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The Crosstown Freeway and Old Highway 30
Part 3: CA 30 from San Dimas
to Upland (Baseline, 16th St, Mountain Ave, 19th St, Haven Ave) |
![[Old 30 freeway in Glendora/San Dimas, 1972.]](../3072.gif "[Old 30 freeway in Glendora/San Dimas, 1972.]")
Between San Bernardino-western Muscoy and San Dimas, the original terminus of
CA 30 and today the terminus of CA 210 with I-210, not much of the original
route survives. Although the western end in Los Angeles county and western
San Bernardino county still exists, and in many places still has signage
remnants (postmiles in particular), there is now a large gulf where the old
highway used to be that the modern freeway now covers. Most of what is signed
Highland Avenue in western San Bernardino county
actually isn't, and is otherwise simply reconstructed frontage
road, with a few small discontinuous fragments of the old expressway in
Fontana just east of Interstate 15 that barely resemble the former route.
However, as of this writing, CA 30 is still a fairly well signed route within
Los Angeles county. Shields still exist in LaVerne and Claremont and
postmiles are reliably demonstrated all the way through Upland, so we will
grab these along the way as we try to close the loop this time from the west
end in.
At right is the former freeway terminus of CA 30 in Glendora-San Dimas, shortly
after its opening in 1972. Notice that even in those days, a full freeway was
proposed for its entire length. Only after its redesignation as Route 210,
of course, were these plans finally realized.
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Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210/CA 210) |
![[Threshold-gated image showing 30 damage beneath 210.]](30s.gif "[Threshold-gated image showing 30 damage beneath 210.]")
Technically, however,
CA 30's original freeway terminus is actually in Glendora despite
immediately entering San Dimas just east of it. This
T-interchange was constructed in 1970 and originally connected CA 30 on the
east with I-210 to the west and south, designated the Foothill
Freeway (this designation is still in use for Route 210
but seems to be discouraged on new signage). In those days, I-210 dove down
almost due south to I-10 where it co-terminated with CA 71 and CA 57 -- you
can see that on the 1972 map above, where I-210 shields are on both the south
leg and the west leg.
Today I-210 remains on the west leg of the T, but the east leg is now
CA 210, of course, and the south leg is the extension
of CA 57 which was brought north when Route 210 was swung east onto CA 30
(a couple postmiles
(67K) still survived until lately).
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No CA 30 shields remain on the interchange itself, but there is glue damage
where 30 digits were taken down and replaced with 210s. One example is still
up at Lone Hill Avenue, hanging from the overpass. Immediately from the
photograph it's obvious that the 210 is not button copy and the rest of
the sign is, but the bigger prize occurs on threshold-gating analysis showing
a ghostly 30 behind the 210 (above left).
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Transitioning from I-210 to CA 210. This is the only remaining mark of CA
30 on the interchange proper today.
Hint: look at the pylon, not the bridge postmile.
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Foothill Blvd exit.
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Until the construction of the 1970 stub freeway, CA 30 simply connected
street-to-street with US 66/CA 66 (we'll get to this terminus in a second).
After the freeway was built,
it ended just past this point at the Foothill Blvd exit, so we'll exit here.
This is the terminus of CA 66, the official remnant of US 66 in California
running between San Dimas and San Bernardino, but it is not signed from
the freeway and is in fact fairly badly signed in general (a combination of
benign neglect, gradual decommissioning of intracity alignments
and souvenir hunters walking off with trophies).
That hasn't stopped the cities old US 66 runs through from putting
up their own historic route shields, of course. For US 66 in San Bernardino,
see Old Highway 395 Part 15.
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Foothill Blvd (Old CA 30/Old US 66) |
It appears, but is not clear, from the current Caltrans bridge log (in this
case for District 7) that CA 30 until its annihilation took over the portion
of Foothill Blvd/old US 66 between "itself" on Baseline and the CA 30 freeway
after US 66 was decommissioned and replaced with CA 66 internally in 1964.
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At the interchange now stands guide signage for CA 210, but the CA 210 is an
obvious coverplate for an I-210 shield lurking beneath.
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Trailblazers for CA 30 as we go just north of the freeway
to Baseline Road.
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Nevertheless, it's all about US 66, even the Denny's.
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Turning right onto Baseline Rd. Notice the yellow truck advisory sign.
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The 30 trailblazer is so old it doesn't even have PROPERTY STATE OF CALIFORNIA
decals, but amazingly as of June 2020 still survives!
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There are no postmiles on this portion, or indeed any portion in the county
of Los Angeles.
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Entering city limits of LaVerne. The reason for the truck advisory is the
residential streets this section of CA 30 travels.
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EB Baseline Rd.
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Junction Emerald Ave.
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Baseline sweeps around a little to cross over the hill towards Claremont.
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Passing a very pretty old community greenspace as we leave LaVerne.
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Claremont city limits.
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Looking back at LaVerne is a CA 30 reassurance shield just beyond the city
limit marker.
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There are still (relatively) new state Adopt-a-Highway signs up.
