Interstate 280 (California)

Interstate 280
Southern Embarcadero Freeway, Southern Freeway, Junipero Serra Freeway, Sinclair Freeway
Route information
Maintained by Caltrans
Length	57.510 mi (92.553 km)
Existed	September 15, 1955 by FHWA July 1, 1964 by Caltrans–present
NHS	Entire route
Major junctions
South end	I-680 / US 101 in San Jose
Major intersections	I-880 in San Jose SR 92 near San Mateo SR 1 in Daly City
North end	6th Street, Brannan Street in San Francisco
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Future State highways in California Interstate US State Scenic History Pre‑1964 Unconstructed Deleted Freeways
← SR 275 → SR 281

Interstate 280 (I-280) is a 57 mile (92 km) long north-south Interstate Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It connects San Jose and San Francisco, running along just to the west of the cities of San Francisco Peninsula for most of its route.

I-280 from its beginning at King Street and Fifth Street in San Francisco to the James Lick Freeway is called the Southern Embarcadero Freeway. I-280 from the James Lick Freeway to its interchange with State Route 1 is called the Southern Freeway. I-280 beginning at its interchange with State Route 1 in Daly City was built and dedicated as the Junipero Serra Freeway. One of the dedication signs (in Daly City) still indicates that the Junipero Serra Freeway (actually a parkway for most of its length) is known as the World's Most Beautiful Freeway due to its scenic route though the San Francisco Peninsula. The portion of Interstate 280 between U.S. 101 and Interstate 880 is part of the Sinclair Freeway.

This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System.

Route description

In between San Jose and San Francisco, Interstate 280 passes through Santa Clara, Cupertino, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills before it settles along its scenic route just to the west of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County and just to the east of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I-280 re-emerges in a decidedly urbanized area in the city of San Bruno, passing through South San Francisco and Daly City before it runs across a southeastern swath of the city of San Francisco on the way to its northern terminus.

Major cities Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs
Sacramento (southbound; via I-680) San Jose Daly City (southbound) San Francisco (northbound)

A view of the scenic portion of Interstate 280

The segment of the Junipero Serra Freeway between Cupertino and Daly City, has been called the "World's Most Beautiful Freeway" since its dedication in the 1960s. Drivers along this portion of Interstate 280 are treated to scenic views of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and San Francisco Bay to the east, and are isolated by hills from the cities to the east. Through much of this segment, the freeway is actually running just inside the eastern rim of the canyon of the San Andreas Fault. A particularly attractive six mile (ten kilometer) stretch of the freeway from Hillsborough to Belmont provides a beautiful look at Crystal Springs Reservoir, formed by water piped hundreds of miles from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, filling the bottom of the fault canyon.

For nearly all of its length, Interstate 280 runs roughly parallel and several miles to the west of US 101 (the Bayshore Freeway). Both freeways are north-south routes connecting San Jose with San Francisco; however, unlike I-280, the route that US 101 takes between the two cities goes entirely through urbanized areas. The majority of the population of the San Francisco Peninsula lives somewhere between Interstate 280 and US 101.

I-280 never intersects with Interstate 80, its parent interstate. The northern terminus of I-280 is within about a mile of I-80's western terminus (at the approach to the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge), but the two interstates do not actually intersect. Although San Francisco has had several opportunities to connect I-280 to I-80, it has chosen to use the money for other purposes. Connecting the two freeways is considered to be politically and financially infeasible at this time, due to the city's strong anti-freeway stance. Instead, 280's northernmost extension primarily functions as a spur into Downtown San Francisco, as suggested by signage on northbound US 101 at its San Francisco interchange with 280 (see history section below).

