Interstate 880 (California)
Interstate 880 is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It runs from I-280 and State Route 17 in San Jose to I-80 and I-580 in Oakland, running parallel to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. For most of its route, I-880 is officially known as the Nimitz Freeway, after World War II fleet admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who retired to the Bay Area. The northernmost is also commonly referred to as the Cypress Freeway, after the former alignment of the freeway and its subsequent replacement.
Route description
The entirety of I-880 is defined in section 625, subdivision of the California Streets and Highways Code as Route 880, and that the highway is from "Route 280 to Route 80 in Oakland".In addition, section 325 subdivision, last amended by the California State Legislature in 2001, permits the state to relinquish the former right-of-way of Route 880 located along the now-demolished Cypress Street Viaduct between 8th and 32nd streets to the City of Oakland. The entirety of I-880 is considered a "non-chargeable" Interstate Highway according to the Federal Highway Administration 's route logs.
The southern terminus of I-880 is at its interchange with I-280 and SR 17 in San Jose. From there, it heads roughly northeast past San Jose International Airport to US Route 101. The Nimitz Freeway then turns northwest, running parallel to the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay, connecting the cities of Milpitas, Fremont, Newark, Union City, Hayward, and San Leandro before reaching Oakland. In Oakland, I-880 passes by Oakland International Airport, Oakland Coliseum, the Port of Oakland, and Downtown Oakland. The northern terminus of I-880 is in Oakland at the junction with I-80 and I-580, near the eastern approach of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
I-880 between I-238 in San Leandro and the MacArthur Maze is used as the main truck route; trucks over are prohibited through Oakland on I-580.
I-880 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. Officially, the Nimitz Freeway designation is Route 880 from Route 101 to Route 80, as named by Senate Concurrent Resolution 23, Chapter 84 in 1958.
Since the late 1990s, an infamous misconception for certain commuters and businesses in San Jose is that I-880 extends from I-280 to SR 85 in Los Gatos.
Express lanes
lanes along I-880 between the Milpitas–Fremont line at Dixon Landing Road and Lewelling Boulevard in San Lorenzo opened in October 2020. The southbound express lanes extend north to Hegenberger Road in Oakland and south to SR 237 in Milpitas., the HOT lanes' 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. Two-person carpools are charged 50 percent of the posted toll. Carpools with three or more people 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. 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.
History
The state legislature added the proposed San Jose–Richmond East Shore Highway to the state highway system in 1933, and it became an extension of the previously short Legislative Route 69, and part of Sign Route 13 in 1934. From San Jose, this route temporarily followed existing LRN 5 to SR 21 at Warm Springs and then continued along existing county roads and city streets, now known as Fremont Boulevard, Alvarado Boulevard, Hesperian Boulevard, Lewelling Boulevard, Washington Avenue, 14th Street, 44th Avenue, 12th Street, 14th Avenue, 8th Street, and 7th Street, into Downtown Oakland. It then turned north at Cypress Street, passing through the MacArthur Maze and following a newly constructed alignment to El Cerrito.The first short piece of the new Eastshore Freeway opened to traffic on July 22, 1949, connecting Oak Street downtown with 23rd Avenue. It was extended to 98th Avenue on June 1, 1950, Lewelling Boulevard on June 13, 1952, and Jackson Street on June 5, 1953. At the San Jose end, the overlap with Route 5 between Bayshore Highway and Warm Springs was bypassed on July 2, 1954. Within Oakland, the double-decker Cypress Street Viaduct opened on June 11, 1957, connecting the freeway with the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The Oakland segment was extended south to Fremont Boulevard at Beard Road on November 14, 1957, and the gap was filled on November 24, 1958, soon after the state legislature named the highway after Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. As these sections opened, Sign Route 17 was moved from its old surface routing, which mostly became local streets. Other than Route 5 south of Warm Springs, the portion from San Leandro into Oakland was also kept as part of Route 105.
Historic alignments
SR 17
Prior to 1984, the route known as I-880 used to be part of SR 17, which was US 48 from current I-238 to US 101 from 1926 to 1931, then US 101E from 1929 to the mid-1930s. SR 17 used to run from Santa Cruz all the way through San Jose, Oakland, and then continued north via the Eastshore Freeway through Richmond to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge and San Rafael.In 1984, the segment of SR 17 from I-280 in San Jose to the MacArthur Maze in Oakland was renumbered as I-880, and the portion of SR 17 from the MacArthur Maze to San Rafael was renumbered as part of I-580.
Nimitz Freeway
In 1947, construction commenced on a freeway to replace the street routing of SR 17 through the East Bay. The new freeway was named the "Eastshore Freeway", and, with the subsequent addition of a freeway to replace the Eastshore Highway north of the MacArthur Maze in the mid 1950s, it ran, appropriately, almost the entire length of the east shore of San Francisco Bay. In 1958, following a joint resolution of the California State Legislature, the portion south of the MacArthur Maze was renamed the Nimitz Freeway in honor of WWII Admiral Nimitz, while the portion to the north retained the name Eastshore Freeway. The formal dedication, with the participation of Admiral Nimitz, took place on August 12, 1958.Historic US 50 Bus.
The northern portion of I-880 was designated US 50 Business for a time between the I-80 interchange and Downtown Oakland.Original routing in Sacramento
From 1971 to 1983, I-880 was the original route designation for the Beltline Freeway, the northern bypass freeway for the Sacramento area. This freeway begins in West Sacramento as a fork from the original I-80, continues northeast over the Sacramento River to its interchange with I-5, continues east through the communities of North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights, and ends at an interchange with the Roseville Freeway. The now-designated Capital City Freeway was then the original I-80 routing, continuing southwest directly into Downtown Sacramento. I-80 was then rerouted along the Beltline Freeway in 1983, while the Capital City Freeway became I-80 Bus.Modern history
Cypress Viaduct and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
A large double-decker section in Oakland, known as the Cypress Street Viaduct, collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, causing 42 deaths; initial estimates were significantly higher, but, because many commuters on both sides of the bay had left early or stayed late to watch Game 3 of the San Francisco–Oakland World Series, the freeway was far less crowded than normal at the time of the quake.Due to environmental impact concerns, and the desire by the West Oakland community to reconnect the neighborhood with the rest of the city, among other reasons, a new route was selected along an industrial area and railroad yard around the outskirts of the neighborhood. Although only about in length, the replacement freeway cost over $1.2 billion, and did not open until 1997 for several reasons: it crossed over and under the elevated Bay Area Rapid Transit line to San Francisco; it squeezed between a postoffice, the West Oakland station, the Port of Oakland, a railyard, and an East Bay Municipal Utility District sewage treatment plant; it occupied an entirely new right-of-way, which required the acquisition of large amounts of valuable industrial real estate near the Port of Oakland; and it had to be earthquake resistant. Furthermore, a new interchange was constructed south of Grand Avenue, where ramps connect to I-80 west via a viaduct crossing the rail tracks and Grand Avenue, avoiding the MacArthur Maze completely; these ramps carry the hidden state designation of Route 880S. A new flyover exit ramp to I-80 east was also constructed to cross over the existing MacArthur Maze structure.
The former path of the Cypress Street Viaduct was then renamed Mandela Parkway, and the median where the freeway stood became a landscaped linear park.