California State Route 198

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State Route 198
Defined by S&HC § 498, maintained by Caltrans
Length:	141.273 mi[1] (227.357 km) (plus about 8.5 mi (14 km) on SR 33)
West end:	US 101 near San Lucas
Major junctions:	SR 33 in Coalinga I-5 near Coalinga SR 41 in Lemoore SR 43 near Hanford SR 99 in Visalia SR 63 in Visalia
East end:	Sequoia National Park
State highways in California (list - pre-1964) County routes in California (list) < SR 197 US 199 > History - Unconstructed - Deleted - Freeway - Scenic

State Route 198 is an east-west state highway that connects the California Central Coast to the mid-Central Valley at Visalia, although the most-traveled portion is in the Central Valley itself.

This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System^[2] and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System^[3].

Contents 1 Route description 2 History 3 Major intersections and exit list 4 References

[edit] Route description

The road begins at a remote interchange with U.S. Route 101 south of King City in the Salinas River Valley. Portions of the highway between U.S. Route 101 and Coalinga contain several switchback turns making freight hauling difficult through this part of the Coast Range. Freight haulers are advised to use SR 46 to the south instead.

Leaving Route 101, SR 198 passes through the Priest Valley, climbs the Coast Range as a two-lane road, and crosses over an unnamed pass; it then descends along Warthan Canyon to the town of Coalinga, where it joins with SR 33.

On both sides of Coalinga the road passes through the enormous Coalinga Oil Field, which was the largest-producing field in California in the first decade of the 20th century. Production continues there, as is evident from the number of nodding donkeys a traveler sees in this vicinity. After going through Coalinga, the road becomes flatter.

SR 198 then intersects Interstate 5 in Fresno County before becoming a freeway west of Lemoore. The landscape become a bit less rural as it goes through Hanford, where it quickly reverts to a two-lane road until entering Tulare County and the freeway-to-freeway interchange with SR 99 as it enters Visalia, the largest city it will intersect. It will remain a freeway until east of Visalia, where the road starts to climb the Sierra Nevada and it ends at Sequoia National Park. This is the main route from both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas to Sequoia National Park.

[edit] History

All of SR 198 was added to the state highway system in the three bond issues floated to pay for the construction of the system. The first bond issue, approved by the state's voters in 1910, included the road from Visalia west to Hanford, connecting the two county seats with the central north-south highway (Route 4, now SR 99). As part of the 1916 bond issue, the route was extended west from Hanford through Coalinga to the coast trunk highway (Route 2, now US 101) near San Lucas, and assigned it the Route 10 designation. The third bond issue, passed in 1919, included a further extension east from Visalia to Sequoia National Park.^[4] The entire length of Route 10 was marked as Sign Route 198 in 1934,^[5] and this number was adopted legislatively in the 1964 renumbering.^[6] The portion east of I-5 near Coalinga was added to the California Freeway and Expressway System in 1959,^[7] and parts of it have been built as such.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] Major intersections and exit list

Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

County	Location	Postmile [1][8][9]	#[10]	Destinations	Notes
Monterey MON R0.00-25.79		R0.00		Bunte Road
		R0.11		US 101	Interchange
		14.00		SR 25 – Hollister
Fresno FRE 0.00-42.73	Coalinga	22.65 33 15.71		SR 33 south – Avenal	West end of SR 33 overlap
		33 24.32 22.66		SR 33 north	East end of SR 33 overlap
		26.81		I-5	Interchange
		34.66		SR 269
Kings KIN 0.00-28.33		4.99	73	Stratford, Avenal
	Lemoore	R8.90	77	SR 41 – Lemoore, Paso Robles, Fresno
		West end of freeway
		R10.56	79	18th Avenue – Central Lemoore
		R12.11	81	Houston Avenue, D Street – Lemoore
		R14.77	83	14th Avenue – Armona
		R15.75	84	Hanford-Armona Road, 13th Avenue – Armona
	Hanford	R16.91	85	12th Avenue
		R17.91	86	11th Avenue – Hanford	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R18.3	87A	Redington Street – Central Hanford	Westbound exit and entrance
		R18.51	87	Douty Street – Central Hanford	No westbound exit
		R18.96	87B	10th Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	East end of freeway
		R20.98	89	SR 43 – Selma, Corcoran
Tulare TUL 0.00-44.16	West end of freeway
		R3.83	101	SR 99 – Los Angeles, Sacramento	Signed as exits 101A (south) and 101B (north) westbound
	Visalia	R4.80	102	Plaza Drive
		5.76	103	Shirk Road
		6.76	104	Akers Street
		7.76	105A	Demaree Street
		R8.75	105B	SR 63 south (Mooney Boulevard) – Tulare	West end of SR 63 overlap
		R9.97	107A	SR 63 north – Central Visalia	East end of SR 63 overlap
		R10.73	107B	Ben Maddox Way – Woodlake
		R11.72	108	Lovers Lane (SR 216, CR J15) – Visalia
		R13.74	110	Road 156 – Ivanhoe
		R14.65	111	Farmersville
	East end of freeway
		R18.76		SR 65 south / CR J27 – Exeter, Porterville
		R19.76		SR 245 north – Woodlake
		27.96		SR 216 west – Woodlake
		44.16	Sequoia National Park boundary

[edit] References