Freeway Era : The Evolution From Slow Lanes to Fast Lanes

It is not such a long trip back in time to find North County before freeways.

According to Stuart Harvey, deputy district director for the California Department of Transportation in San Diego, it wasn’t until the late 1950s that the state adopted a freeway and expressway system. But in North County, many projects didn’t kick off until the mid to late 1960s.

Ron Main has spent the last 36 years working for the California Department of Transportation in San Diego. Over the years, Main has helped design, survey, construct and rehabilitate most of the county’s freeways. Because of his extensive firsthand knowledge, Main has assumed the unofficial mantle of Caltrans historian. The information that follows draws upon current and pre-freeway maps of North County and Main’s recollections.

Before freeways, what were the main highways?

Let’s travel back to circa 1935 when driving 30 m.p.h. was considered pushing the pedal to the metal. Before Interstates 5 and 15 were built, Highway 395 and Highway 101 (now known as Pacific Coast Highway) were the two main arteries from San Diego to the north.

Other key inland roads included Vista Way and Poway Road. California 78 provided Escondido residents with a rugged way to get to Ramona and Santa Ysabel, and further north, the two-lane Route 76 was the only way missionaries could get to the Pala Indian Reservation.

Where could you go on 395?

Almost everywhere. In its heyday, Old Highway 395 was a two-lane road that ran the full length of North County, starting in the center of San Diego and winding on into Riverside County. It was the road to take if you were going to Miramar, which was not yet developed, or to Poway, where you really did have to watch out for horses.

There was not a Mira Mesa, Rancho Penasquitos, Carmel Mountain or Rancho Bernardo. (Valley Center did exist, however, in case that’s where you wanted to go.)

From Escondido, Old 395 curved over to San Marcos and Vista before heading north to Bonsall, Fallbrook and Rainbow. Today, portions of Old 395 are still in use, such as the piece that runs past Lawrence Welk Village.

What was it like taking the 101?

On the coast, people traveled Old Highway 101, a four-lane road that offered a “suicide” or optional passing lane in certain places. During the war, motorists tended to drive at breakneck speeds--when conditions were just right, up to a giddy 50 m.p.h.

The highway earned the nickname “Blood Alley” because speeding motorists would lose control, veer off the road and crash into the eucalyptus trees along the route.

The average journey to Los Angeles from San Diego took about three to four hours on 101, Main recalls.

Even though the Marines had not yet landed at Camp Pendleton, and housing was concentrated primarily on Hill Street in Oceanside, there were things to look at on the drive north.

“It was a peaceful drive, that’s all there was to it,” recalls Main. “There were orange groves and farm land. My wife and I would drive to Los Angeles for a vacation. That was where all the excitement was.”

What about some of the inland roads?

Vista Way, which is still in use, provided a main thoroughfare for inland residents in the days before freeways.

“All along the old Vista Way route, there was virtually nothing else north or south of it, except for an occasional farm house, that was all,” Main said. “When we were staking the center line of Route 78 in the late 50s, there was nothing through there but corrals and pastures.”

Staying on Old Vista Way would take you to San Marcos, most noted for its numerous chicken farms, Main said. A little farther south, a motorist could see lined up alongside the road the packing sheds for the orange and lemon factories.

When were North County’s freeways built?

Construction on I-5 at Via de la Valle in Del Mar began in 1965 and was completed in 1972. It took seven projects to complete the stretch of I-5 in North County.

As a freeway, I-15 got its North County beginnings in 1965 with the first segment constructed from Miramar north to Poway. The final segment was completed at Rainbow in 1983. Prior to becoming an interstate, I-15 was built to expressway standards and got its beginnings in 1948.

Route 78 was crafted in 1954 as an expressway. The first segment began at I-5 and the final segment reached downtown Escondido by 1964. In 1971, Route 78 was converted to a full freeway.

Caltrans took over the two lane Route 76 rural road from the County of San Diego in 1933 when it was little more than a grade road slapped together in places with cold mix.

Route 76 today is a conglomeration of four-lane and two-lane roads built between 1951 and 1969. Plans call for widening and realigning 17 miles of 76 between I-5 in Oceanside and I-15 east of Bonsall, but it is not headed for freeway status.

The first 7-mile section will convert the two-lane conventional highway to a four-lane expressway from I-5 to North Santa Fe Avenue. The remaining 10 miles from east of North Santa Fe Avenue to I-15 calls for a four-lane highway with improved street access. The project is scheduled to be complete by 2007.

Any new freeways planned?

Caltrans has proposed a new freeway linking the coastal communities of Del Mar, La Jolla and North City West with the I-15 corridor communities of Penasquitos East, Carmel Mountain Ranch and Poway.

The project, called State Route 56, would be built at an estimated cost of $42.1 million. The first stage of construction, from a half-mile east of I-5 to a half-mile east of Carmel Country Road, is scheduled to begin this fall.