State Route 92 (SR 92) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in the U.S. state of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, serving as a major east-west corridor in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. From its west end at State Route 1 in

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Immediately north of Half Mo ...

near the coast, it heads east across the San Francisco Peninsula and the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge to downtown Hayward in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

at its junction with State Route 238 and State Route 185. It has interchanges with three freeways: Interstate 280 (the Junipero Serra Freeway), U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway) in or near San Mateo, and Interstate 880 (the Nimitz Freeway) in Hayward. It also connects indirectly to Interstates 238 and 580 by way of Hayward's Foothill Boulevard, which carries Route 238 and flows directly into Route 92.

Route description

Between Half Moon Bay and Interstate 280, Route 92 winds through the Coast Range as a narrow, mainly undivided two and three lane highway with a switchback turn. The east-bound uphill portion was upgraded with a long passing lane. Between Interstate 280 and Interstate 880 it is entirely a divided multilane highway, including the toll San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, the longest span across the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

; west of that bridge, Route 92 is carried on twin girder bridges across

Seal Slough Seal Slough, also known as Marina Lagoon, is a narrow winding tide, tidal channel through a tidal marsh in San Mateo, California, San Mateo and Foster City, California. This River delta, slough has been the object of a wetland restoration ecology ...

, which forms the border between the cities of San Mateo and Foster City. East of Interstate 880 the route becomes a divided surface street in Hayward, locally known as Jackson Street. State Route 92 traverses through significant habitat areas including

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

, California oak woodland,

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

. In one serpentine soil location near Crystal Springs Reservoir, it passes near one of the only known colonies of the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, rather than being intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is any different from the native plant, eve ...

'' Pentachaeta bellidiflora'' and near one of the limited number of colonies of the endangered '' Eriophyllum latilobum''. SR 92 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and a small portion near SR 1 as well as the entire portion east of I-280 are 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 The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

. SR 92 is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

. File:California route 92 at US 101 and San Mateo Bridge.jpg, View directed east, showing US 101 interchange, serpentine

, and the San Mateo Bridge File:CA Route 92 aerial San Mateo to Half Moon Bay.jpg, View directed west near interchange with I-280, showing Crystal Springs Reservoir and route from San Mateo to Half Moon Bay File:CHPW - 19th Ave Fwy (May-Jun '62, pg 23).jpg, View directed east , showing 19th Avenue Freeway segment under construction; the

Antoine Borel Antoine Borel (December 29, 1840 – March 26, 1915) was a Swiss-American banker who ran the eponymous Borel & Co., headquartered in San Francisco, California. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and emigrated to the United States in 1862, w ...

family estate is the wooded area north (left) of the new freeway File:CHPW - 19th Ave Fwy (May-Jun '64, pg 40).jpg, View directed west as-completed , showing full cloverleaf interchange with SR 82, center, and bridges over SP's Peninsula Corridor File:Aerial view of Hayward in 2021.jpg, View directed north over Hayward; SR 92 runs along bottom right corner

History

The alignment was designated as Legislative Route Number 105 by Caltrans in 1933. The San Mateo section also was referred to as the 19th Avenue Freeway which was the street name where the freeway now exists. Parts of the street remain. This section is also known as the J. Arthur Younger Freeway; J. Arthur Younger was a

United States representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

who served during the 1950s and 60s. On August 29, 1963, the 19th Avenue segment was completed and by 1964, the present name had been adopted; planning began for the segments in Alameda County, east of the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge, and the remainder in San Mateo County, west of Interstate 280.

Updates

An upgrade of the intersection with Main Street in Half Moon Bay, near the western terminus, was scheduled to be completed by fall 2008. The old

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...

with Interstate 880 was converted into a three-level combination interchange with direct ramp replacements for two of the tight "cloverleaf" ramps, and a new wider and taller overpass to carry Route 92 over Interstate 880. The project took four years and was completed in October 2011. A similar cloverleaf interchange at SR 82 (El Camino Real) was rebuilt in 2018 into a partial cloverleaf interchange. Two of the loop off-ramps from SR 92 were eliminated: from westbound SR 92 to northbound El Camino Real, and from eastbound SR 92 to southbound El Camino Real. The remaining off-ramps were widened and signalized to allow left and right turns onto El Camino Real. Planning for improvements to the interchange with the Bayshore Freeway (U.S. 101) began in 2018; construction is scheduled to begin in 2024. In addition, a separated bikeway will be built on Fashion Island Boulevard, which largely follows the former alignment of 19th Avenue, connecting the cities of Foster City and San Mateo. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.

Major intersections

References

External links