Orange County Branch Newsletter

December 2012

History and Heritage

Depression Era Introduction to Highway Engineering


By: Carl Nelson, P.E.

In the 1940s the Nelson family's idea of a vacation was a weekend in Vista, California where  Uncle Emil & Aunt Olga’s family had moved many years after arriving in LA from Sweden in the ‘20s. This was a 120 mile drive from our “modern” home in rural San Fernando Valley. The route followed Sepulveda Blvd. (State Highway SR 7 if I correctly recall) to Manchester Avenue & Firestone Blvd. (US 101), then all the way through Downey, Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano to Oceanside. Turning east at Vista Way we drove to the “The Town Flagpole”, and continued on US 395 to Delpy’s Corner at Foothill Dr., then Warmlands Ave. to uncle’s “Rocky Knoll” chicken ranch and newly planted avocado grove.

Whew! This was a 4-hour ordeal (including roadside pee stops) in the late model ‘35 Hupmobile.  Lots of interesting stuff for 10 year old Carl; horn-honking in the Santa Monica Mountains tunnel, viewing rows of Veterans Cemetery crosses at Wilshire Blvd., maybe an airplane coming in to Clover Field, sometimes an ESPEE steam engine pulling freight alongside Manchester in Anaheim and occasionally a Santa Fe “San Diegan” steaming south next to the three-lane highway between San Clemente and Oceanside. The three lane section gave an early object lesson to me; the purpose of the dashed lane line permitting passing of slower vehicles (at your own risk). Nicknamed “Blood Alley”, this road would be expanded to a fourth lane by the time I began driving.

A navigation lesson learned on these trips was how to interpret the criss-crossed wooden black-on-white wooden directional signs at intersections. Would you believe that in those days the clearest directional signs included the logo of Auto Club of Southern California who sponsored the sign installation until State Division of Highways took over directional signing? Heady-stuff for 10 year old Carl; especially the right/left/right turns where 101 wends down Main & First Streets in Santa Ana and El Camino Real through Tustin.

On another trip to Vista with Mom and Dad I learned the “Coast Route” where southbound Sepulveda (SR 7) merged with Pacific Coast Highway (Alt. US 101) continuing through the beach cities to Oceanside. The advantage of  this route was the widening to 4 lanes, justified by popularity of Southern California’s beaches. On the other hand, weekend beach traffic suggested the inland 101 route could be more expeditious.

One summer I was invited to an overnight visit in Inglewood with elderly Grand Aunt Mathilda. The following day I would help Uncle John navigate his late model ’40 Buick Coupe down to “the farm”. Ah, the old folks never got lost with me! What an adventure; because the Buick had a radio we actually heard the announcement of VE Day on a Sunday afternoon in August 1945!

One of the depression-era highway engineering concepts was the “Traffic Circle” at the intersection of PCH and Lakewood Blvd. This was one of the otherwise confusing multi-point intersection improvements which allowed the flow of traffic with no stop signs, but requiring derring-do navigation, merging seamlessly with oncoming vehicles and right-turn-only exiting. 70 some years later, the “Circle”, located west of Cal State Long Beach, remains functional.

After a grand day in the country, feeding free-range chickens, collecting eggs and dining on “chicken fricassee”, the return home after dark was very tiring due to heavy traffic on the mostly two lane road through Orange County.

An exciting engineering innovation of the era was the Galivan Overhead where 101 widened to three lanes, offering a traversable median where aggressive drivers might pass slower vehicles. Due to a steep northbound gradient approaching the bridge, under-powered vehicles would have to down-shift to second gear, then race into the passing lane carefully avoiding southbound vehicles having the same ambition.

 

A 1959 aerial photo shows the I-5 construction nearing completion at Galivan. The old bridge would survive a series of  structural repairs caused by slope instability not recognized in 1928.  It was removed immediately after I-5 was opened in 1960.

Southerly of the above photo and re-named Camino Capistrano, the former 101 pavement serves as a long dead-end cul de sac. To improve urban traffic circulation, the cities of Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel have been reviewing old County of Orange studies for a new version of the Galivan Overhead, hopefully at a nearby location absent the instability of the old bridge site!

 

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