California State Route 4

State Route 4
SR 4 highlighted in red
Route information
Defined by Streets and Highways Code § 304
Maintained by Caltrans
Length:	197 mi[1] (317 km)
Existed:	1934[2] – present
Tourist routes:	Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
Restrictions:	Segment through Ebbetts Pass closed in winter
Major junctions
West end:	San Pablo Avenue in Hercules
	I-80 in Hercules I-680 in Concord SR 242 in Concord SR 160 near Antioch I-5 in Stockton SR 99 in Stockton SR 49 in Angels Camp
East end:	SR 89 near Markleeville
Location
Counties:	Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Alpine
Highway system
State highways in California Interstate U.S. State Pre-1964 History Unconstructed Deleted Freeway Scenic ← SR 3 I-5 →

Roadside art, Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway.

State Route 4 (SR 4) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, routed from Interstate 80 in the San Francisco Bay Area to State Route 89 in the Sierra Nevada. It passes through Ebbetts Pass and contains the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway, a National Scenic Byway.

SR 4 roughly parallels the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a popular area for boating and fishing. There are a number of accesses to marinas and other attractions.

Route description

Route 4 through Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest

Intersection of California State Routes 4 & 89

State Route 4 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System^[3] and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System.^[4] However, it is only a scenic highway as designated by Caltrans from a point east of Arnold to SR 89.^[5] SR 4 is also known as the John Muir Parkway from I-80 in Hercules to I-680 near Martinez, named for the environmentalist John Muir.^[6] The stretch through Franklin Canyon was once known as "Blood Alley."^[7]

Interstate 680 crossing State Route 4, with Mount Diablo rising in backround. September 30, 2007. Courtesy Michael Hicks.

SR 4, an east–west highway, begins in Hercules at San Pablo Avenue next to the Interstate 80 junction as part of John Muir Parkway. (The actual parkway extends a bit past the western terminus.) The road is an expressway from its starting point until it approaches Martinez, at which point it becomes a full freeway (the California Delta Highway) passing Concord, Pittsburg, and Antioch. The John Muir National Historic Site is located directly north of Route 4 on Alhambra Avenue in Martinez. Alhambra Avenue at SR 4 is also the site of the Franklin Canyon Adobe. BART tracks run in the median of the freeway from the Port Chicago Highway interchange in Concord to the Bailey Road interchange in Bay Point, where the line currently ends at the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station. Access to that station is provided by a pedestrian bridge crossing over the eastbound lanes of Highway 4. The eBART light rail line continues rom there in the median until Antioch station.^[8] After Antioch, the freeway turns southward at its intersection with State Route 160, turning into a suburban and rural road bypassing the Bay Area's rapidly growing andoutermost eastern suburbs (Oakley, Brentwood and Discovery Bay, California); this section is also known as the John Marsh Heritage Highway.

Route 4 east continues to Stockton, where it briefly joins I-5 and then enters a separate freeway (known locally as the Crosstown Freeway) routing almost directly through downtown Stockton. The route then runs concurrent with State Route 99 before running eastward into the Sierra through Angels Camp, one of the richest quartz mining sections of the Mother Lode and home of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", and Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The route runs through the 8,050 ft (2,450 m). Pacific Grade Summit on its way up to the 8,730 ft (2,660 m) Ebbetts Pass and ends at State Route 89 ten miles (16 km) west of Topaz Lake, on the California–Nevada border. The portion from Arnold to its terminus is designated the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway, which is eventually one lane.

Through the mountains, SR 4 is not suitable for large trucks, buses, or RVs, as it becomes very steep and narrow, with no center dividing line shortly after the Mount Reba Turnoff to Bear Valley Ski area, with tight switchbacks. The pass is not plowed for snow, and thus closes during the winter months often from November through as late as May. Thus, no passage between the Mount Reba Turnoff and Markleeville is possible. The western slope is plowed and rarely closes, even for a few hours, but often has chain restrictions during and immediately following storms, usually just east of Arnold. The eastern slope is not plowed.

History

Although segments of Route 4 were part of the state highway system since 1909, Route 4 was officially designated as such between US Route 40 (now Interstate 80) and State Route 99 in 1934. Prior to that date, the then existing segment was officially known as the "Borden Highway", and the bridge over the San Joaquin River is still referred to as the "Borden Highway Bridge" in tidal tables. Construction of Route 4 did not finish until 1935, however.^[2]

The portion of Route 4 from US Route 40 to State Route 24 was added to the highway system in 1933 as Legislative Route Number (LRN) 106. East of the concurrency with State Route 24 to State Route 49, Route 4 was designated as LRN 75 from 1931-1934. Finally, the segment from State Route 49 to State Route 89 was signed as LRN 24 from 1909 to 1934.^[2]

