State Route 4 in California
| SR-4 | |||
| Get started | Hercules | ||
| End | Markleeville | ||
| Length | 197 mi | ||
| Length | 317 km | ||
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According to 800Zipcodes, State Route 4 or SR-4 is a state route in the U.S. state of California. The road forms an east-west connection between the San Francisco Bay Area and central California. State Route 4 is a freeway between Hercules and Antioch, where it is called the John Muir Parkway and California Delta Highway. After Antioch the road becomes a regular main road until Stockton. In Stockton, State Route 4 is briefly a freeway between I-5 and State Route 99. After this the main road goes through almost uninhabited area into the Sierra Nevada. The entire road is 317 kilometers long.
Travel directions
San Francisco Bay Area
The highway begins at I-80 in the suburb of Hercules, located 35 kilometers north of San Francisco. The highway here is called the John Muir Parkway, and has 2×2 lanes. This is not a busy commuter route, and the highway runs through the uninhabited Briones hills. After about 15 kilometers you arrive at the city of Martinez, which has 36,000 inhabitants, and is part of a number of suburbs well away from the larger cities of the Bay Area. It crosses I-680 at Pleasant Hill, which forms a north-south bypass east of the conurbation. You then arrive in Concord, a somewhat larger suburb of San Jose and San Francisco, with 122,000 inhabitants. The city is located 80 kilometers from San Jose and 40 kilometers from San Francisco. Here one crosses theSR-242, a short link through Concord to I-680.
After this one enters a cluster of cities which lies along the delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, hence the name California Delta Highway for this highway. The largest city here is Antioch, which has 100,000 inhabitants, and is 85 kilometers from San Francisco, and 110 kilometers from San Jose. The highway here is equipped with 2×4 lanes. In Oakley, the highway continues straight ahead as SR-160, but turns east onto SR-4. The freeway ends at the distant suburb of Brentwood. You then pass through an agricultural area, which is irrigated by the San Joaquin River. The central part of California takes its name from this river.
Central California
After about 50 kilometers you arrive in Stockton, a large regional city with 325,000 inhabitants, located on Interstate 5, about 70 kilometers south of the capital Sacramento. The interchange with the I-5 is spacious, and has one dead end, indicating that this highway should have been extended to the west. The SR-4 runs through the center of Stockton, and has 2×3 lanes here. This section is called the Crosstown Freeway. The highway ends here a few miles down the road on SR-99, one of California’s two north-south highways between Sacramento and Bakersfield.
The main road then continues through agricultural area, which is becoming increasingly sparsely populated, and eventually one enters the Sierra Nevada mountains. There are no towns on the route, but only a number of villages, which become less and less as you go further into the mountains. Many Sequoias grow in this area, huge trees. The road rises to more than 1500 meters altitude, and later also reaches more than 2000 meters altitude. One eventually reaches Ebbetts Pass, located at 2661 meters. Then descend to SR-89, south of Markleeville, the end of SR-4.
History
State Route 4 has been constructed quite fragmented as a freeway. The first part opened in Pittsburgh in 1953. The interchange with I-80 opened in 1958 and the interchange with I-680 in 1962, but connecting road sections did not open until significantly later. The section from Concord to Pittsburg, and the route through Antioch, was opened between 1971 and 1976. In 1981, the link between I-680 and Concord opened. After that, the western part had a long missing link, only in 2001 the highway between Hercules and Martinez was completed. In 2008 an extension of the highway opened in eastern Antioch, south of State Route 160.
The highway through Stockton was also built relatively late. The stack opened with I-5 in 1972, but the highway itself didn’t open to traffic until halfway through Stockton in 1988. In 1992, the highway was extended eastward to State Route 99.
State Route 4 has been extended as a freeway in the suburb of Brentwood. On October 24, 2014, the connection with Sand Creek Road opened. The connection with Balfour Road was inaugurated on 22 July 2018, although full opening did not follow until 10 December 2018.
State Route 4 has been widened from 2×2 to 2×4 lanes in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburg and Antioch, including one HOV lane in each direction. Most of the extra lanes opened to traffic in May 2016.
Between April 2014 and December 2014, SR-4 extended nearly 2 kilometers west to Navy Drive in Stockton. This project cost $140 million. The official inauguration followed on 9 December 2016, the traffic opening at the end of December 2016. With the extension, Stockton Port became more accessible.
Opening history
Hercules – Brentwood
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Date |
| 20 Bailey Road | 27A Contra Loma Boulevard | 11 km | 00-00-1953 |
| 1 | 1B Willow Avenue | 0.5 km | 00-00-1958 |
| 12A Pacheco Boulevard | 12C | 0.5 km | 00-00-1962 |
| 5 Cummings Skyway | 9 Alhambra Avenue | 6 km | 00-00-1967 |
| 27A Contra Loma Boulevard | 30 | 5 km | 00-00-1971 |
| 9 Alhambra Avenue | 12A Pacheco Boulevard | 5 km | 00-00-1975 |
| 15A | 17 Willow Pass Road | 3 km | 00-00-1976 |
| 13 Solano Way | 15A | 3 km | 00-00-1978 |
| 12C | 13 Solano Way | 2 km | 00-00-1981 |
| 17 Willow Pass Road | 20 Bailey Road | 5 km | 00-00-1997 |
| 1B Willow Avenue | 1C Sycamore Avenue | 1 km | 00-00-1997 |
| 1C Sycamore Avenue | 5 Cummings Skyway | 5 km | 00-00-2001 |
| 30 | 33 Lone Tree Way | 5 km | 00-00-2008 |
| 33 Lone Tree Way | 34 Sand Creek Road | 2 km | 24-10-2014 |
| 34 Sand Creek Road | 36 Balfour Road | 3 km | 10-12-2018 |
Stockton
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Date |
| 65 | 67 Wilson Way | 3 km | 00-00-1988 |
| 67 Wilson Way | 68 | 2 km | 00-00-1992 |
Future
Widening
In the period 2017-2020, State Route 4 in Concord, between the interchanges with I-680 and SR-242, must be widened from 2×2 to 2×3 lanes. Also, the simple cloverleaf between the SR-4 and I-680 is converted into a partial stack.
Brentwood – Stockton
The route between Brentwood and Stockton was also planned as a freeway in the 1970s, connecting Stockton to the Bay Area by freeway. A large stack with I-5 was opened for this purpose in 1972, with the highway ending immediately west of this interchange. At the time, it was planned that the highway would connect directly to State Route 4 at the junction with State Route 160. At that time, the suburb of Brentwood did not yet exist. This route runs through a low-lying nature reserve with wetlands and polders. The chance that the highway to Stockton will be built seems slim. It is a clear missing link in Central California’s highway network.
Traffic intensities
| Exit | Location | 2008 | 2016 |
| Exit 1 | Hercules ( I-80 ) | 35,000 | 43,000 |
| exit 12 | Concord ( I-680 ) | 82,000 | 88,000 |
| Exit 15 | Concord ( SR-242 ) | 153,000 | 183,000 |
| exit 33 | Antioch | 76,000 | 119,000 |
| Exit 65 | Stockton ( I-5 ) | 78,000 | 100,000 |
| Exit 68 | Stockton ( SR-99 ) | 95,000 | 92,000 |