Most of Interstate 280, from San Jose to Daly City, is designated as the Junipero Serra Freeway in honor of Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, who founded many of California's missions in the 18th century. A 26-foot (8 m) high faux-sandstone statue of Father Serra kneeling and pointing over the freeway is located at a highway rest area just north of the Highway 92 intersection between the Bunker Hill Drive and Black Mountain Road exits on northbound I-280 in Hillsborough, and can be clearly seen by drivers in both directions. The segment of Interstate 280 north of Route 1 in San Francisco was originally named the Southern Freeway, but has since recently been officially renamed the John F. Foran Freeway after John Foran a former California State Senator and Assembly member and current partner at law firm Nossaman LLP. However, no one ever calls it the John F. Foran Freeway; all San Franciscans still refer to it as the Southern Freeway. The section of I-280 between the James Lick Freeway and its end at 6th St. and King Street is called the Southern Embarcadero Freeway.

Major intersections include US 101 and State Route 1 in San Francisco, Interstate 380 in San Bruno, and Interstate 880 and 680 and US 101 in San Jose.

The Junipero Serra Freeway is Route 280 from Route 1 in San Francisco to Route 17, as named by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 140, Chapter 208 in 1967.

History

1955 map of the planned Interstates in the San Francisco Bay Area

Interstate 280 was added to the Interstate Highway System on September 15, 1955 as a route from San Jose north to San Francisco. This ran along the present alignment of I-280 south of San Francisco, but in San Francisco it ran north parallel to State Route 1, past the planned west end of Interstate 80 which would have been at the junction with the Panhandle Freeway just south of Fulton and Park Presidio, along what would have been the Park Presidio Freeway north to the south approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. At that point, I-280 would have met Interstate 480, which would have headed east on Doyle Drive (U.S. Route 101), the Golden Gate Freeway, and onto the Embarcadero Freeway to reach the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. I-480 would have continued south on the never-built section of the Southern Embarcadero Freeway from Folsom and the Embarcadero to 5th and King Street, then along the present Southern Embarcadero Freeway to meet the Southern Freeway (now I-280) near the Alemany Maze, which served as the 101A Bypass until I-280 was built. The I-280 number was approved on November 10, 1958.

In the 1964 renumbering, the Route 280 designation was officially applied to the planned route. This replaced SR 1 in San Francisco; the new SR 1 alignment turned northeast where I-280 now runs, quickly ending at State Route 82 (San Jose Avenue/Alemany Boulevard). SR 1 however continued to be signed along its former (and current) alignment, which had not been upgraded to freeway standards.

A realignment approved January 1968 took I-280 onto its current route. This ran along what had been SR 1, SR 82, State Route 87 and I-480 (downgraded to a State Route then), ending at Interstate 80 at the west end of the Bay Bridge. This change was made on the state level in 1968, restoring SR 1 to its current alignment and truncating SR 82, SR 87 and SR 480.

The I-280 is featured in the logo for the Maps function of the iPhone with the pointer at Apple Inc's headquarters in Cupertino, CA.

The section of I-280 between SR 92 (San Mateo) and SR 84 (Woodside) was not completed until the 1970s. Until then, traffic was routed on Cañada road between the two ends.

The short piece of I-280 between 3rd Street and SR 480 in downtown San Francisco was never built, and the piece from 5th Street south to U.S. Route 101 was reconstructed after it was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The piece between SR 480 and I-80 was torn down along with the rest of the Embarcadero Freeway; all that remains of the I-80 interchange is a few ramp stubs, which will be removed as part of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge Western Approach reconstruction project.

