It’s often said that Fresno is the largest city in the U.S. that isn’t directly served by an interstate highway. So why is that? Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of Highway 99 and Interstate 5.
In 1926 the federal government began rolling out a system of national numbered highways. U.S. Route 99 was one of the first such roads. In the San Joaquin Valley it followed the path of an earlier state highway, along today’s Union Pacific railroad. But it was far from the freeway we know today. Route 99 and was filled with cross traffic and stops all along its route.
In the years after the Second World War the federal government launched the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, better known as the Interstate Highway System. The goal was to have a nationwide network of controlled access highways that were built to a consistent standard.
When it was time to choose the route for what would become Interstate 5 though the San Joaquin Valley, the state had to make a choice: Upgrade U.S. 99 to interstate status, as they did in Los Angeles, or take a new route – the proposed Westside Freeway.
They chose the latter, but why? The Westside freeway offered a shorter route between LA and the Bay Area. Also, the planning and development of Interstate 5 was done in coordination with construction of the State Water Project and the California Aqueduct, which has a similar route. Plus upgrading the existing highway through valley cities would have been expensive and disruptive. In the late 1960's U.S. Route 99 was decommissioned and was renamed California’s Highway 99.
