Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/June 2014

SR 56 west at the Carmel Creek Road interchange

State Route 56 is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs 9.210 miles (14.822 km) from Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego to I-15 and the western end of the Ted Williams Parkway. SR 56 serves as an important connector between I-5 and I-15, being the only east–west freeway between SR 78 in north San Diego County, several miles away, and SR 52 near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It is also named the Ted Williams Freeway, after the San Diego-born baseball player. SR 56 was added to the state highway system in 1959 as Legislative Route 278, and was renumbered SR 56 in the 1964 state highway renumbering. Plans in 1964 were to connect SR 56 to the north end of SR 125 and continue east to SR 67, but these plans did not come to fruition. The eastern end from Black Mountain Road to I-15 was completed in 1993; the western end from I-5 to Carmel Creek Road was completed in 1995 after several lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club and other community groups. The two ends were not connected until the middle portion of the freeway was completed in 2004. The delay was largely due to funding issues and environmental concerns.

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