I-980  California (link)

2.03 miles [1]; from I-880 to I-580 in Oakland. The freeway continues northeast as CA 24.

History

Interstate 980's roots reach back to the 1950s. In 1959, the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Plan included a six-mile "Grove-Shafter Freeway" following the current 980-24 corridor (with the same incomplete interchange at the Nimitz Freeway). [2] Grove Street (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Way [5]) and Shafter Street paralleled the proposed freeway.

Construction began in 1964, but a lawsuit helped delay completion of the freeway until 1985. [6] When it opened, it was signed CA 24 for a few years before I-980 signs went up. [3]. Officially, however, the route between the Nimitz Freeway and I-580 gained Interstate status on January 29, 1976. [4]

Some plans for the Southern bay Crossing have had I-980 as a terminus.

A vital backup for collapsed I-880

I-980 became a crucial East Bay link on October 17, 1989, when the Loma Prieta quake collapsed the double-decked Cypress portion of I-880. That highway reopened on a new alignment in 1997.

I-980 is called the John B. Williams Freeway, named after an Oakland community leader (not the blunt-fisted movie score composer). Named by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 52, Chapt. 61 in 1977. [CalTrans]

See also: I-980 (Dan Faigin)

Sources

1. Route Log and Finder List - Interstate Highways, FHWA, Oct. 31, 2002.
2. Alameda County Transportation Improvement Plan, 1959
3. Argyriou, Anthony
4. 'History of California's Interstate Routes.' California Department of Transportation, November 1984.
5. Cruickshank, Robert. 'Re: Grove-Shafter Freeway and Park?' Post to misc.transport.road, Jan. 22, 2001.
6. 'Caltrans District 4: Timeline of Events.' Web site, http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/History%20d%204.htm.