Interstate 880 (I-880) is an Interstate Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area connecting San Jose and Oakland, running parallel to the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay. For most of its route, I-880 is officially known as the Nimitz Freeway after World War II admiral Chester Nimitz, who retired to the Bay Area and lived on Yerba Buena Island.

This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System.

Route description

The southern terminus of I-880 is at its interchange with Interstate 280 and State Route 17 in San Jose. From there, it heads roughly northeast past the San Jose International Airport to U.S. Route 101. The Nimitz Freeway then turns northwest, running parallel to the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay, connecting the cities of Milpitas, Fremont, Newark, Union City, Hayward, and San Leandro before reaching Oakland. In Oakland, I-880 passes by Oakland International Airport, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Downtown Oakland. I-880 serves as the truck route thru Oakland for Interstate 580, which has truck restriction on it thru Oakland, causing incredible traffic on I-880 thru Oakland during rush hour. The northern terminus of I-880 is in Oakland at the junction with Interstate 80 and Interstate 580 (known as the MacArthur Maze), near the eastern approach of the Bay Bridge.

The Nimitz Freeway is Route 880 from Route 101 to Route 80, as named by Senate Concurrent Resolution 23, Chapter 84 in 1958.

History

The state legislature added the proposed San Jose-Richmond East Shore Highway to the state highway system in 1933, and it became an extension of the previously short (San Rafael to the bay) Legislative Route 69, and part of Sign Route 13 (soon changed to 17) in 1934. From San Jose, this route temporarily followed existing Legislative Route 5 (present Oakland Road, Main Street, Milpitas Boulevard, and Warm Springs Boulevard) to SR 21 at Warm Springs, and then continued along existing county roads and city streets, now known as Fremont Boulevard, Alvarado Boulevard, Hesperian Boulevard, Lewelling Boulevard, Washington Avenue, 14th Street, 44th Avenue, 12th Street, 14th Avenue, 8th Street, and 7th Street, into downtown Oakland. It then turned north at Cypress Street (now Mandela Parkway), passing through the Bay Bridge Distribution Structure and following a newly constructed alignment (signed as US 40) to El Cerrito.

The first short piece of the new Eastshore Freeway opened to traffic on July 22, 1949, connecting Oak Street downtown with 23rd Avenue. It was extended to 98th Avenue on June 1, 1950, Lewelling Boulevard on June 13, 1952, and Jackson Street (SR 92) on June 5, 1953. At the San Jose end, the overlap with Route 5 between Bayshore Highway (US 101) and Warm Springs was bypassed on July 2, 1954. Within Oakland, the double-decker Cypress Street Viaduct opened on June 11, 1957, connecting the freeway with the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. The Oakland segment was extended south to Fremont Boulevard at Beard Road on November 14, 1957, and the gap was filled on November 24, 1958, soon after the state legislature named the highway after Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. (The short spur to Route 5 at Warm Springs (now SR 262) remained in the state highway system as a branch of Route 69.) As these sections opened, Sign Route 17 (and Legislative Route 69) was moved from its old surface routing, which mostly became local streets. Other than Route 5 south of Warm Springs, the portion from San Leandro into Oakland was also kept as part of Route 105 (now SR 185).

State Route 17

Prior to 1984, the route known as I-880 used to be part of State Route 17. SR 17 used to run from Santa Cruz all the way though San Jose, Oakland; and then continued north via the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80) through Richmond to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and San Rafael.

In 1984 the segment of SR 17 from Interstate 280 in San Jose to the MacArthur Maze in Oakland was renumbered as I-880, and the portion of SR 17 from the MacArthur Maze to San Rafael was renumbered as part of I-580.

Nimitz Freeway

In 1947, construction commenced on a freeway to replace the street routing of SR 17 through the East Bay. The new freeway was named the "Eastshore Freeway", and with the subsequent addition of a freeway to replace the Eastshore Highway north of the MacArthur Maze in the mid 1950s, it ran, appropriately, almost the entire length of the east shore of San Francisco Bay. In 1958, the portion south of the MacArthur Maze was re-named the Nimitz Freeway in honor of WWII Admiral Nimitz, while the portion to the north retained the name Eastshore Freeway.

Historic Business U.S. Route 50

The northern portion of I-880 was designated Business U.S. Route 50 for a time between the I-80 interchange and downtown Oakland.

