Route information | ||||
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Maintained by Caltrans | ||||
Length | 40.455 mi [1] (65.106 km) | |||
Existed | 1934–present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
West end | US 101 in Ventura | |||
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East end | I-5 at the Castaic Junction-Santa Clarita border | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | California | |||
Counties | Ventura, Los Angeles | |||
Highway system | ||||
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State Route 126 (SR 126) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The route runs from U.S. Route 101 in Ventura to Interstate 5 at the Castaic Junction-Santa Clarita border through the Santa Clara River Valley. The highway is an important connector highway in Ventura County, and serves as an alternate route into the Santa Clarita Valley, and (via Interstate 5) the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles and the High Desert of Antelope Valley.
SR 126 generally follows the Santa Clara River through the valley, passing through the towns of Fillmore and Santa Paula. The freeway portion of the highway, known as the Santa Paula Freeway, begins in Ventura at U.S. Route 101. It proceeds northeast through the city, interchanging with the western end of SR 118 at a grade-separated interchange. SR 126 then passes through areas of agriculture, orchards, and the Saticoy Oil Field to its northeast, continuing through Santa Paula, where it intersects SR 150, and the freeway portion terminates at Hallock Drive. SR 126 continues as a highway thereafter, known as Telegraph Road. This section extends through Fillmore as Ventura Street, where SR 126 meets SR 23. Following this, SR 126 as Telegraph Road encounters the community of Buckhorn, as well as the edge of Piru and the important historical Rancho Camulos. [2]
The stretch of SR 126 between Santa Paula and the Los Angeles County line has seen an unusually high amount of traffic fatalities and other injurious accidents. Head-on collisions were very frequent on the older, curvy, two-laned sections, earning this portion of the road its nickname, "Blood Alley". An article from the Los Angeles Times in 1996, noted 34 fatalities between 1990 and 1994. [3] Though the highway has since been improved in most areas, traffic fatalities are still quite common. [4]
In Los Angeles County, SR 126 is known as Henry Mayo Drive. The highway continues east to an interchange with I-5. At this interchange the SR 126 designation terminates, and the road continues into Santa Clarita as Newhall Ranch Road. [5]
SR 126 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, [6] and is part of the National Highway System, [7] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. [8] SR 126 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System, [9] but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the California Department of Transportation. [10]
In 1958, the freeway was originally planned to follow the northern banks of the Santa Clara River, connecting US 101 to US 99 (I-5 today) and US 6 (SR 14 today) through what is now Santa Clarita. In the mid-1960s, construction of the 4-lane freeway began immediately northeast of Oxnard at US 101 and immediately east of Santa Clarita at US 6.
In the face of anti-development pressure from Ventura County citizens, and suffering from severe financial problems as a result of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and the late-1970s California tax revolt, Caltrans abandoned its plans. The freeway, which by then had reached Santa Paula, terminates at a four-way intersection immediately east of the city. From there, a 4-lane undivided highway continues on toward I-5. The eastern approach of SR 126 was abandoned midway through the interchange's construction at SR 14. Two long on-ramps and a large graded plateau are all that remain of the approach.
The only remnants of these plans are the two long ramps to and from SR 14 at the Sierra Highway interchange (exit 6A) in Santa Clarita, and Newhall Ranch Road, a six to eight-lane divided local road that continues from the current terminus of SR 126 at Interstate 5 and roughly follows the original 1958 route to just past Bouquet Canyon Road on the north side of the Santa Clara River. Newhall Ranch Road changes to Golden Valley Road 1.75 miles east of Bouquet Canyon Road, and continues to SR 14, roughly one mile south of the original planned terminus of SR 126.
The 1984 Summer Olympics Organizing Committee was allowed to close the freeway portion between Ventura and Santa Paula for cycling practice for the 100 Kilometer Team Trials on two consecutive Thursdays. [11]
On March 27, 2010, the City of Santa Clarita completed the decade-long Cross Valley Connector (CVC) [12] project, which sought to connect SR 126 directly to SR 14 roughly along the original route alignment. The city-maintained route is named Newhall Ranch Road on the western segment, and Golden Valley Road on the eastern segment. The two segments meet at the intersection of Newhall Ranch Road and Golden Valley Road, where Golden Valley Road turns and continues northeast.
