California State Route 4
State Route 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 roughly parallels the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a popular area for boating and fishing, with a number of accesses to marinas and other attractions. After crossing the Central Valley, the highway ascends up the Sierra foothills. It passes through Ebbetts Pass and contains the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway, a National Scenic Byway.
Route description
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 road is an expressway from its starting point until it approaches Martinez, at which point it becomes a full freeway 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. Two gauges of BART tracks run in the median of the freeway from the Port Chicago Highway interchange in Concord to just east of the Hillcrest Avenue interchange in Antioch, where the light rail line currently ends at the Antioch station. 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 and outermost eastern suburbs ; and continues east across Victoria Island. 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 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. Pacific Grade Summit on its way up to the Ebbetts Pass and ends at State Route 89 ten miles west of Topaz Lake, on the California–Nevada border. Signage indicating that CA 4 continues up to Woodfords exists in Woodfords heading Westbound, including reassurance shields for both CA 89 and CA 4 on top of the mileage sign just south of town. Eastbound signage for CA 4 stops at the intersection with CA 89. 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 eventually single-track, 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.
SR 4 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and from just west of Stockton to SR 49 is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. SR 4 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System; however, it is only a scenic highway as designated by Caltrans from a point east of Arnold to SR 89, meaning that it is a substantial section of highway passing through a "memorable landscape" with no "visual intrusions", where the potential designation has gained popular favor with the community. SR 4 is also known as part of the John Muir Parkway from I-80 in Hercules to I-680 near Martinez, named for the environmentalist John Muir. The stretch through Franklin Canyon was once known as "Blood Alley".
History
Although segments of Route 4 had been part of the state highway system since 1909, Route 4 was officially designated as such between US Route 40 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.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 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.
In the 1970s, a significant portion of the Filipino American community of "Little Manila" in Stockton was demolished when the "Crosstown Freeway" was constructed, displacing what was once the largest population of Filipinos outside of the Philippines.
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. 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.
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 lane in each direction and auxiliary lanes between interchanges as far as the interchange with Route 160. The median accommodates the eBART extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit 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, 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. 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.
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 4 and widen it a short distance beyond the Balfour exit.
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.
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.
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.