Original routing of I-880 in Sacramento

From 1971 to 1983, Interstate 880 was also the route designation for the Beltline Freeway, the northern bypass freeway for the Sacramento area. This freeway begins in West Sacramento as a fork from the original Interstate 80, continues northeast over the Sacramento River to its interchange with Interstate 5, continues east through the communities of North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights and ends at an interchange with the Roseville Freeway Interstate 80. Watt Avenue, and the now designated Capital City Freeway (which was originally I-80 continuing southwest directly into downtown Sacramento).

Cypress Viaduct Loma Prieta earthquake 1989

A large double-decker section in Oakland, known as the Cypress Street Viaduct, collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, causing 42 deaths. This was the greatest loss of life caused by that earthquake. Rebuilding the affected section of the freeway took nearly a decade, due to environmental impact concerns, the feeling that the freeway divided the neighborhood, and design considerations. The freeway reopened in 1997 on a new route parallel to railroad tracks around the outskirts of West Oakland.

Although only about three miles (5 km) in length, the replacement freeway cost over $1.2 billion, for several reasons: it crossed over and under the elevated BART line to San Francisco; it squeezed between a post office, the West Oakland BART station, the Port of Oakland, a rail yard, and a sewage treatment plant; it occupied an entirely new right-of-way, which required the acquisition of large amounts of valuable industrial real estate near the Port of Oakland; and of course, it had to be earthquake-proof.

The former path of the structure, Cypress Street, was renamed Mandela Parkway, and the median where the freeway stood became a landscaped linear park.

Flood plains

Several aspects of the I-880 facility have been constructed in designated floodplains such as the 1990 interchange improvements at Dixon Landing Road. In that case the Federal Highway Administration was required to make a finding that there was no feasible alternative to the new ramp system as designed. In that same study, the FHWA produced an analysis to support the fact that adequate wetlands mitigation had been designed into the improvement project.

Sound barriers

Due to high sound levels generated from this highway and the relatively dense urban development in the highway corridor, Caltrans has conducted numerous studies to retrofit the right-of-way with noise barriers. This activity has occurred in Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward, Newark and Fremont. For example in the 1989 widening of I-880 in parts of Newark and Fremont, scientific studies were conducted to determine the need for sound walls and to design optimum heights to achieve Federal noise standards.

Gasoline Tanker Accident in 2007

On Sunday, April 29, 2007, a gasoline tanker overturned and caught fire on the connector between westbound I-80 and southbound I-880 on the MacArthur Maze interchange. The fire caused major damage to both this connector and one directly above (eastbound I-80 onto eastbound I-580). The overpass was replaced and re-opened 27 days later. The governor declared it as a State of emergency and all public transportation was free on the first commute day.

I-880/I-280 Interchange improvements

Construction will begin in 2010 on improvements to the I-280/I-880 interchange. A new dedicated ramp will move traffic from I-280 Northbound to I-880 Northbound. Currently this traffic has to share the Stevens Creek Boulevard exit ramp. The I-880/Stevens Creek Boulevard interchange will also be upgraded, changing from a cloverleaf design to a diamond design.

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 0.00-10.50	San Jose	0.00	1A		Continuation beyond I-280
		0.00	1B		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		0.41	1C	Stevens Creek Boulevard, West San Carlos Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		1.25	1D	Bascom Avenue – Santa Clara	Signed as exits 1A (south) and 1B (north) northbound
		2.08	2
		2.67	3	Coleman Avenue – Mineta San Jose International Airport
		3.57	4A	First Street – Downtown San Jose
		4.08	4		Signed as exits 4B (south) and 4C (north)
		4.28	4D	Gish Road	Southbound exit provides access to US-101 north; southbound exit is via exit 4C
		5.34	5	Brokaw Road
		6.71	7	Montague Expressway (CR G4)
	Milpitas	7.69	8A	Great Mall Parkway, Tasman Drive
		8.42	8B		Signed as exits 8B (east) and 8C (west) southbound
		10.41	10	Dixon Landing Road
Alameda ALA R0.00-R35.47	Fremont	2.28	12	Warren Avenue, Mission Boulevard (SR 262 east) to I-680 – Sacramento
		3.25	13B	Fremont Boulevard South, Cushing Parkway
		4.71	15	Auto Mall Parkway
		6.24	16	Stevenson Boulevard
		7.19	17	Mowry Avenue – Central Fremont
		8.84	19		South end of SR 84 overlap
		10.30	21		North end of SR 84 overlap
	Union City	11.40	22	Fremont Boulevard North, Alvarado Boulevard
		13.05	23	Alvarado Niles Road
		13.67	24	Whipple Road, Dyer Street
	Hayward	14.54	25	Industrial Parkway	Northbound exit is via exit 24
		15.65	26	Tennyson Road
		16.70	27
		17.60	28	Winton Avenue
		18.35	29	A Street – San Lorenzo
	San Lorenzo	20.16	30	Hesperian Boulevard	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		20.32	30	Lewelling Boulevard – San Lorenzo	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	San Leandro	20.68	31A		Signed as exit 31 southbound
		20.82	31B	Washington Avenue	Southbound exit is part of exit 31
		22.84	33	Marina Boulevard	Signed as exits 33A (east) and 33B (west)
		23.64	34	Davis Street (SR 112)
	Oakland	24.77	35	98th Avenue – Oakland International Airport
		25.50	36	Hegenberger Road – Oakland Coliseum, Oakland International Airport
		26.61	37	66th Avenue, Zhone Way – Oakland Coliseum
		27.71	38	High Street (SR 77) – Alameda
		28.24- 28.69	39A	29th Avenue, Fruitvale Avenue – Alameda
		28.93	39B	23rd Avenue – Alameda
		29.80- 30.38	40	Embarcadero, Fifth Avenue, 16th Avenue	No northbound entrance
		31.09	41A	Oak Street, Lakeside Drive	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		31.2		Jackson Street	Northbound entrance only
		31.6	41B	Broadway (SR 61) – Downtown Oakland	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		31.68	42A		Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		32.1	42B	Market Street – Harbor Terminal	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R32.79	42	Broadway (SR 61) – Alameda	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		R33.27- R34.70	44	7th Street, West Grand Avenue
		R34.18	46A		Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		R35.47	46B		Northbound exit and southbound entrance