Exit list

Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

County	Location	Postmile	#	Destinations	Notes
Santa Clara SCL R0.00-20.63	San Jose	R0.00		I-680 north – Sacramento	Continuation beyond US 101
		R0.00		US 101 (Bayshore Freeway) – San Francisco, Los Angeles	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R0.37	1A	McLaughlin Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R1.29	1B	11th Street, 10th Street	Signed as exit 1 northbound
		R1.99	2A	To SR 82Module:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated	Signed as exit 2 northbound
			2B	Almaden Boulevard, Vine Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R2.52	3A	SR 87 (Guadalupe Parkway)
		R2.88	3B	Bird Avenue
		R3.76	4	Race Street, Southwest Expressway	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R3.99	4	Meridian Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		L4.66	5A	Leigh Avenue, Bascom Avenue
		L5.41	5B	I-880 north / SR 17 south – Oakland, Santa Cruz	Signed as exits 5B (south) and 5C (north) northbound
		4.57	6	Winchester Boulevard – Campbell	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		5.95	7	Saratoga Avenue – Saratoga
		7.12- 7.39	9	Lawrence Expressway (CR G2), Stevens Creek Boulevard
	Cupertino	8.38	10	Wolfe Road
		9.43	11	De Anza Boulevard
		10.74	12	SR 85 – Mountain View, Gilroy	Signed as exits 12A (north) and 12B (south)
	Los Altos	11.45	13	Foothill Expressway, Grant Road
		14.10	15	Magdalena Avenue
	Los Altos Hills	15.05	16	El Monte Road, Moody Road
		18.38	20	Page Mill Road, Arastradero Road – Palo Alto
		20.61	22	Alpine Road – Portola Valley
San Mateo R0.00-M27.42		R1.61	24	Sand Hill Road – Menlo Park
	Woodside	R3.34	25	SR 84 (Woodside Road) – Woodside
		R4.65	27	Farm Hill Boulevard
		R6.60		Canada Road	No exit ramps
		6.65	29	Edgewood Road
		10.87	33	SR 92 – San Mateo, Hayward, Half Moon Bay	Southbound exit to SR 92 west is via exit 34
		R12.32	34	SR 35 southModule:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated	South end of SR 35 overlap
	Hillsborough	R14.22	36	Black Mountain Road, Hayne Road
		R17.16	39	Trousdale Drive – Burlingame
	Millbrae	R17.92	40	Millbrae Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R18.52	41	Larkspur Drive, Millbrae Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	San Bruno	R19.28	41	SR 35 north (Skyline Boulevard) – Pacifica	North end of SR 35 overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R20.22	42	Crystal Springs Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; former SR 117
		R20.75	43A	San Bruno Avenue	Signed as exit 43B southbound
		R21.02	43B	I-380 east to US 101 – San Francisco International Airport	Signed as exit 43A southbound
		R21.31	43A	Sneath Lane	Signed as exit 43B southbound
	South San Francisco	R22.04	44	Avalon Drive	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; former SR 117
		R22.62	45	Westborough Boulevard	Northbound exit is via exit 44
	Daly City	R24.20	46	Hickey Boulevard – Colma, South San Francisco
		R24.63	47A	Serramonte Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R25.28	47B	SR 1 south – Pacifica	South end of SR 1 overlap; signed as exit 47 northbound
		R25.78	48	Eastmoor Avenue, Mission Street	Signed as exit 47 northbound
		M27.17	49A	Daly City, Westlake District (Junipero Serra Boulevard)	Signed as exit 49 southbound
		M27.17	49B	SR 1 north (19th Avenue) – Golden Gate Bridge	North end of SR 1 overlap; northbound left exit and southbound entrance
San Francisco SF R0.00-T7.54		R0.74	50	SR 82 to SR 1 north – Daly CityModule:Jct warning: "road" parameter is deprecated	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R1.77	51	Geneva Avenue, Ocean Avenue
		R2.70	52	Monterey Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R2.70	52	San Jose Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R3.28	53	Alemany Boulevard, Mission Street
		R4.34	54A	US 101 south (James Lick Freeway) – San Jose	Signed as exit 54 southbound
		R4.34	54B	US 101 north (James Lick Freeway) – San Francisco Civic Center, Bay Bridge	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R5.62	55	Cesar Chavez Street, 25th Street
		R6.60	56	Mariposa Street, 18th Street
		T7.54	57	Sixth Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		T7.26		King Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance

External links

• WestCoastRoads - Interstate 280