Interstate 980 (I-980) is a short auxiliary Interstate Highway entirely within Oakland in Northern California, connecting I-580 and State Route 24 (SR 24) to I-880 near Downtown Oakland. I-980 passes the Oakland Convention Center and near the famous Jack London Square. I-980 is commonly considered the dividing line between Downtown Oakland and West Oakland. The freeway was planned as the eastern approach to the Southern Crossing. The segment between I-880 and 17th Street is officially known as the John B. Williams Freeway, after the former director of the city of Oakland's Office of Community Development. In addition, I-980 and SR 24 in Oakland are both designated as part of the Grove-Shafter Freeway, after streets the route travels along (Grove Street was later renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Way).

I-980 was used as an alternate route between Oakland and San Francisco when the Cypress Viaduct carrying I-880 collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Traffic headed from the south would have to use I-980 to I-580 west to I-80 west to get across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge to reach San Francisco. This ended when I-880 reopened on a new alignment in 1997 (1998 to and from I-80 east).

Route description

The entirety of I-980 is defined in section 624 of the California Streets and Highways Code as Route 980, and that the highway is from "Route 880 to Route 580 in Oakland". This definition roughly corresponds with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)'s route logs of I-980. and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

History

The route known as I-980 was originally added to the state highway system in 1947 as part of Legislative Route 226 (LRN 226) and to the California Freeway and Expressway System in 1959. This segment of LRN 226 became part of SR 24 in the 1964 state highway renumbering.

Construction on a Highway 24 freeway connecting Downtown Oakland with the Caldecott Tunnel in the Oakland Hills began in the 1960s. It was also originally intended to serve the Southern Crossing and a regional shopping mall in Oakland, neither of which were ever built. While the freeway was completed from the tunnel to I-580 and 27th Street, construction of the segment extending it further west to the Nimitz Freeway (present-day I-880) resulted in community opposition due to about 503 homes in the freeway's path (and thus slated to be demolished or moved). In 1972, a federal lawsuit halted its construction until Caltrans agreed to build replacement housing. With city officials still pushing for the freeway's completion, a compromise was also reached to change the design from an elevated freeway to a depressed freeway, decreasing noise. thus, I-980 is designated as part "chargeable" Interstate and part "non-chargable", Interstate. and it finally opened in 1985. ConnectOakland is coordinating the push for a replacement. In January 2017, I-980 was included in Congress for the New Urbanism "Freeways without Futures" report.

Caltrans and the city of Oakland received a $680,000 Reconnecting Communities planning grant, funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to study rebuilding or removing I-980. BART may use the corridor as an approach for a second Transbay Tube.

Arguments for replacement focus on the freeway's low volume of traffic and negative impact on surrounding neighborhoods. Concerns are however raised on whether the existing surface streets can handle the relocated traffic, and whether it may actually increase gentrification in the area.

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See also

References

  • California @ AARoads.com - Interstate 980
  • California Highways: I-980
  • Interstate 980 connection from 1966 Southern Crossing plan
  • ConnectOakland - advocacy organization supporting the replacement of I-980