset Freeway - 19th Avenue to Panhandle Freeway.
• S-8 Panhandle Freeway - Golden Gate Park to Central Freeway.
• S-9 Alemany Freeway - West Section, Mission Freeway to Barneveld Avenue.
• S-10 Alemany Freeway - East Section, Barneveld Avenue to 26th Street.
• Marginal Freeway

Expressways

• Fulton Street
• Lincoln Way
• Sunset Boulevard
• Great Highway
• Circumferential Expressway
• Park Presidio Boulevard
• Geary Street
• Broadway

Other major thoroughfares

• Broadway
• Market-Portola Route
• Marina Boulevard and Lombard Street
• Army-Clipper
• Van Ness Avenue
• 19th Avenue
• Webster Street
• Divisadero-Scott
• Alemany

Central Freeway

This all important freeway will start at Broadway just east of Van Ness Avenue. See Plates 5-1 and 5-2. The roadways will be depressed from Broadway to Clay Street at which point they will be carried on an elevated structure on a right-of-way of restricted width parallel with and between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street. A connection to a portal in the center of Van Ness Avenue north of Broadway will be made by a short tunnel. A spur between Pine and Bush Streets will accommodate traffic to and from the downtown area. This spur will take advantage of topography to reduce grades for traffic which will be delivered to the existing street system near Hyde Street.

The route will swing to the southwest in the block between Eddy and Turk Streets, crossing Van Ness Avenue and continuing to a location in the block between Gough and Octavia Streets at Fulton Street. The route then extends southward to a location just south of Market Street providing space for the necessarily elaborate interchange with the Panhandle Freeway. This entire section will be elevated - largely on solid fill with gentle side slopes which will afford an opportunity for attractive landscaping.

From this point the Central Freeway will swing easterly as an elevated structure making connections with the Mission Freeway and utilizing the right-of-way now being acquired for 13th Street between Valencia and Folsom Streets. The route will then continue to interchange with the Bayshore Freeway south of Bryant Street and centered approximately on 9th Street. At this point the Central Freeway loses its identity as such, becoming an extension of the Bayshore Freeway to the approaches to the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

This great central artery constitutes the major feature of a grand circumferential distributor loop around the Metropolitan Traffic District. Completion of the loop involves the use of the Marginal Freeway from the bridge approaches to the vicinity of Market Street, the Embarcadero from this point to Broadway, and Broadway from the Embarcadero to Van Ness Avenue.

Normal weekday traffic on the several sections of the freeway system has been estimated at both 1947 and at 1970 traffic levels. Allocations of traffic have been made by detailed review and study of the trips between origins and destinations, at external points and in the numerous zones in San Francisco. These estimates are summarized in Plate II-10. The high economic value of the Central Freeway is shown by the fact that it will attract the greatest volume of traffic of any of the freeways in the system.

Other notes

[1] has a bit of information. --NE2 10:15, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[2]

Laws

• SB 798, 1999

The seven freeways removed from the plan by Resolution 45-59 on January 27, 1959 were:

• Central Freeway
• Crosstown Freeway
• Embarcadero Freeway/Golden Gate Freeway
• Junipero Serra Freeway
• Mission Freeway
• Park Presidio Freeway
• Western Freeway

Another list of proposed freeways: [3]

• Route 68 Bayshore Freeway - from San Francisco County Line to East Bay Bridge.
• Route 2 Freeway - from Route 68 to Golden Gate Freeway via 13th Street Ramp.
• Route 56 Freeway - from San Francisco County Line to Golden Gate Bridge via Junípero Serra and Park-Presidio Boulevard.
• Route 224 Freeway ~ from East Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge via Embarcadero.
• Route 225 Southern Freeway - from Junipero Serra to Route 68 at Alemany Boulevard.
• Southern Freeway - from Route 225 to Southern Bay Bridge Crossing.
• Mission Freeway - from Route 225 to Route 2.
• Route 223 Freeway - Route 2 to Route 56 via Golden Gate Park Panhandle.
• Geary Express Way - Franklin Street to Ocean (Franklin to Broderick new construction [?]

The remaining bridge is apparently from 1955. USGS shows that it opened earlier to Mission/Van Ness, but when? --NE2 00:21, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

The original section of the Central Freeway (from the Bayshore Freeway to Mission/South Van Ness) opened on March 1, 1955 (California Highways and Public Works, Mar-Apr 1955). The demolished portion opened in April, 1959 (California Highway and Public Works, Mar-Apr 1960). --Eric N Fischer (talk) 05:34, 23 February 2008 (UTC)