(Sacramento) and Bus. I-80/CA 99

The WB entrance ramp from 5th St. (Exit 4B) features a gantry with button copy on the left (top) and right (bottom).


Advance signs along 15th St. approaching Business I-80 Exit 5, left and right sides of the same monotube gantry. No love for CA 99 or US 50 here, and there should be a "WEST" before the Bus. I-80 shield.


The omission continues at the 15th St./W St. WB entrance. This is also I-305, but that is supposed to remain hidden.


Signing is consistent along X St. to the EB entrance although it omits all the routes.

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Eastbound


I'm not knocking old signs, but why are US 50 and Bus. I-80 signed South instead of East? It's because US 50 goes to the city of South Lake Tahoe. Sorry, no hidden US 99 shield. The 2nd and 3rd photos are the left and right sides of the same gantry, and the last is down the (Exit 4A) ramp.


The first two photos are again left and right on the same gantry. Don't make me shrink my button copy. The last one is a rare error for I-80 instead of Business I-80. While Bus. I-80 was actually mainline I-80 until 1983, when it was moved onto the northerly bypass (previously I-880), this sign is the newer generation that was likely installed at or after that time. (I-305 came into being to keep an Interstate designation on the road, but only the east-west part; the rest is substandard and was dropped from the system.)


The first photo is on Business I-80 alone, the only time that happens, as it follows a ramp around the US 50/CA 99 interchange. The second photo is on the freeway from CA 99 NB to Bus. I-80 EB. Since CA 99 also turns here, the N/S mainline has no posted number, but secret CA 51 is assigned to follow it from here north and along Bus. I-80.


The font on that exit sign. I just can't. The last photo had the gantry in the middle cut out to preserve the sign size. I also compressed the gantry in the 4th photo for that reason.


On through the most substandard part of the CA 51 freeway; Bell St. is Exit 12B and Fulton Ave. is Exit 12C, which tells you how close together they are. Exit 12A is a right-in/right-out for Howe Ave. that is barely more than an intersection. If you're seeing a lot of Auburn Blvd., that's because it parallels the freeway from Marconi Ave. on. The Watt Ave. SB exit (14A) uses Auburn Blvd. to get to Watt.


The dedicated Auburn Blvd. exit marks the end of Bus. I-80 as it merges into its parent. The exit is a brief freeway, secret CA 244 (see link at bottom), which was once planned as a northeastern bypass around Sacramento. I squeezed the gantry in the 2nd photo for your enjoyment.

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Westbound


The last photo looks west along the American River at the parallel railroad bridge.


Here's where Bus. I-80 exits itself from CA 51 to US 50 (and picks up CA 99). It is now signed as Exit 6A from itself, making hidden CA 51 the primary route.


Bus. I-80/US 50/I-305 WB bid goodbye to CA 99 NB at what's now Exit 4A. (See why I-305 is hidden?) This should not be "to" CA 99. For clarity of button copy presentation, I broke one gantry into the 2nd and 3rd photos (left/right) and squeezed it just a tad in the last photo. I think this all dates to the 1983 move of I-80 off of this freeway.

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(Exit 4A or 6A) to CA 99 alone
Onto parent I-80

(Exit 3) to Jefferson Blvd., CA 84
(Exit 4A) to I-5
(Exit 9B) to CA 160
(Exit 14C) to secret CA 244
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