In 2017, Caltrans began construction along the 1.75-mile (2.82 km) eastern end of SR 126, upgrading the 6-lane divided highway to an 8-lane freeway. A new interchange replaced the traffic signal at Commerce Center Drive. [13] The interchange is sequentially numbered as exit 13, as exit 12 is 27 miles (43 km) away in Santa Paula near the eastern end of the Santa Paula Freeway section of SR 126. It is the only known instance of a sequential numbered exit in California. If the state's normal exit numbering system had properly been applied, Commerce Center Drive should have been numbered as exit 39 instead, as it is approximately 39 miles (63 km) away from SR 126's western terminus.
Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers to an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary ( ). [1] Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.
County | Location | Postmile [1] [14] [15] | Exit [16] | Destinations | Notes |
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Ventura VEN 0.00-R34.63 | Ventura | 0.00 | 1A | US 101 north (Ventura Freeway / SR 1 north) – San Francisco | No direct access to US 101 south; west end of SR 126; US 101 north exit 66A, south exit 66 |
0.00 | 1B | Main Street (US 101 Bus.) | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; former US 101 | ||
1.45 | 1C | Victoria Avenue to US 101 south (Ventura Freeway / SR 1 south) | Signed as exit 1 eastbound | ||
2.80 | 3 | Kimball Road | |||
R5.03 | 5 | SR 118 east (Wells Road) – Saticoy | Western terminus of SR 118 | ||
| R8.91 | 9 | Briggs Road | ||
Santa Paula | R10.38 | 10 | Peck Road | ||
R11.37 | 11 | Palm Avenue | |||
R12.04 | 12 | SR 150 west (10th Street) – Santa Paula | Eastern terminus of SR 150 | ||
R13.25 | East end of freeway | ||||
Fillmore | 21.14 | SR 23 south (A Street) – Moorpark | Northern terminus of SR 23 | ||
Los Angeles LA R0.00-R5.83 | | R4.33 | West end of freeway | ||
| R4.89 | 13 | Commerce Center Drive | ||
| R5.46 | 40 | Castaic Junction (The Old Road) | Closed interchange; former US 99; accessible via exit 13 | |
| R5.60 | East end of freeway | |||
Santa Clarita | R5.83 | I-5 (Golden State Freeway) – Los Angeles, Sacramento | Interchange; east end of SR 126; I-5 exit 172 | ||
R5.83 | Newhall Ranch Road | Continuation beyond I-5; connects to SR 14 via Golden Valley Road | |||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At 656 miles (1,056 km), it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Montana Highway 200. SR 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) near Dana Point in Orange County and its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 101 (US 101) near Leggett in Mendocino County. SR 1 also at times runs concurrently with US 101, most notably through a 54-mile (87 km) stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.
State Route 91 (SR 91) is a major east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves several regions of the Greater Los Angeles urban area. A freeway throughout its entire length, it officially runs from Vermont Avenue in Gardena, just west of the junction with the Harbor Freeway, east to Riverside at the junction with the Pomona and Moreno Valley freeways.
State Route 22 is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County. It runs between Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach and the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange by way of Garden Grove. The westernmost part of SR 22 runs along Long Beach's 7th Street. From West Garden Grove to its eastern terminus in Orange, it is known as the Garden Grove Freeway. It is one of the two principal east–west routes in Orange County.
The Santa Ana Freeway is one of the principal freeways in Southern California, connecting Los Angeles and its southeastern suburbs including the freeway's namesake, the city of Santa Ana. The freeway begins at its junction with the San Diego Freeway, called the El Toro Y, in Irvine, signed as I-5. From there, it generally goes southeast to northwest to the East Los Angeles Interchange, where it takes the designation of U.S. Route 101 (US 101). It then proceeds 2.95 miles (4.75 km) northwest to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles. Formerly, the entirety of the route was marked as US 101 until the 1964 highway renumbering, which truncated US 101 to the East Los Angeles Interchange and designated the rest of the freeway as I-5.
