Monterey Highway Northbound

(Morgan Hill to San José)

This set of pictures was taken in October 1986,  soon after this old stretch of US101 was replaced. This part of US101, from Cochrane Road to Ford Road, was the official US101 before 1985. The accident rate was high. At first there was only one traffic light from Ford Road  to Cochrane Road, then there were about seven. The road was three lanes wide (total), then was widened to  a four lane highway with a concrete divider. Also this section of US101 was "blood alley." I first saw it in September 1980 when I first moved to California. It was slow in places but it was not jammed up. Also there were a lot of fruit stands at the side of the road. The freeway replaced a part of Monterey Road South of Cochrane in 1973 down to Monterey Street south of Gilroy. The north section of 85 was built at the same time.
In 1989 the US101 shields were removed and the speed limit increased from 50 MPH to 55 MPH from Peebles Ave in Morgan Hill to Blossom Hill Road. In April 1995 the speed limit was briefly 55 MPH from Blossom Hill to Cochrane, but the last bit of Monterey Road North of Cochrane is probably too congested for that.   The US101 shields did not have a direction sign with them. I've replaced these sets but I will keep the old photos up because people still look at them.

  Here we are approaching Palm Ave. This section has not changed much since the mid 1980s.

[Monterey Highway North in 1986]

Just north of Palm Ave, and this stand is long gone.

[Monterey Highway North in 1986]

This is taken halfway between Palm Ave and Metcalf Road.

[Monterey Highway North in 1986]



[Monterey Highway North in 1986]



[Monterey Highway North in 1986]



[Monterey Highway North in 1986]

More Monterey Road Pics
US101 Index Page
Monterey Highway Index Page
 Home


©1998  | Contact info for Eric Buchanan