Junipero Serra Boulevard

Infobox road
state=CA
highway_name=Junipero Serra Boulevard
maint=Caltrans and local governments

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length_mi=7.1
length_ref=
length_round=1
history=Built ca. 1908-ca. 1952; state highway 1956-1965; bypassed by Serra Fwy. ca. 1971
direction_a=South
terminus_a=jct|state=CA|I|280 in South San Francisco
junction=jct|state=CA|SR|1 in Daly City
direction_b=East
terminus_b=Sloat Blvd. in San Francisco

Junipero Serra Boulevard is a major boulevard in and south of San Francisco. Within the city, it forms part of the route of State Route 1, the shortest connection between Interstate 280 and the Golden Gate Bridge. The remainder, in San Mateo County, has been bypassed or replaced by I-280, the Junipero Serra Freeway, and now serves mainly local traffic. The boulevard was one of several new roads built along the San Francisco Peninsula before the age of freeways, and became a state highway (Route 237) in 1956, receiving the State Route 117 designation in the 1964 renumbering, only to be deleted from the state highway system the next year. Two other such highways - Bayshore Highway and Skyline Boulevard - have also been upgraded into or bypassed by freeways.

Route description

Serra Boulevard begins at exit 44 (Avalon Drive) of I-280, and travels north along the east side of I-280 as a four-lane divided highway with minimal intersections, just east of the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula that Skyline Boulevard (SR 35) travels atop. The median ends when it crosses Hickey Boulevard; the portion of Hickey Boulevard east from Serra Boulevard to El Camino Real (SR 82) was built as part of that portion of Serra Boulevard to the north. The boulevard continues northwards with occasional intersections, some with access to I-280, before crossing to the west side of I-280 just north of Washington Street in Daly City and back to the east side north of School Street. At John Daly Boulevard, Serra Boulevard crosses I-280 for the final time and becomes part of SR 1; the northbound lanes simply cross over I-280, merging with the ramp that carries SR 1 from I-280 onto the boulevard, but southbound traffic must pass under Daly Boulevard, exit and loop over the bridge it just passed under, and then turn right onto Serra Boulevard.Google Maps street maps and satellite photography and USGS topographic maps, accessed January 2008 via [http://mapper.acme.com/ ACME Mapper] ]

Just beyond Daly Boulevard, Serra Boulevard enters San Francisco as a six-lane highway, expanding to eight lanes after the interchanges with Alemany Boulevard and Brotherhood Way. SR 1 soon turns off to the northwest onto 19th Avenue, with three lanes making the turn in each direction and six (three in each direction) remaining on the boulevard. The final section of Serra Boulevard has frontage roads for local access, and is planted with trees between the main and frontage roadways. At Ocean Avenue, the K Ingleside line of the San Francisco Municipal Railway enters the median, remaining there until the boulevard ends several blocks later at St. Francis Circle. At this five-way intersection, Sloat Boulevard heads west, St. Francis Boulevard east, Portola Drive northeast, and West Portal Avenue north-northeast, taking the rail line to the Twin Peaks Tunnel.

History

Soon after the 1906 earthquake, the city of San Francisco built an "automobile boulevard" from the end of the existing Corbett Avenue (now Portola Drive) at Ocean Avenue [United States Geological Survey, [http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=histopo&item=brk00000135_10a.sid&wid=600&hei=500&style=generic/view.xsl&plugin=true San Mateo] (scale 1:62500), 1899] south past the Ingleside Race Track to the county line, where it continued to School Street in Daly City (then part of Colma). [August Chevalier, [http://www.davidrumsey.com/detail?id=1-1-3334-330001 The "Chevalier" Commercial, Pictorial and Tourist Map of San Francisco] , 1915] At the north end, it connected with Parkside Boulevard (now Sloat Boulevard) and Dewey Boulevard. [P.F. Collier and Son, [http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/1907m/hm07.htm New World Atlas and Gazetteer: San Francisco] , 1907] The city Board of Supervisors named the new boulevard after Junípero Serra in 1908. [Journal of Proceedings, Board of Supervisors, City and County of San Francisco, [http://books.google.com/books?lr=&id=P9QbAAAAIAAJ&q=%22serra+boulevard%22+-ferries&pgis=1#search v.3:2, p. 700] : Bill No. 605, Ordinance No. 522 (New Series), entitled, "Naming the boulevard extending across the Rancho De La Merced from Ocean avenue to the County Line, 'Junípero Serra Boulevard'".]

San Francisco and San Mateo County formed Joint Highway District No. 10 on September 4, 1928 to fund and construct an extension of the boulevard south to Burlingame. An improvement of the existing road north of School Street was completed in 1930; an extension continued the roadway to Edgemar Road (now Eastmoor Avenue) in the early 1930s, and in 1933 it reached El Camino Real (US 101, now SR 82) in South San Francisco. To the south, Santa Clara County opened a section of the planned road past Stanford University on July 11, 1932. [Oakland Tribune, July 4, 1932] (This was never connected to the remainder, though a route that would incorporate Alameda de las Pulgas was proposed. [San Mateo Times, February 14, 1930] ) Construction continued at the San Mateo County end, opening to Sneath Lane in 1940 and Crystal Springs Road in the early 1950s; a planned continuation to Millbrae Avenue was never built.Division of Highways, Tenth Annual Report to the Governor on the Activities of the Division of Highways for the Year July 1, 1955, to June 30, 1956, pp. 122-123] Three grade separations were built along the road: two (built ca. 1950 and still present) at Brotherhood Way and Alemany Boulevard in San Francisco [United States Geological Survey, [http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=histopo&item=brk00000315_10a.sid&wid=600&hei=500&style=generic/view.xsl&plugin=true San Francisco South] (scale 1:24000), 1956] and a third (built by 1947 ) at Washington Street in Daly City. [United States Geological Survey, [http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=histopo&item=brk00000313_10a.sid&wid=600&hei=500&style=generic/view.xsl&plugin=true San Francisco South] (scale 1:24000), 1947] The total cost of the road between the city line and Crystal Springs Road was over $3 million, with over half the money normally coming from San Francisco. [California State Archives, [http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf9c6006kk&doc.view=entire_text&brand=oac Inventory of the Department of Public Works, Division of Highways, Joint Highway District 10 Records] (description of contents), accessed January 2008]

A 1956 law transferred the extension, from the south junction with Alemany Boulevard (now John Daly Boulevard) south to Crystal Springs Road, to the state as State Highway Route 237, and dissolved the joint highway district. (From Daly Boulevard north into San Francisco, Serra Boulevard was already a state highway, part of Route 56 (SR 1).) [cite CAstat|year=1956|ex=1|ch=63|p=454: "Route 237 is Junipero Serra Boulevard as it exists and as it was constructed by Joint Highway District No. 10 from its junction with State Highway Route No. 56 in Daly City, to the present terminus of said highway in the City of San Bruno."] The stub connection to El Camino Real was turned over to the city of South San Francisco to maintain as Hickey Boulevard.

By 1955, a Junipero Serra Freeway was planned, beginning at the Park Presidio Freeway near the south end of 7th Avenue, tunneling under Golden Gate Heights, and heading south into San Mateo County via Serra Boulevard. [San Francisco Department of City Planning, , [http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=histopo&item=brk00000316_10a.sid&wid=600&hei=500&style=generic/view.xsl&plugin=true San Francisco South] (scale 1:24000), 1956 (photorevised 1968)] A short stub near Crystal Springs Road is now ramps connecting I-280 with Cunningham Way.

Major intersections

This list includes the portion south of Avalon Drive that has been replaced by I-280.

References