The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route through the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley. It is considered one of the most important freeways in the history of Los Angeles and instrumental in the development of the San Fernando Valley. It is the second oldest freeway in Los Angeles. From its southern end at the Four Level Interchange to its intersection with the Ventura Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley, it is signed as part of U.S. Route 101. It is then signed as State Route 170 north to its terminus at the Golden State Freeway.
The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California, United States, that runs from the Santa Barbara/Ventura county line to Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is the principal east–west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. From the Santa Barbara County line to its intersection with the Hollywood Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, it is signed as U.S. Route 101 (US 101), which was built in the late 1950s and opened on April 5, 1960. The segments from the Santa Barbara County line to Sea Cliff, and from Solimar Beach to Oxnard, are also concurrent with State Route 1 (SR 1), although no signs mention SR 1 there. East of the Hollywood Freeway intersection, the Ventura Freeway is signed as State Route 134 (SR 134), which was built by 1971.
State Route 14 (SR 14) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects Los Angeles to the northern Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Granada Hills and Sylmar just immediately to the south of the border of the city of Santa Clarita. SR 14's northern terminus is at U.S. Route 395 (US 395) near Inyokern. Legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to SR 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles; however, the portion south of the junction with I-5 has not been constructed. The southern part of the constructed route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, and Lancaster to the rest of the Greater Los Angeles area. The northern portion, from Vincent to US 395, is legislatively named the Aerospace Highway, as the highway serves Edwards Air Force Base, once one of the primary landing strips for NASA's Space Shuttle, as well as the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake that supports military aerospace research, development and testing. This section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most of SR 14 is loosely paralleled by a rail line originally built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was once the primary rail link between Los Angeles and Northern California. While no longer a primary rail line, the southern half of this line is now used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system.
State Route 58 is a major east-west state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs across the Coast Ranges, the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains, which border the southern Sierra Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. It runs between U.S. Route 101 near Santa Margarita and Interstate 15 in Barstow. It has junctions with Interstate 5 near Buttonwillow, State Route 99 in Bakersfield, State Route 202 in Tehachapi, State Route 14 near Mojave, and U.S. Route 395 at Kramer Junction. SR 58 also provides access to Edwards Air Force Base. At various points it is known as the Calf Canyon Highway, Carrisa Highway, Bakersfield-McKittrick Highway, Rosa Parks Highway, Westside Parkway, Barstow-Bakersfield Highway, Bakersfield Tehachapi Highway, Kern County Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, and Mojave-Barstow Highway.
State Route 99 (SR 99) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California, stretching almost the entire length of the Central Valley. From its southern end at Interstate 5 (I-5) near Wheeler Ridge to its northern end at SR 36 near Red Bluff, SR 99 goes through the densely populated eastern parts of the valley. Cities served include Bakersfield, Delano, Tulare, Visalia, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Turlock, Modesto, Manteca, Stockton, Sacramento, Yuba City, and Chico.
State Route 60 (SR 60) is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California. It serves the cities and communities on the eastern side of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and runs along the south side of the San Gabriel Valley. It functions as a bypass route of Interstate 10 (I-10) through the area between the East Los Angeles Interchange in Los Angeles and Beaumont. SR 60 provides a route across several spurs of the Peninsular Ranges, linking the Los Angeles Basin with the Pomona Valley and San Gabriel Valley. The highway also runs concurrently with SR 57 and I-215. Portions of SR 60 are designated as either the Pomona Freeway or the Moreno Valley Freeway.
