California State Route 13

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State Route 13

(legal definition)

Length:

9.72^[1] mi (15.64 km)

Formed:

1964 renumbering^[2]

South end:

I-580 in Oakland

Major
junctions:

SR 24 in Oakland

North end:

I-80/I-580 in Berkeley

California State Highway Routes
< SR 12		SR 14 >
Unconstructed - Deleted - Freeway - Scenic

State Route 13 in the U.S. State of California is a short loop in Alameda County, California currently built from Interstate 580 in Oakland to Interstate 80/Interstate 580 in Berkeley. The three contiguous segments of the route are the Warren Freeway, Tunnel Road, and Ashby Avenue.

1 Route description
2 History
3 Recent Developments
4 Control cities
5 Exit list
6 State law
7 References
8 External links
- 8.1 Points of interest

[edit] Route description

The route currently begins at Interstate 580 near Mills College in East Oakland and continues north as the Warren Freeway, named after former California Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. The four-lane freeway takes a largely straight path as it runs through a scenic valley, part of which spans between Piedmont and Oakland's Montclair Village. This valley is a rift valley created by the Hayward Fault Zone, and the entire freeway lies within the earthquake fault zone of the Hayward Fault. In the event of a major earthquake on the fault, this section of SR-13 may sustain heavy damage. Numerous overpassess have recently undergone extensive seismic retrofitting.

The city of Piedmont perches on the west hills, which give an imposing shadow over the highway at sunset. The tall and luscious trees on the highway's side make the highway appear narrower, and until late 2004, a dense group of trees also lined most of the highway's median. For most of the day, the freeway experiences only modest traffic, which makes it a speedy bypass around downtown Oakland. Much of the traffic on this highway comes from SR-24's commute hour congestion backing up onto SR-13 northbound via the exchange between the highways. On a clear day, the Oakland segment of the freeway offers some spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay Area.

California State Route 13 between Joaquin Miller Road and Redwood Road.

After going through an interchange with State Route 24 (completed August 1999) near the entrance to the Caldecott Tunnel, however, 13 takes drastic changes in its quality and capacity. The freeway ends at an uphill junction and the route is defaulted onto Tunnel Road, a much more narrow two-lane road that bends to the west and winds downhill. Upon reaching the foot of the hill, Tunnel Road becomes Ashby Avenue, a markedly urban (and very busy) two-lane street with an east-west routing. Entering Berkeley, UC Berkeley is north on Telegraph Avenue, while a BART station is located at Adeline Street. Past San Pablo Avenue (State Route 123), Route 13 (as Ashby Avenue) runs through a more modest neighborhood before reaching its current end at Interstate 80/Interstate 580.

Route 13 was created to accommodate the construction of the Grove-Shafter Freeway, now designated State Route 24. Before the construction of the Grove-Shafter, Ashby Avenue was California State Highway 24, while the balance of the route of today's Warren Freeway was not a designated state highway. The main thoroughfare through the Montclair District in those days was Mountain Blvd.

[edit] History

Route 13 was to have been a freeway bypass of Oakland and Berkeley and would have extended south from its present end to the Nimitz Freeway (Route 880). (State law describes an even longer Route 13, which would start further south at Route 61 and end at an unconstructed part of Route 61 west of Emeryville. The latter end would require an interchange over water!) However, local resistance to further freeway construction in Oakland prevented the extension. Similar resistance in Berkeley has kept Route 13 from being built as a freeway north of Route 24, hence its role as a surface street.

[edit] Recent Developments

In August 2004, Caltrans began replacing the median's original metal guardrails with a new wall along the 3.5 mile stretch of Highway 13 between Highway 24 and Interstate 580. This allowed road crews to drive street-sweeping vehicles along the shoulders throughout the week, rather than sending people to pick up trash by hand. However, residents frequenting Highway 13 have said that the median appears to be filled with fewer trees and bushes than prior to Caltrans construction. These trees once densely lining the median have long supplemented the lush vegetation on both sides of the highway to beautify this scenic route. [1]

[edit] Control cities

Northbound: Berkeley - from I-580 to SR-24

Southbound: Hayward - from SR-24 to I-580

[edit] Exit list

Postmile^[1]	Municipality	#^[3]^†	Destinations	Notes
ALA 4.21	Oakland	1A	Interstate 580 - East: Hayward; Stockton	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
ALA 4.21		1B	Interstate 580 - West: San Francisco	Southbound exit via Mountain Boulevard; northbound entrance via Calaveras Avenue, Davenport Avenue and Mountain Boulevard
ALA 5.01 ALA 5.39		1C	Carson Street Redwood Road	Exit 1 northbound; northbound to Redwood Road via Mountain Boulevard; southbound to Carson Street via Aliso Avenue
ALA 6.47		2	Joaquin Miller Road Lincoln Avenue	Southbound exit and entrance accessible via Monterey Boulevard
ALA 7.40		3	Park Boulevard	Northbound exit and entrance accessible via Mountain Boulevard; Southbound exit accessible via Trafalgar Place; southbound entrance accessible via Monterey Boulevard
ALA 8.27 ALA 8.28 ALA 8.32		4	Moraga Avenue Thornhill Drive
ALA 9.07		5/5A	Broadway Terrace	Exit 5A northbound; northbound exit accessible via Glenwood Glade
ALA 9.63		5B	State Route 24 - West: Oakland	Northbound left exit and southbound entrance; other side accessible via surface streets
ALA 9.63		5C	State Route 24 - East: Concord	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; other side accessible via surface streets
Continues as Tunnel Road and Ashby Avenue towards end at Interstate 80/Interstate 580