In the 1970s, a significant portion of the Filipino American community of "Little Manila" was demolished when the "Crosstown Freeway" was constructed,^[9] displacing what was once the largest population of Filipinos outside of the Philippines.^[10]

From 1998 to 2009, a road built by the State Route 4 Bypass Authority, named the State Route 4 Bypass, opened in three phases, bypassing Route 4 in Oakley and Brentwood to the south and west.^[11][12] Many of the signs and local maps designated this extension as simply "Bypass Road." A section of Marsh Creek Road was widened to serve as the connection between the bypass built by the authority and the original Route 4 towards Stockton. In 2012, Caltrans handed over authority for State Route 4 in Oakley and Brentwood to the respective cities. In return, it gained control of the bypass and the upgraded section of Marsh Creek Road, which officially became State Route 4.^[13]

Construction is currently underway on widening the freeway section of Route 4 through Antioch, Oakley and Brentwood, with the final configuration as three mixed use lanes and one High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction and auxiliary lanes between interchanges as far as the interchange with Route 160. The median will accommodate an extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. All work at the Loveridge Road and Somersville Road/Auto Center Drive interchanges has been completed; however, the HOV lane east of the Loveridge Road overpass remains closed pending completion of construction at the L Street/Contra Loma Boulevard and A Street/Lone Tree Way interchanges. Speed on the freeway through the Antioch portion of Route 4 is limited to 55 miles per hour (90 kph), as there is severe congestion, as well as areas where no shoulder exists due to temporary concrete barriers in place.

Only the portion of the bypass from California SR 160 to the Sand Creek Road interchange is a multi-lane freeway. The portion from Sand Creek Road to Vasco Road is single-lane each way and has signal-controlled grade crossings at Balfour Road and Marsh Creek Road. In May 2010, this narrow stretch of the road handled 27,000 to 30,000 vehicles per day.^[14] In 2011, Caltrans awarded $25 million toward upgrading the section from Lone Tree Way to Sand Creek Road to a full freeway and constructing an interchange at Sand Creek Road.^[15]

Soon after the Sand Creek Interchange was opened in Brentwood in 2015, construction began on widening SR 4 to Balfour Road, the next major interchange planned for Brentwood. In 2017, work commenced on the Balfour Interchange,which will provide a 2-lane overpass for SR 4and widen it a short distance beyond the Balfour exit.^[16]

Effective in early March 2016, reconfiguration of the intersection of SR 4 and SR 160 was officially opened, allowing westbound SR 4 traffic to access northbound SR 160 directly and southbound SR 160 to access eastbound SR 4.^[17]

The freeway segment of SR 4 in Stockton is part of a proposed route to upgrade SR 99 into I-7 or I-9. Under one proposal, the new interstate would go along SR 99 from the split with I-5 at Wheeler Ridge north through Fresno to Stockton, where the proposed route would then turn west via the SR 4 freeway to a terminus at I-5.^[18]

In 2016, Pittsburg moved to install surveillance cameras along their portion of the route, in response to a series of 20 freeway shootings in the area that had taken the lives of six people, and injured 11, in the past year.^[19]

Major intersections

This table reflects the transfer of the State Route 4 Bypass to Caltrans in 2012. Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see the list of postmile definitions).^[20] Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

