Interstate 680 (California)

Route description

The entirety of I-680 is defined in section 620 of the California Streets and Highways Code as Route 680, and that the highway is from:

This definition roughly corresponds with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)'s route logs of I-680.

I-680 begins at US 101 at the Joe Colla Interchange, where it acts as a continuation of I-280 eastward. From here, it begins its journey northward through San Jose, where it meets the Capitol Expressway, signed as County Route G21 (CR G21), about northeast of I-680's southern terminus. The next exit northbound is SR 130, which is also known as Alum Rock Avenue, unsigned at the intersection. As it continues through Santa Clara County, it meets numerous local roads before interchanging with the Montague Expressway (CR G4). Here, it exits San Jose and enters the city of Milpitas, where it meets SR 237, often referred to as Calaveras Boulevard. After one more intersection, I-680 exits Santa Clara County and enters Alameda County.

In Alameda County, the freeway begins in the city of Fremont, where it intersects SR 262, which was unsigned until 2000. Continuing through the city, it meets Mission Boulevard at SR 238 before exiting the city. Prior to 2002, two ghost ramps existed here, remains of an abandoned freeway project replacing Mission Boulevard. Amid Alameda County, it abruptly turns northeastward and enters a hilly area, where it crosses over Mission Pass, and descends into the Sunol Valley, where it runs concurrently with SR 84 for a short while. Afterward, it enters Pleasanton and intersects with I-580, currently California's longest auxiliary Interstate providing access to Oakland and the Central Valley. It enters Dublin for a short segment before exiting the county and entering Contra Costa County.

Upon entering Contra Costa County, the route meets numerous local roads through the cities of San Ramon, Danville, and Alamo before entering Walnut Creek, where it meets SR 24. I-680 then enters Pleasant Hill for a short time and Concord, where it meets SR 242. Upon exiting Concord, it meets SR 4. It then enters Martinez, where it follows the Benicia–Martinez Bridge over the Carquinez Strait, on which the route crosses the county line and enters Benicia in Solano County. On the Benicia–Martinez Bridge, I-680 northbound is tolled, while I-680 southbound is free. In Benicia, I-680 interchanges with I-780. It then exits the city and, after passing through rural areas, routing parallel to the San Joaquin Delta, it enters Fairfield, where it meets I-80, which is the route's northern terminus.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a US flag was painted on a large piece of concrete on a hill along the Sunol Grade. It stayed there for nine years before the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) painted it over, as the mural had been painted on without authorization.

Of the above names, only the name Sinclair Freeway for its designated portion usually appears on maps, and the other portions on maps are always unnamed, referred to as simply I-680.

I-680 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and 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 (FHWA). I-680 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System from the Santa Clara–Alameda county line to SR 24 in Walnut Creek but is only a scenic route from Mission Boulevard to the Contra Costa county line and from the Alameda county line to SR 24; this means that those portions are substantial sections of highway passing through a "memorable landscape" with no "visual intrusions", where the potential designation has gained popular favor with the community.

Tolls

Express lanes

There are two sections of High-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes along I-680: the Sunol Express Lanes and the Contra Costa Express Lanes.

The 14 mi southbound Sunol HOT lane along I-680 between SR 84 in Alameda County and through the Sunol Grade to SR 237 in Santa Clara County opened on September 20, 2010. The northbound HOT lane along roughly the same stretch, specifically between SR 84 and Auto Mall Parkway in Fremont, opened in October 2020 but initially as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes; tolling was halted on this segment of I-680 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in fall 2022.

The Contra Costa HOT lanes then opened in October 2017 in both directions on the portion from slightly south of Alcosta Boulevard near the Alameda–Contra Costa line to a point between Livorna Road and Rudgear Road near the Alamo–Walnut Creek city limits. On August 20, 2021, the southbound HOT lanes were extended north to Marina Vista Boulevard in Martinez.

, both HOT sections' hours of operation is weekdays between 5:00 am and 8:00 pm; they are otherwise free and open to all vehicles at other times. Solo drivers are tolled using a congestion pricing system based on the real-time levels of traffic. Carpools and motorcycles are not charged. All tolls are collected using an open road tolling system, and therefore there are no toll booths to receive cash. Each vehicle using the HOT lanes is required to carry a FasTrak Flex transponder with its switch set to indicate the number of the vehicle's occupants (1, 2, or 3+). Solo drivers may also use the FasTrak standard tag without the switch. Drivers without any FasTrak tag will be assessed a toll violation regardless of whether they qualified for free.

