California State Route 56

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Route 56

Length:

16 mi (26 km)

Formed:

Major cities:

Carmel Valley
Rancho Penasquitos
Poway

Direction:

East-West

JUNCTION	POSTMILE
I-5	SD 0.00
I-15	SD 9.00
SR-67	SD 16.00

California State Routes Unconstructed - Deleted - Scenic
< Route 55	Route 57 >

State Route 56 runs from Interstate 5 in the Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego to past Interstate 15 in Poway. Route 56 was originally planned in 1964 to connect to the north end of State Route 125 and continue east to State Route 67, but Poway worked to make sure that would not be possible. Now CA-56 ends into Ted Williams Parkway on the East end. As a result, Route 56 is often called the Ted Williams Freeway (thus, both are named after baseball player Ted Williams, who was born in San Diego).

The stub segment on the west end from I-5 to Carmel Valley Rd and the stub segment on the east end from Black Mountain Rd to I-15 were built first, leaving a 5 mile gap in the freeway for over a decade.

In 2003 traffic opened on the east end from Black Mountain Rd to Camino Del Sur, but it took until July 19, 2004 to finally complete the middle segment. However, all the work still has not been finished yet. The ramps to I-15 are still under construction; and ramps from Route 56 west to I-5 north, or I-5 south to Route 56 east will not be built until at least 2010. Until then, traffic is routed along local streets through Carmel Valley.

The cost of completing just the middle 5.5 mile segment was reported at $220 million, in 2004. Within weeks of completing the middle segment of the freeway SANDAG started a study about the I-5 connector ramps, which hopefully will be completed by 2012.

Beginning in 2006, all traffic going from Interstate 5 northbound to CA-56 east must use the local (truck bypass) lanes. This will eventually be true for westbound-southbound traffic when the southbound truck bypass is completed.