County	Location	Postmile [20][21][22]	Exit [23][24]	Destinations	Notes
Contra Costa CC 0.00-48.39	Hercules	0.00	1A	San Pablo Avenue	At-grade intersection; former US 40; west end of SR 4
		0.00	1B	I-80 – Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento	No exit number eastbound; I-80 exit 23; no eastbound entrance from I-80 west
		0.78	1C	Willow Avenue - Hercules	No exit number eastbound; no access to/from San Pablo Avenue
	​	R1.70	1	Sycamore Avenue	No exit number westbound
	​	​	East end of freeway (eastbound only)
	​	2.70	3	Franklin Canyon	At-grade intersection eastbound; interchange westbound
	​	​	West end of freeway (eastbound only)
	​	T4.89	5	To I-80 east / Cummings Skyway – Port Costa, Crockett, Vallejo
	​	R5.17	6	McEwen Road – Port Costa	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Martinez	R8.55	9	Alhambra Avenue – Martinez
		R9.19	10	Pine Street, Center Avenue
		R10.33	11	Morello Avenue, Glacier Drive
		12.41	12A	Pacheco Boulevard – Pacheco	Former SR 21
	​	12.67	12	I-680 – Benicia, Sacramento, Walnut Creek, San Jose	Signed as exits 12B (south) and 12C (north); I-680 exit 53
	​	R13.65	13	Solano Way
	Concord	R14.67	15A	SR 242 – Concord, Oakland	SR 242 exits 3B-C
		R15.42	15B	Port Chicago Highway
	​	R16.83	17	Willow Pass Road
	​	R18.83	19	San Marco Boulevard – Bay Point
	​	R20.10	20	Bailey Road	Signed as exits 20A (south) and 20B (north)
	Pittsburg	23.05	23	Railroad Avenue, Harbor Street
		24.32	24	Loveridge Road – Pittsburg
	Antioch	26.01	26	Somersville Road, Auto Center Drive	Signed as exits 26A (Somersville Road) and 26B (Auto Center Drive)
		26.94	27	L Street, Contra Loma Boulevard	Former exit 27A eastbound
		27.29	27B	G Street – Central Antioch	Closed; former eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R27.79	28	Lone Tree Way, A Street
		R28.94	29	Hillcrest Avenue
		31.13	30	SR 160 north – Rio Vista, Sacramento	Former SR 4 east; west end of bypass; westbound exit and eastbound entrance opened March 2016; SR 160 exits 1A-B
		R31.50	31	Laurel Road
	Brentwood	R32.90	33	Lone Tree Way
		​	34	Sand Creek Road
		​	East end of freeway
		​		Balfour Road	At-grade intersection; proposed interchange[25]
	​	​		Marsh Creek Road, Vasco Road – Concord, Livermore	East end of bypass
	​	43.97		Byron Highway, Marsh Creek Road – Brentwood	Byron Highway was former SR 4 west
	Byron	R44.37		CR J4 (Byron Highway) – Byron, Tracy
San Joaquin SJ 0.00-38.06	​	5.96		CR J2 (Tracy Boulevard) – Tracy
	Stockton	15.91 25.36[N 1]		I-5 south / Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (SR 4 Bus. east) – Tracy, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Angels Camp	Interchange; west end of I-5 overlap; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was former SR 4 east / Charter Way; SR 4 west follows exit 471
		​	West end of freeway on I-5
		26.19[N 1] R16.06	65A	I-5 north / Navy Drive – Sacramento	East end of I-5 overlap; no exit number eastbound; SR 4 east follows exit 472; Navy Drive serves Port of Stockton
		R16.62	66A	El Dorado Street / Center Street – Downtown Stockton	Serves Stockton Arena and Ballpark; no exit number eastbound
		R17.05	66B	Stanislaus Street – Downtown Stockton	Signed as exit 66 eastbound
		R17.71	67	Wilson Way (SR 99 Bus.)	Former US 50 / US 99
		R18.77	68A	Filbert Street	Signed as exit 68 westbound
		R19.44 18.68[N 2]	68B	SR 99 north – Sacramento	West end of SR 99 overlap; no exit number westbound; SR 4 west follows exit 254A
		18.15[N 2]	253	Main Street	Closed; former westbound exit only
		18.02[N 2]	253	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard	Closed; former interchange with no westbound exit; currently accessible via Golden Gate Avenue; former SR 26 west / Charter Way
	​	​	East end of freeway on SR 99
	​	17.50[N 2]		SR 99 south / Golden Gate Avenue / Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard – Fresno	Interchange; east end of SR 99 overlap; SR 4 east follows exit 252B
	​	​		Farmington Road (SR 4 Bus. west)	Former SR 4 west
	​	24.87		CR J5 (Jack Tone Road) – Lockeford, Ripon
	Farmington	33.10		CR J6 (Escalon-Bellota Road) – Escalon
Stanislaus STA 0.00-8.89	​	4.54		CR J14 (Milton Road) – Milton, Eugene
Calaveras CAL R0.00-R65.87	Copperopolis	R8.14		CR E15 (O'Byrnes Ferry Road) / Rock Creek Road – Copperopolis
	Angels Camp	R21.09		SR 49 / SR 4 Bus. east – San Andreas, Sonora
	​	​		SR 4 Bus. west – Angels Camp, Sonora	Former SR 4 west
	Vallecito	26.22		CR E18 (Parrots Ferry Road) – Moaning Cavern
Alpine ALP R0.00-31.68	​	3.89		SR 207 (Mount Reba Road) – Bear Valley Ski Area
	Bullion	31.68		SR 89 to US 395 – Markleeville, Monitor Pass	East end of SR 4
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

Angels Camp business route

State Route 4 Business
Location:	Angels Camp, California
Existed:	2013–present

State Route 4 Business is a locally maintained business loop within the city of Angels Camp, California. It was established in August 2013 to attract customers to businesses along the parent route's former alignment, prior to the completion of the Angels Camp Bypass. It runs along South Main Street (co-signed with State Route 49), between State Route 4 and Vallecito Road, then turns east along Vallecito Road.^[26][27]

See also

• California Roads portal

References

External links

Route map: Google

Wikimedia Commons has media related to California State Route 4.

• California @ AARoads.com – State Route 4
• Caltrans: Route 4 highway conditions
• California Highways: Route 4
• Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
• Scenic 4 - Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
• Cal-NExUS: Route 4