State Route 16 (SR 16) is a state highway in the northern region of the U.S. state of California that primarily crosses the Sacramento Valley. It consists of two discontinuous segments. The western segment runs from SR 20 in Colusa County to Interstate 5 (I-5) in Woodland. The eastern segment then runs from U.S. Route 50 (US 50) in Sacramento to SR 49 just outside Plymouth in Amador County. The gap in SR 16 through Sacramento can be transversed along I-5 and US 50.

Route description Route 16 is defined in section 316, subdivision (a), of the California Streets and Highways Code. The definition omits the gap in the route in the Sacramento area:

Route 16 is from: (1) Route 20 to Route 5 near Woodland via Rumsey and Woodland. (2) Route 50 near Perkins to Route 49 near Drytown.

In addition, section 316, subdivisions (b), (c), and (d) permit the state to relinquish control of portions of Route 16 in the City of Sacramento, unincorporated Sacramento County, and the City of Rancho Cordova, respectively, to local jurisdictions.

SR 16 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and the eastern segment is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. SR 16 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System, but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). It is known as the Stanley L. Van Vleck Memorial Highway from Dillard Road in Sacramento County to the Amador County line, honoring a former prominent leader in the state's agricultural organizations.

Western segment SR 16 begins in Colusa County near Wilbur Springs at the junction with SR 20. SR 16 goes south alongside Bear Creek, which enters a narrow canyon and joins with Cache Creek near the Yolo County line. The highway continues in the canyon, running close to the river, passing Cache Creek Canyon Regional Park, and emerging from the canyon north of Rumsey. This section is so prone to rock slides that there are permanent gates at each end.

SR 16 continues to parallel Cache Creek, at a greater distance, going south-east through Capay Valley, with Blue Ridge to its west and the Capay Hills (including Bald Mountain) to its east. It goes through Rumsey, Guinda, Brooks, Cache Creek Casino Resort, Capay, Esparto (intersecting with County Route E4 [CR E4] to Dunnigan), and Madison.

East of Madison, and now in the Central Valley, SR 16 interchanges with I-505 before heading east toward Woodland. In west Woodland, it merges with County Road 22 and then turns north, concurrently with CR E7 and I-5 Business, until it meets its interchange with I-5, where its western segment ends.

Eastern segment The eastern segment begins at US 50, heading southbound on Howe Ave for a very short distance, then runs eastbound on Folsom Boulevard. SR 16 then peels off from Folsom Boulevard, less than afterward as Jackson Road. After it passes near Sloughhouse and Rancho Murieta, where it crosses the Cosumnes River, SR 16 enters Amador County. SR 16 then ascends into the Sierra Nevada foothills, leaving the Central Valley. In Amador County, SR 16 passes near Forest Home before intersecting with SR 124 and terminating at SR 49.

History

The two ends of SR 16 were added to the state highway system by the third bond issue, passed by the state's voters in 1919: Route 50 from Lower Lake east to Rumsey and Route 54 from the Sacramento-Amador County line east to Drytown.: "Rumsey to Lower Lake"; "county line near Michigan Bar via Huot's ranch to Drytown" Each was connected to Sacramento by existing or planned paved county highways.Ben Blow, California Highways: A Descriptive Record of Road Development by the State and by Such Counties as Have Paved Highways, 1920 (Archive.org or Internet Archive), pp. 115-116, 206-207, 284-285 Although the exact alignment of Route 50 was not specified, the state Department of Engineering had already surveyed a 35-mile (56 km) route through Cache Creek Canyon pursuant to a 1915 law, which defined the Yolo and Lake Highway "following generally, the meanderings of Cache creek" but did not make it a state highway.Department of Engineering, Fifth Biennial Report of the Department of Engineering of the State of California, December 1, 1914, to November 30, 1916, 1917, pp. 185-186 By 1924, the California Highway Commission's engineers had realized that building Route 50 through the canyon was impractical, and adopted a substitute plan for two highways connecting Lower Lake and Rumsey with the planned Route 15 (Tahoe–Ukiah Highway, now SR 20) to the northCalifornia Highway Advisory Committee and Arthur Hastings Breed, Report of a Study of the State Highway System of California, California State Printing Office, 1925, p. 91 in September 1925.Oakland Tribune, Highway Commission Lays Plans for Building Lake Connection, September 6, 1925Fresno Bee, Route Follows Lake Shore, September 27, 1925 The western connection, to Lower Lake, became part of Route 49 (now SR 53 there), which continued south from Lower Lake to Calistoga.

Each route was extended to Sacramento in 1933 over the aforementioned county highways, taking Route 50 southeast from Rumsey to Woodland near Cache Creek and then alongside the Sacramento River to the I Street Bridge, and Route 54 west from the county line to Route 11 just outside Sacramento.: "State Highway Route 50 near Rumsey to State Highway Route 7 near Woodland." "Woodland to Sacramento." "State Highway Route 11 near Perkins to State Highway Route 54 near Michigan Bar.": "Route 50 is from Route 15 to Sacramento via Rumsey and Woodland." "Route 54 is from Route 11 near Perkins to Drytown, passing near Michigan Bar and via Huot's Ranch." The entirety of both routes, from SR 20 near Wilbur Springs through Sacramento to SR 49 just north of Drytown (and initially overlapping SR 49 to Jackson), was included in the initial state sign route system in 1934 as Sign Route 16. Through downtown Sacramento, SR 16 followed US 40 (Legislative Route 6) and US 50 (Legislative Route 11), mostly on Capitol Avenue, while Legislative Route 50 continued south on 5th Street (later a one-way pair of 3rd and 5th Streets) and turned east on Broadway, carrying Sign Route 24 most of the way to Freeport Boulevard.Division of Highways, Sacramento, 1944Division of Highways, Sacramento, 1963

In the 1964 renumbering, Route 16 became the new legislative designation,: "Route 16 is from: (a) Route 20 to Route 5 near Woodland via Rumsey and Woodland. (b) Route 5 near Woodland to Sacramento. (c) Route 50 near Perkins to Route 49 near Drytown." and Sign Route 24 through Sacramento was replaced with SR 99 and SR 160. As neither of these used what had been Sign Route 24 along 3rd and 5th Streets and Broadway, part of Route 16's new definition ("Route 5 near Woodland to Sacramento") was used for several years on this alignment until it became part of SR 99 later that decade. This left the western segment of SR 16 ending at I-5 near the east end of the I Street BridgeDivision of Highways, Annual Traffic Census: 1964, 1966, 1968 until 1984, when the Woodland–Sacramento portion, which had become redundant with the parallel I-5 complete, was deleted from the legislative definition. After this, SR 16 was rerouted from the intersection with CR E7 to continue north on a bypass of Woodland instead of east to I-5.

On September 15, 2014, Assembly Bill No. 1957 was passed, authorizing relinquishment of the segment of SR 16 in Eastern Sacramento near US 50.

Major intersections

See also

References

External links

AARoads - State Route 16 California Highways: SR 16