Golden State Freeway – Fowler, California

Golden State Boulevard Corridor Roadway Lighting Project

Before the construction of modern freeways, the primary north-south highway through California’s Central Valley was the Golden State Highway, one of the state’s earliest major automobile routes. During the 1920s and 1930s, it became part of the expanding state highway system and eventually carried the designation U.S. Route 99 (US 99).

As traffic increased after World War II, California began constructing a limited-access freeway to replace the older two-lane highway. Throughout the 1950s through the 1970s, new freeway segments were built while many portions of the original highway were bypassed.

In many Central Valley communities—including Fresno, Modesto, Turlock, and Sacramento—the original alignment of US 99 remained after the new freeway was built. Rather than abandoning these roads, they were transferred to local jurisdictions and renamed Golden State Boulevard (or similar names such as Golden State Avenue or Golden State Highway).

The Golden State Boulevard Corridor Project is a “complete streets” project located on Golden State Boulevard, a 14.1 mile stretch of historic Highway 99 generally from American Avenue in Fresno County south to Mission Street in the City of Kingsburg. The project area passes through the cities of Fowler, Selma, and Kingsburg, and some unincorporated areas in Fresno County, but within the sphere of influence of one of the three cities. Improvements included: pavement rehabilitation; intersection signalization and turning lanes; sidewalks, crosswalks and median improvements and street lighting.

According to the project Fact Sheet, the project goal was to improve Golden State Boulevard’s condition and safety, as well as its cross streets and numerous Union Pacific Railroad crossings, eliminate roadway and sidewalk flooding during rain events, and improve bicycle and pedestrian safety. It would also help to stimulate affordable housing and economic development along the corridor by beautifying key entry points into the communities, and by softening the industrial nature of Old Highway 99. These benefits were to result in quality of life improvements and create better economic opportunities for the rural area’s residents.

The roadway lighting selected by the city of Fowler, to ‘soften the industrial nature’ of the corridor was from Amerlux, one of GBL’s key manufacturing partners.