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EB old CA 30, with a state-erected reassurance shield. This section of
CA 30 across Live Oak Canyon is a very old road dating back to 1914.
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Down into the valley, Baseline turns into this very nicely landscaped
divided boulevard.
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EB old CA 30.
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Junction Indian Hill Blvd.
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Mills Avenue. The guide sign at the right says "please."
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Monte Vista Avenue as we approach the CA 210 freeway and the San Bernardino
county line.
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Junction CA 210, also coverplated. The U-turns on the ramps screw the
cardinal directions up somewhat; we are still heading nearly due east.
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We reach the San Bernardino county line (and Upland city limits) unheralded
without specific signage,
except now we start seeing postmiles. While this section of old CA 30 is
today completely unsigned (the old sign at the end at Haven Ave is now gone),
the postmiles are still up and mark the route nearly precisely.
For continuity I am using mostly old, less optimal photography from 2005
in this section. Although the general route is unmolested, there were
subsequent signage changes
which are somewhat confusing within the city of Upland, including several
key signs which are now gone. I apologize for the poorer quality of the
following images, but they give a better feeling of the old highway.
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First postmile.
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Just shortly after we enter Upland, Baseline changes names to 16th Street.
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And shortly after that, CA 30 turns north on Mountain Avenue.
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At the time
some old enamel signage survived on this section, and still looked pretty
darn good. A 30 postmile sits besides it (PM 1.50).
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This old-design "Emergency Parking Only" reflects CA 30's original expressway
and freeway aspirations, as (for those not familiar with California freeways)
this is the standard wording for such signs on freeway shoulders.
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19th St. We turn right.
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This is just shy of the junction with CA 210;
Mountain Avenue continues on north of CA 210 and Upland
city limits, maintained by the county, as the main access route to the
Mount Baldy ski resorts. We saw Mt Baldy in the distance from CA 18 in
Part 2.
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PM 2.50.
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Notice that the STOP AHEAD sign assembly is state-erected
(the property decals). This section is quite narrow, very close to houses,
and would seem totally unsuitable for large trucks. Caltrans thinks so too;
we'll get to that in a bit.
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Junction CA 83 (here unsigned) at Euclid Avenue.
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CA 83 is one of the remaining historic
urban expressways in Southern California that haven't been molested by a
nearby freeway corridor or otherwise decommissioned, running from Chino
Hills and CA 71 through Ontario to Upland. In the days of CA 30,
this was its northern terminus; after the construction of the CA 210 freeway
it was administratively lengthened to CA 210 despite community opposition to
the construction of an interchange. Thus, to this day, CA 83 simply ends
"in space" as it crosses the Interstate, although Euclid Avenue continues
on (now just as a city street) to meet up with Mountain Avenue to the ski
slopes.
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Older enamel signage (with an unusual turn arrow) peering over the top of
this fascinating stone drainage channel.
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Between CA 83 and Carnelian Avenue, 19th St has been significantly
altered due to the new shopping area construction. This bears no
relationship to old CA 30 and is hazardous to shoot along, so I have
simply skipped it. If you navigate the several turns you need to make to
stay on 19th St, your reward is this postmile (PM 5.0, here functioning as a
reassurance shield, almost) wired unceremoniously to this lightpole.
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PM 7.50, the last one along this section, as we approach Haven Avenue.
Notice that back then CA 210 was barely signed, but I-10 was signed
prominently; now that CA 210 is complete and in wide use, this
situation has nearly totally reversed.
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For many years after CA 30 was decommissioned,
the only shield left along this portion was this one, at the corner of
19th and Haven. It is now gone.
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As we look back west down old CA 30 on 19th St, we see the bookend
truck signage, except this one is a full restriction, not just an advisory.
This is undoubtedly due to the narrow sections of 19th St through those
residential neighbourhoods we saw. We turn north on Haven towards the freeway,
which is barely a block north of us.
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Haven Avenue
From here our next connection would have been Highland Avenue itself, which
we left the other end of way back in Part 1. Today,
that's been overrun by the CA 210 freeway, which we immediately intersect.
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Getting on CA 210 EB.
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During its construction, the CA 210 freeway (built first as CA 30, of
course) ended just a few miles east of Interstate 15. The old signage was
repurposed and remained up for awhile with various grotty changes.
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Old End Freeway Ahead overlays at the I-15 junction circa 2005.
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To change these
overhead signs from CA 30 to CA 210, the button copy was simply ripped off
and replaced with yellow overlays, along with a weird 2-digit shield with
CA 210 crammed into it.
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After CA 210 was completed through to San Bernardino, the yellow warning
overlays came off around 2008,
but for some period of time nothing replaced them.
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I think even without me posting the threshold-gated version, the ghosts
of a 30 shield, EAST (tacked on to the left over the fugly 210) and
"San Bernardino" as the control city should be pretty easy to see.
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From here, there's nothing much left of the old road until we get back
to Highland Avenue at the San Bernardino city limits.
Long live CA 210 (until it doesn't). Rest in pieces, CA 30.
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