BILL NUMBER: ACR 98	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  150
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  OCTOBER 2, 2001
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  SEPTEMBER 14, 2001
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 4, 2001

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Runner

                        JULY 20, 2001

   Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 98--Relative to the 1915 Ridge
Route Highway Historical Monument.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 98, Runner.  1915 Ridge Route Highway Historical Monument.
   This measure would request the Department of Transportation to
grant, without charge, an encroachment permit authorizing an
appropriate historical monument and plaque to commemorate the 1915
Ridge Route Highway, to be placed within the rights-of-way of State
Highway Route 126 and Interstate Highway 5, where those highways
converge.




   WHEREAS, Begun in 1914 and completed in late 1915, the Ridge Route
Highway, officially named the "Castaic-Tejon Route," connected
Castaic Junction in Los Angeles County to Bakersfield; and
   WHEREAS, The 1915 Ridge Route Highway was one of the first
products of the newly formed State Bureau of Highways, paid for
through the passage of a 1910 bond act; and
   WHEREAS, The 1915 Ridge Route Highway was considered an
engineering marvel of its day and was the first mountain highway
built in California; and
   WHEREAS, Many credit the 1915 Ridge Route Highway, which opened up
travel and commerce between the Los Angeles basin and the San
Joaquin Valley, with having prevented California from separating into
two separate states; and
   WHEREAS, Workers carved out the original 20-foot wide roadway by
using horse and mule drawn scrapers and graders, going from ridge top
to ridge top across the western San Gabriel mountains; and
   WHEREAS, Originally completed as an oiled, graded gravel road, the
1915 Ridge Route Highway was paved in 1919; and
   WHEREAS, The 1915 Ridge Route Highway was well known for its 697
curves, the most notorious of which was Deadman's Curve near Tejon,
that if added together, would make 110 complete circles; and
   WHEREAS, The 1915 Ridge Route Highway was replaced in 1933, by a
straighter, three-lane highway, which was later widened and became
State Highway 99; and
   WHEREAS, On September 25, 1997, 17.6 miles of the 1915 Ridge Route
Highway south of Gorman, was accepted into the National Registry of
Historic Places; and
   WHEREAS, The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus has
proposed to construct and dedicate, at no cost to the public, a
monument and plaque in honor of the historical significance of the
1915 Ridge Route Highway; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
concurring, That the Department of Transportation is requested to
grant, without charge, the necessary encroachment permit authorizing
an appropriate historical monument and plaque dedicated to
commemorate the 1915 Ridge Route Highway, to be placed within the
rights-of-way of State Highway Route 126 and Interstate Highway 5,
where those highways converge; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit a copy of
this resolution to the Director of Transportation, the Director of
Parks and Recreation, the Ridge Route Preservation Organization, and
to the Platrix Chapter No. 2, Queen of the Cow Counties of the
Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus.