hope you saw my friend kevon cottrell’s band, ‘blame it on the dog’, playing on spruce street during the pumpkin festival. i do miss that part of hmb — had a booth [stained glass, of course] in the early days. nostalgia hits me again when i see photos of the old rupert taylor building — used to stand on the upper veranda outside my ‘vision quest studio’ space
Here is a followup article about the San Pedro road modernization and realignment from the June 1937 issue of “Highways and Public Works.” that I sent you previously. It appeared in the December 1937 issue.
OCEAN SHORE HIGHWAY JOB IS COMPLETED
On Armistice Day November 11th, 1937, one of the most difficult highway construction projects, and probably the most important section of the so called, “Ocean Shore Highway,” between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, was opened to public travel.
District Construction Engineer E. G. Poss, in an article appearing in the June 1937, issue of this magazine, briefly described the nature of, and a few of the construction problems on this project. Accompanying the referred-to article was a sketch map showing the alignment, and a photograph of the former county road with its 250 curves, and 42.2 complete circle-turns in its 10.6 miles of length, with a total rise and fall of 2,409 feet.
The importance of this portion of the Ocean Shore Highway, commonly referred to as the “Pedro Mountain” section, was aptly portrayed by the twenty-eight curves involving only 3.8 circle turns and 1,225 feet of rise and fall of grade in the new 5.9 miles covered in this construction project.
TIME AND DISTANCE SAVED
The savings of 4.7 miles in distance does not truly reveal the convenience afforded the traveling public afforded by this new road. The former road, in practically its entire length, gave no sight distance to the motorist, who, in averaging fifteen miles per hour, throughout the entire length, was making good progress. The highway will permit progress throughout its entire length speeds averaging close to the legal speed limit of 45 miles per hour, and will effect a saving in travel time more then one-half hour to all motorists destined to south of Farallone City.
This highway will therefore assume great importance, not only as a recreation road between San Francisco and the beaches and redwood-covered slopes of the Santa Cruz Peninsula, but also an market artery in the transportation of truck garden, dairy, and stock-raising products of the rich agricultural area centering around the coast towns of HalfMoon Bay, Pescadero, Tunitas and San Gregorio.
SCENIC HIGHWAY
The scenic nature of the new highway is portayed by the cover-page photograph on this magazine, which shows it to be comparable in this respect to the newly-opened Carmel-San Simeon scenic coast route.
From a construction standpoint, the project involved one and one-half million cubic yards of roadway excavation, or an average of one-quarter million cubic yards per mile. These quantities include approximately 700,000 cubic yards of material removed outside the original typical roadway section, principally slides occurring at the famous “Devil’s Slide” on Pedro Mountain, near the center of the project. Some daylighting of small cuts was included at vantage points, to give the motorist full advantage of the marine view, and to increase the sight distance as a safety precaution.
Rubble masonry walls played an important part in retaining the roadbed at control points on the steep mountain slopes. These were constructed in preference to concrete walls, due to the availibility of rock, from the standpoint of economy of construction, and also to keep the nature of the improvement in line with the scenic features of the rugged coast country traversed. Approximately 700 feet of lineal rubble masonry parapet walls were constructed on top of the masonry rubble retaining walls supporting the roadbed, a job itself. As is so common in the north coast section of northern California, where all formations have been shaken and disturbed in earthquakes in the past, providing stability of the roadbed calls for the solution of more difficult problems in the construction of large fills then it does in excavating the material from large cuts. The present project presented a problem in the construction of a fill approximately 85 feet depth at the centerline, involving approximately 100,000 cubic yards of material in place.
Within a length of 400 feet along the roadway, it was necessary to strip approximately 4,000 cubic yards of unstable top soil, and to excavate trenches twelve feet in width, and up to 20 feet of depth, involving approximately 12,000 further cubic yards of excavation.
These trenches, consisting of one transverse, two longitudinal, and one diagonal ditch, explored the natural drainage courses of a number of underground springs, and were led into one outlet trench and backfilled with large rock placed directly on the supporting rock, to insure the free drainage of the entire area beneath this important fill. Approximately 9,000 cubic yards of rock were placed in these trenches prior to the starting of construction on this fill.
Another special construction problem of providing a stable roadway was presented at a location where the typical section lay almost entirely in excavation. The roadway section, for approximately 150 feet in length, was trenched into the mountain side, but the slopes down the roadway were so steep and were of such unstable material that it was considered necessary to excavate to a maximum depth of up to 40 feet below grade on the lower side, to trench the mountain slopes and carefully rebuild the fill to grade, entirely out of large rock anchored into a stable portion of the mountainside.
In spite of all the precautions taken from an engineering standpoint to provide a stable roadway, as free as possible from major slides both in cut and fill sections, it is anticipated that considerable trouble will be experienced by our maintenance forces in the next two or three winters, in keeping the roadway clear of minor slides and the natural sloughing of material from the steep mountain slopes.
The maximum slide occurring on this project during construction broke on a point about 600 feet (measured horizontally) and approximately 500 feet (mesured vertically) from the grade of the roadbed. At this same point, the roadbed is approximately 330 feet above the ocean waters, with a slope below the road to the ocean.
Granfield, Farrar, and Carlin were the contractors, H.A. Simard was the resident engineer for the State on this project.
This article appeared in the September, 1941 issue of “California Highways and Public Works.”
“A portion of the trail blazed by Gaspar de Portolo (sic) and his cavalcade of well over half a hundred men on his first land exploring expedition in 1769, has, after a period of 172 years, been transformed into a modern highway. A day’s journey of 10 to 15 miles made by Portolo, (sic) from one camp to the next, can now be made in as many minutes.
A new link in the Ocean Shore Highway, State Sign Route No. 1, extending 8.8 miles from Pescadero to San Gregorio in San Mateo county, constructed over new right of way, has replaced twelve miles of old, narrow road composed of a series of blind vertical and horizontal curves.
The old road had a maximum grade of 8.8 percent, 233 curves with a minimum radius of 50 feet and a total of 9,219 degrees of curvature. The new highway has a maximum grade of 7 percent, 19 curves with a minimum radius of 625 feet, and a total of 621 degrees of curvature.
This new unit in the progressive modernization of the Ocean Shore highway between San Francisco and Santa Cruz has a graded roadbed of 36 feet, surfaced with a two-lane plant mix pavement 22 feet wide and penetration oil shoulders laid on local select material and crusher run base.
It was necessary to construct two new bridges in connection with the highway project, one over Pescadero Creek, one over San Gregorio Creek. Both bridges are of continuos reinforced concrete girder design.
The Pescadero Creek bridge consists of six 43 foot spans and two 33 foot six inch spans on concrete bents on steel piles varying in length fron 25 to 50 feet.below the concrete bent footings.
The San Gregorio Creek bridge is made up of three 59 foot spans and two 44 foot spans on concrete bents also founded on steel piles varying in length from 25 to 40 feet below the concrete bent footings.
The completion of this section of highway opens to the public a new playground of sandy beaches for picknicking, bathing, and surf fishing.
The State Administration through the Division of Highways and County of San Mateo, working in conjunction have acquired title to miles of beautiful beaches, including the far-famed Sna Mateo County Pebble Beach, which have been made accessible for free public recreation.
The project was set up under two contracts, one for the highway work and one for the bridges; the highway work under District IV forces, and the bridges by the Bridges Department. N. M. Ball Sons of Berkeley were the contractors on the highway section and the Campbell Construction Company of Sacramento was the bridge contractor.
The project was financed by funds budgeted by the California Highway Commission, including Federal Aid, and by Joint Highway District No. 9, composed of the San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
Dedicatory ceremonies were held on August 17, at the Pescadero Creek Bridge. State, County and Joint Highway District officials took part in the ceremonies in which Deputy Director of Public Works Keaton represented Governor Olson and Director Frank W. Clark. A short program of speech making preceded a barbeque served in Pescadero under the auspices of the Pescadero Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Progress in the construction of the Ocean Shore Highway has progressed steadily under the co-operative efforts of the State and the Joint Highway District.
The highway has been constructed to modern standards between a connection with Junipero Sierra Boulevard at the south city limits of San Francisco to Moss Beach via Thornton, where it crosses Skyline Boulevard, Edgemar, and Rockaway Beach.
Improvement in Santa Cruz County has been accomplished through two contracts between one and one and a half miles miles south of Davenport and Waddell Creek.
The most spectacular project was the elimination of the notorious Pedro Mountain grade by the construction of the six-mile section between Farallone City and Rockaway Beach.
Story by Peter Adams
TIME AND DISTANCE SAVED
The scenic nature of the new highway is portayed by the cover-page photograph on this magazine, which shows it to be comparable in this respect to the newly-opened Carmel-San Simeon scenic coast route.
Rubble masonry walls played an important part in retaining the roadbed at control points on the steep mountain slopes. These were constructed in preference to concrete walls, due to the availibility of rock, from the standpoint of economy of construction, and also to keep the nature of the improvement in line with the scenic features of the rugged coast country traversed. Approximately 700 feet of lineal rubble masonry parapet walls were constructed on top of the masonry rubble retaining walls supporting the roadbed, a job itself. As is so common in the north coast section of northern California, where all formations have been shaken and disturbed in earthquakes in the past, providing stability of the roadbed calls for the solution of more difficult problems in the construction of large fills then it does in excavating the material from large cuts. The present project presented a problem in the construction of a fill approximately 85 feet depth at the centerline, involving approximately 100,000 cubic yards of material in place.
Another special construction problem of providing a stable roadway was presented at a location where the typical section lay almost entirely in excavation. The roadway section, for approximately 150 feet in length, was trenched into the mountain side, but the slopes down the roadway were so steep and were of such unstable material that it was considered necessary to excavate to a maximum depth of up to 40 feet below grade on the lower side, to trench the mountain slopes and carefully rebuild the fill to grade, entirely out of large rock anchored into a stable portion of the mountainside.
The maximum slide occurring on this project during construction broke on a point about 600 feet (measured horizontally) and approximately 500 feet (mesured vertically) from the grade of the roadbed. At this same point, the roadbed is approximately 330 feet above the ocean waters, with a slope below the road to the ocean.
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