State Route 2 (SR 2) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Los Angeles Basin with the San Gabriel Mountains and the Victor Valley in the Mojave Desert. The highway's southwestern end is at the intersection of Centinela Avenue at the Santa Monica-Los Angeles border and its northeastern end is at SR 138 east of Wrightwood. The SR 2 is divided into four segments, and it briefly runs concurrently with U.S. Route 101 (US 101) and Interstate 210 (I-210). The southwestern section of SR 2 runs along a segment of the east–west Santa Monica Boulevard, an old routing of US 66, to US 101 in East Hollywood; the second section runs along segments of both the north–south Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park; the third section to I-210 in Glendale is known as the north–south Glendale Freeway; and the northeastern portion from I-210 in La Cañada Flintridge to SR 138 is designated as the Angeles Crest Highway.
State Route 118 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs west to east through Ventura and Los Angeles counties. It travels from State Route 126 at the eastern edge of Ventura immediately northwest of Saticoy, then through Saticoy, in Ventura County east to Interstate 210 near Lake View Terrace in Los Angeles. SR 118 crosses the Santa Susana Pass and the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley along its route.
State Route 23 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects the Pacific coast and the Santa Monica Mountains to the Conejo and Santa Clara River valleys. It runs from Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in Los Angeles County to Ventura Street in Fillmore in Ventura County.
A vast network of interconnected freeways in the megaregion of Southern California serves a population of over 23 million people. The Master Plan of Metropolitan Los Angeles Freeways was adopted by the Regional Planning Commission in 1947 and construction began in the early 1950s. The plan hit opposition and funding limitations in the 1970s, and by 2004, only some 61% of the original planned network had been completed.
State Route 71 (SR 71) is a 15-mile (24 km) state highway in the U.S. state of California. Serving Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties, it runs from SR 91 in Corona to the Kellogg Interchange with I-10 and SR 57 on the border of Pomona and San Dimas. The segment from SR 91 to SR 83 in Chino Hills is called the Corona Freeway, formerly the Corona Expressway and before then the Temescal Freeway. SR 71 is designated as the Chino Valley Freeway between SR 83 and the Kellogg Interchange.
State Route 33 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs north from U.S. Route 101 in Ventura through the Transverse Ranges and the western side of the San Joaquin Valley to Interstate 5 at a point east of Tracy. SR 33 replaced part of U.S. Route 399 in 1964 during the "great renumbering" of routes. In the unincorporated sections of Kern County it is known as the West Side Highway. In addition, the California Legislature designated the entire Kern County portion as the Petroleum Highway in 2004. The southernmost portion in Ventura is a freeway known as the Ojai Freeway, while it is known as the Maricopa Highway from Ojai to Maricopa.
State Route 150 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs from U.S. Route 101 near the Ventura/Santa Barbara County line to State Route 126 in Santa Paula, providing a connection to Lake Casitas and Ojai. It is a two-lane road. There were some one-lane bridges near the western end of the route, but these were rebuilt as two-lane bridges after flooding in 2005.
U.S. Route 101 (US 101) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway, stretching from Los Angeles, California, to Tumwater, Washington. The California portion of US 101 is one of the last remaining and longest U.S. Routes still active in the state, and the longest highway of any kind in California. US 101 was also one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of US 101 between the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area follow El Camino Real, the commemorative route connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions.
Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Coast between the Mexican border and the Canadian border. The segment of I-5 in California runs across the length of the state from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego to the Oregon state line south of the Medford-Ashland metropolitan area. It is the longest interstate in California at 796.77 miles (1,282.28 km), and accounts for more than half of I-5's total length of 1,381.29 miles (2,222.97 km). It is also the second longest stretch of Interstate Highway with a single designation within a single state after I-10 in Texas.
The Newhall Pass interchange is a highway interchange at Newhall Pass in Southern California, United States. It is south of the city of Santa Clarita and north of the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Granada Hills and Sylmar. It connects Interstate 5 with California State Route 14. It is officially named in the memory of Los Angeles Police officer Clarence Wayne Dean, who was killed when he was unable to stop before going over a collapsed section of the interchange immediately following the 1994 Northridge earthquake.