California State Route 111: Map

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State Route 111 (SR 111) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California

. It is the main north/south state highway and retail corridor through the Coachella Valley, a part of the Colorado Desert in the southeastern corner of the state and famous as a resort destination. It runs from Calexico

to Interstate 10 at White Water

Route description

First proposed in the early 1930s due to the area's growth bought on by the Southern Pacific Railroad, Highway 111 links virtually every desert resort city in the valley. It begins at a junction with Interstate 10 near the foot of San Jacinto Peak

east of the San Gorgonio Pass

. This junction was so busy in the 1950s before the construction of the freeway that visitors returning home to Los Angeles might have waited as long as two hours to make the left turn on the two-lane road that was once multiplexed as US Highways 60, 70 and 99. Continuing south, the highway first enters Palm Springs, becoming a surface street. 111 then continues through Cathedral City

, Rancho Mirage

, Palm Desert

, La Quinta

, Indio

and finally Coachella

where it is co-signed with State Route 86 before exiting the southeast corner of the valley as a two-lane highway. A 1993 rerouting of the highway takes drivers away from the historic center of Palm Springs, but meets with its original alignment as Business Route 111 a few miles further south.

A nearly 40 mile (64 km) length of the highway dotted with date and citrus groves follows both the old Southern Pacific "Sunset Route" (now the main Union Pacific line between Los Angeles

and Yuma, Arizona

) and the eastern shore of the Salton Sea

. Though some small settlements and a California state park line the shore, the area is eerily empty due to the sea's rapidly declining water quality. The small town of North Shore

is all but abandoned.

As Route 111 continues southward into Imperial County, it passes through the agricultural communities of Niland

, Calipatria

, Brawley

and Holtville

before entering El Centro

. It rejoins 86 in Heber

and terminates in Calexico

at the international border where it meets with Calle State Route 111 in Mexicali

.

As the Coachella Valley's main retail corridor and link to its many resorts, a trip along Route 111 during the height of the tourist season from September to June can be a trying one due to out-of-town traffic, or as the locals fondly refer to them, "snowbirds".

After a two-year delay, signs on Verbenia Avenue at the highway's northern terminus and along Interstate 10 were changed in November 2005 to reflect the street's name change to "Haugen-Lehmann Way", honoring two Riverside County sheriff's deputies gunned down by a sniper on that street in 1997.

In a similar move in December 2005, the stretch of SR111 through La Quinta was named the "Deputy Bruce Lee Memorial Highway". Lee was a Riverside County deputy sheriff in the city for many years and was killed in 2003 during an altercation with a mentally disturbed suspect. The suspect was able to take Lee's baton during the altercation and used it to bludgeon the officer.

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

History

In 1995, Caltrans was allowed to relinquish any portion of Route 111 through a city for that city to maintain. The legislature opted to make the act an "urgency statute", effective immediately, so that the local governments could improve traffic bottlenecks along the route as soon as possible. The legislative definition of the route was amended in 1996 to exclude the portions in Rancho Mirage

and Cathedral City

, which had both been relinquished. Cathedral City completed a pedestrian-friendly redesign in 1998. The stretch through Rancho Mirage has the Coachella Valley's only synchronized traffic lights; they are set to 45 mph (70km/h).

A 2003 law did not change the route, but clarified that the former highway through those cities could not be taken back by the state, and repealed the section added in 1995 allowing relinquisment to any city. Subsequently, in 2005, the legislature allowed relinquishment within Indian Wells

, Indio

, and Palm Desert

, subject to the same conditions, and to the condition that the cities must maintain signs for the route. La Quinta

was added to the list of eligible cities in 2007. As of late 2007, none of these four cities have taken over maintenance of Route 111.

Major intersections

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
Imperial IMP R0.00-65.40	Calexico	R0.00	Mexico – United States border
		R0.20		2nd Street – Downtown Calexico
		R1.18		, Yuma
		R4.74
		R7.71		– Yuma , El Centro , San Diego	Interchange
		9.59
		13.08
		17.59
		22.14 15.04			South end of SR 78 overlap
	Brawley			Best Road, Old Highway 111	Old Highway 111 was former SR 111 south
	Brawley	13.80 22.14			North end of SR 78 overlap
		26.67
	Calipatria	32.51
Riverside RIV 0.00-R63.38	Mecca	18.43
	Mecca			66th Avenue – Mecca
	Thermal	24.51		Airport Boulevard to SR 86S
	Coachella	28.53 20.52			South end of SR 86 overlap
	Coachella			, Phoenix	South end of I-10 Bus. overlap
	Indio			, Phoenix	South end of I-10 Bus. overlap
		G22.85 28.53			North end of SR 86 / I-10 Bus. overlap; former SR 86 north
		28.73		Lorraine Street, Golf Center Parkway to I-10
		30.10		Monroe Street
	La Quinta	34.01		Washington Street
	Indian Wells	37.63		Cook Street
	Palm Desert	38.64		Portola Avenue
		39.57
		40.80	North end of state maintenance
	Rancho Mirage	40.80	North end of state maintenance
		41.27		Bob Hope Drive
		43.35		Country Club Drive
	Cathedral City	45.39		Date Palm Drive
	Cathedral City	47.20	South end of state maintenance
	Palm Springs	47.20	South end of state maintenance
		47.80 T47.80
		T49.37		Ramon Road
		T51.59		Vista Chino, Gene Autry Trail to I-10
		T52.88		Sunrise Way
		T53.94 53.82
				Tipton Road – Whitewater
		R62.54	South end of freeway
			111	Haugen-Lehmann Way	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R63.38			Northbound exit and southbound entrance