, there are environmental studies to also extend the northbound toll lanes from Livorna Road to Marina Vista Avenue, as well as closing the nine-mile express lane gap between Sunol and San Ramon. Neither have begun construction, nor are there any near plans to do so.

Benicia–Martinez Bridge

Main article: Benicia–Martinez Bridge#Tolling

Tolls are collected only for northbound traffic on the Benicia–Martinez Bridge headed to Benicia. All-electronic tolling is also used on the bridge, and they can be paid by either a FasTrak transponder or license plate tolling. The high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane leading to the bridge requires a car with three or more people.

History

Historic routing

By the 1920s, a road ran south from Martinez through Walnut Creek, Dublin, Danville, and Sunol to Mission San Jose, where it met Legislative Route 5 (Mission Boulevard, signed over the years as US 48, US 101E, SR 9, and now SR 238). It was not yet paved south of Dublin, where it crossed Mission Pass between the Sunol Valley and the San Francisco Bay basin. The majority of this roadway was added to the state highway system in 1933 as portions of several routes: Route 108 from Mission San Jose to Sunol, Route 107 from Sunol to Walnut Creek, and Route 75 from Walnut Creek to Pleasant Hill.

At Martinez, the Martinez–Benicia Ferry took automobiles across the Carquinez Strait to Benicia, where Route 7, one of the original state highways from the 1910 bond issue, led north and northeast past Fairfield toward Sacramento and Oregon. The portion north from Benicia to Fairfield became part of Route 74 in 1935, when Route 7 was realigned to the more direct American Canyon route that is now I-80. None of the aforementioned roads were given state sign route numbers in 1934, when that system was laid out, but, by 1937, they had been numbered SR 21. This route began at the intersection of Warm Springs Boulevard and Brown Road in Warm Springs, where Route 5 and Route 69 (SR 17) split, followed Route 5 along Mission Boulevard to Mission San Jose (this part later became a concurrency with SR 9), and then continued to US 40 (Route 7) at Cordelia. The routing was very close to the present I-680, following such roads as Pleasanton Sunol Road, San Ramon Valley Boulevard, Danville Boulevard, Main Street in Walnut Creek, Contra Costa Boulevard, and Pacheco Boulevard.

The portion of SR 21 between Pleasant Hill and Martinez was finally added to the state highway system in 1949, as a branch of Route 75. The ferry approach in Benicia became a spur of Route 74 in 1947, and, in 1953, it was transferred to Route 75. The same law, effective immediately as an urgency measure, authorized the Department of Public Works to acquire the ferry system, then operated by the city of Martinez, which was planning to shut it down. Ownership was transferred just after midnight on October 6, 1953.

History as an Interstate

The Bureau of Public Roads approved urban routes of the Interstate Highway System on September 15, 1955, including a loop around the San Francisco Bay, soon numbered I-280 and I-680. The east half (I-680) began at the interchange of US 101 north of Downtown San Jose and followed the Nimitz Freeway (SR 17/Route 69, now I-880) to the split at Warm Springs (the present location of SR 262), SR 21 to Benicia, and Route 74 (no sign route number) to I-80 in Vallejo. The first piece of I-680 freeway built, other than the preexisting Nimitz Freeway, was in the late 1950s, along the SR 24 overlap between North Main Street in Walnut Creek and Monument Boulevard in Pleasant Hill. A southerly extension, bypassing downtown Walnut Creek to South Main Street, opened on March 22, 1960, connecting with the SR 24 freeway to Oakland. In the next decade, the freeway was completed from Vallejo south to SR 238 at Mission San Jose, and the roadway north from Benicia to Fairfield, which became the only remaining piece of SR 21, was also upgraded to freeway standards.

In the 1964 state highway renumbering, the legislative designation was changed to Route 680. SR 17 was officially moved to former Route 5 between San Jose and Warm Springs, which had not had a signed designation since the Nimitz Freeway (then I-680) was constructed, but this was instead marked as part of SR 238 (which replaced SR 9 north of Mission San Jose), and SR 17 remained signed along the Nimitz Freeway. This was very short-lived, as the Bureau of Public Roads approved a shift in the south end of I-680 in October 1964. However, until I-680 was completed in the early-to-mid 1970s, Because the approximate 12.5 segment from Benicia to Fairfield was completed without federal Interstate funding when it was still SR 21, it is designated as a "non-chargable", Interstate.

