I-80/I-580 (north interchange), Albany, CA


I-80 and I-580 run north-south here, I-80 taking the right fork as one goes north and I-580 taking the left. Scale is approxomately 1 km per UTM grid square.

I-80 in the north Oakland, CA suburbs is one of the earlier urban freeways built under the Interstate Highway Act. Coming north from the Bay Bridge area, I-80 hugs the bayshore until it gets to Albany where it crosses over the former Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) railroad mainline, where it turns inland. I-580 came later as a sort of 'two part' route. The southeast section of I-580 runs from I-5 south of Tracy to I-238 just north of Hayward, then from there down the length of central Oakland to the I-80/I-880 interchange at the Bay bridge approach where it combines with I-80 to the north. I-80 and I-580 form a somewhat rare 'wrong way' pair on this section, northbound being 'I-80 East/I-580 West' and southbound being I-80 West/I-580 East (the only other ones I know of are I-77/I-81 in Virginia and I-76/I-80 through the Ohio Turnpike tollgate near Youngstown, OH). At this interchange, I-80 and I-580 split with the two freeways roughly paralleling each other a few hundred meters apart for a couple of km, then diverging with I-80 heading inland northeastward toward Vallejo and Sacramento (and on to the central and eastern USA) and I-580 going northwestward through Richmond and across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to end at the US 101 interchange in San Rafael.

The north I-80/580 split is interesting in that it is 'piggybacked' over a cross street interchange, with that ramp intersection being a complete SPUI with I-580. The north pointing ramps to/from I-580 are both on the left. Access to/from the north on I-80 is a south(west)bound off ramp to a side street just north of the railroad and a VERY curious 'T' intersection with another side street north(east)bound, also just north of the railroad (quite similar to another 'intersection' on westbound I-80 in the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey).

I have not been able to confirm it, but I have heard that the northbound I-80/580 split has been reconfigured since this map was drawn within the past 4-5 years, with I-580 now diverging from the right (this might have also eliminated the north(east)bound 'T' intersection).

This interchange also is a long-running inaccuracy in the Rand McNally Road Atlas, as for many years RMcN has been showing I-580 as not directly connecting here on their 'Bay Area' detail map (instead, they show I-580 dissolving into a surface street as it approaches I-80 southbound).

A fascinating place regardless.



Return to the 1999 Previous Weeks' Highway Feature menu



Just follow this sign to make your OWN great signs!!!!



This page © Michael G. Koerner


E-mail feedback is always welcomed, Spammers are dunked into the French-fryers at the local McDonalds :-)