References

1. CA Codes (shc:250-257)
2. : "San Jose to Richmond (East Shore Highway)."
3. : "Route 69 is from: (a) Route 1 near San Rafael to Point San Quentin. (b) San Jose to Richmond (East Shore Highway)."
4. California Highways and Public Works, State Routes will be Numbered and Marked with Distinctive Bear Signs, August 1934
5. 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 Google Books), p. 134
6. H.M. Gousha Company, San Francisco and Vicinity, 1941
7. United States Geological Survey, San Jose (1943), Pleasanton (1943), Hayward (1942), Concord (1943), and San Francisco (1942), scale 1:62500
8. Hayward Daily Review, The Beginning of an East Bay Freeway, July 16, 1949
9. Hayward Daily Review, Editorial Page, July 29, 1949: "Our main complaint with the Freeway is that it's so very short and runs you into dead ends at both 23rd avenue and at Sixth street so that the turn-off is hardly worth the bother."
10. Oakland Tribune, East Oakland to Celebrate Opening of New Freeway Section, May 28, 1950
11. Hayward Daily Review, June 13, 1952
12. Oakland Tribune, New Eastshore Freeway Link Opened With Oakland-Hayward Ceremonies, June 6, 1953
13. Fresno Bee Republican, Eastshore Freeway is Open to Traffic, July 3, 1954
14. Oakland Tribune, City Officials to Open Freeway Link, June 6, 1957
15. Hayward Daily Review, New Freeway Link Ready, November 12, 1957
16. Oakland Tribune, 250 Officials Hail Freeway Finish, November 25, 1958
17. : "Route 69 is from: (a) San Jose to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Toll Plaza including a connection to Route 5 near Warm Springs."
18. : "Route 105 is from:...(c) Hayward, via Fourteenth Street in San Leandro, to Seventh and Cypress Streets in Oakland."
19. Environmental Assessment for the I-880 Dixon Landing Road Interchange Improvement Project, Cities of Fremont and Milpitas, California, Report EMI 7360, Federal Highway Administration Publication, February, 1989
20. Acoustical study for the widening of Interstate 880 in the cities of Newark and Fremont, Alameda County, California, Earth Metrics Inc, for the Federal Highway Administration, October, 1989
21. Tanker accident story
22. California Department of Transportation, State Truck Route List (XLS file), accessed January 2008
23. California Department of Transportation, Log of Bridges on State Highways, July 2007
24. California Department of Transportation, All Traffic Volumes on CSHS, 2006
25. California Department of Transportation, California Numbered Exit Uniform System, I-880 Northbound and I-880 Southbound, accessed January 2008

External links

• AA Roads - I-880 Guide
• The October 17, 1989, Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake—Selected Photographs - U.S. Geological Survey
  • Oakland Cypress Viaduct
• Cypress Street Viaduct includes map of old MacArthur Maze with old U.S. Route 40/U.S. Route 50 designations
• Cypress Viaduct Reconstruction from Federal Highway Administration