Exit list

References

References

1. (December 31, 2021). "Table 2: Auxiliary Routes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways". [[Federal Highway Administration]].
2. {{Caltrans scenic
3. [[Google Maps]] street maps and [[USGS]] [[topographic map]]s, accessed February 2008 via [http://mapper.acme.com/ ACME Mapper]
4. "Section 620". California Office of Legislative Counsel.
5. (October 2006). "The United States". National Geographic.
6. "Google Maps".
7. "Google Maps".
8. Berton, Justin. (July 3, 2010). "Governor sorry about flag Caltrans painted over". San Francisco Chronicle.
9. {{CAFESystem
10. {{FHWA NHS map
11. {{FHWA NHS
12. {{CA scenic
13. {{Caltrans scenic
14. {{Caltrans scenic info
15. "I-680 Smart Lane". 680expresslane.org.
16. "I-680 Sunol Express Lanes". CalTrans.
17. (October 5, 2017). "Commuters confused about new express lanes coming to I-680". KGO-TV.
18. (July 7, 2021). "Southbound I-680 express lane from Martinez to Walnut Creek to begin toll operations Aug. 20".
19. "I-680 Contra Costa Express Lanes". CalTrans.
20. "I-680 Sunol Express Lanes". CalTrans.
21. "Invoices and Penalties". CalTrans.
22. "I-680 Northbound Express Lane Completion Project".
23. "Interstate 680 Express Lanes from State Route 84 to Alcosta Boulevard Project".
24. "Benicia–Martinez Bridge". CalTrans.
25. "High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) & Express Lanes Northern California Region". CalTrans.
26. [[Rand McNally & Company]], [http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~33782~1171498?id=1-1-33782-1171498&name=Denver++San+Francisco++Los+Angeles+ San Francisco and Vicinity], 1927
27. {{cite CAstat. (1933)
28. {{cite CAstat. (1935)
29. Howe & Peters, [https://books.google.com/books?id=G0w7AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3#PRA1-PA3,M1 Engineers' Report to California State Automobile Association Covering the Work of the California Highway Commission for the Period 1911-1920], pp. 11-16
30. {{cite CAstat. (1935)
31. Dennis, T.H.. (August 1934). "State Routes Will Be Numbered and Marked with Distinctive Bear Signs". [[California Highways and Public Works]].
32. ''[[Oakland Tribune]]'', classified ads, August 15, 1937: "one acre on Highway 21, south of Walnut Creek"
33. [[United States Geological Survey]], 1942 San Jose, 1940 Livermore, 1942 Mount Diablo, 1941 Concord, 1940 Carquinez Strait (scale 1:62500)
34. {{cite CAstat. (1949)
35. {{cite CAstat. (1947)
36. {{cite CAstat. (1953)
37. ''San Mateo Times'', State Set to Take Over Benicia Ferry, September 29, 1953
38. [[Bureau of Public Roads]], [[General Location of National System of Interstate Highways]], 1955: [[:Image:San Francisco, California 1955 Yellow Book.jpg. San Francisco]]
39. [[California Department of Transportation]], [http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hseb/products/state_highway_routes_selected_information_1995_revised.pdf State Highway Routes: Selected Information] {{Webarchive. link. (March 16, 2007 , 1994 with 1995 revisions, pp. 342, 348)
40. [[H.M. Gousha Company]], California, 1963
41. [[Oakland Tribune]], Lafayette Bypass to Slash Travel Time for Commuters, September 9, 1956: "With another freeway link now under construction northward from Walnut Creek to the Monument..."
42. [[United States Geological Survey]], Walnut Creek (scale 1:24000), 1959
43. [[Oakland Tribune]], Ceremony Salutes New Freeway Link, March 23, 1960
44. [[H.M. Gousha Company]], San Francisco, 1968
45. {{cite CAstat. (1963)
46. [[Oakland Tribune]], Highway 9 Has a New Number, April 19, 1964
47. The legislature changed the routes in 1965, swapping Route 17 and Route 680 south of Warm Springs and creating a new [[California State Route 262. SR 262]] on the short roadway at Warm Springs where they had [[Concurrency (road). overlapped]] to switch sides.{{cite CAstat. (1965)
48. {{cite CAstat. (1965)
49. {{Caltrans trucklist}}
50. {{Caltrans bridgelog. (July 2007)
51. [[California Department of Transportation]], [http://traffic-counts.dot.ca.gov/ All Traffic Volumes on CSHS], 2005 and 2006
52. (September 7, 2018). "Interstate 680 Freeway Interchanges". [[California Department of Transportation]].