A Section of Route 66 Restored!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Interstate Highway 15 has been undergoing new interchange construction in the Devore area in Southern California for several years. Yesterday I drove a section of the roads adjacent to the newly finished flyover at the intersection of I-15 and I-215 and discovered that the engineers had created a brand new section of highway that links a section of Route 66 that has been closed for a least a decade.

Here is a 22-mile map that includes this restored section of Route 66. The actual restored section is only about 4 miles long, but this makes for a very nice alternative to the usually congested I-15 section through the lower parts of the Cajon Pass.

To create this map, I used Frisbee Park in Rialto as the starting point and Cajon Junction (I-15 and CA-138) as the destination. Obviously, there are other ways to access this new road. The new road was constructed under the flyover where the new I-15 crosses the railroad tracks and the canyon and it joins into the closed section along the ridge just to the east of the Kenwood Avenue onramp. For more than a decade there was a gap from Kenwood Avenue on-ramp traveling east to the Glen Helen Parkway.



Direct link This is easier to see on many devices.

The one thing you need to know is that the road has now become a "race track" for young yahoos who like to drive this route at 80+ mph, so be forewarned...

Mark

[glc]

Looks to me like the gap was only about 2 miles, according to Streets and Trips.