California State Route 198 - History

History

All of SR 198 was added to the state highway system in the three bond issues floated to pay for the construction of the system. The first bond issue, approved by the state's voters in 1910, included the road from Visalia west to Hanford, connecting the two county seats with the central north–south highway (Route 4, now SR 99). As part of the 1916 bond issue, the route was extended west from Hanford through Coalinga to the coast trunk highway (Route 2, now US 101) near San Lucas, and assigned it the Route 10 designation. The third bond issue, passed in 1919, included a further extension east from Visalia to Sequoia National Park. The entire length of Route 10 was marked as Sign Route 198 in 1934, and this number was adopted legislatively in the 1964 renumbering. The portion east of Interstate 5 near Coalinga was added to the California Freeway and Expressway System in 1959, and parts of it have been built as such. The construction of the freeway east of Visalia to Road 192 was approved in January 1961, with the remainder of the freeway unplanned at that time as contingent on the routing of SR 65. The projected cost in 1958 of the entire freeway east of Visalia was $13 million ($227 million in today's dollars) and was scheduled to be completed by 1964. The freeway through Visalia was completed by 1965, with an expressway connecting it to US 99. Also completed was the expressway heading west out of Hanford, with part of it access-controlled west of Lemoore.