67 years later, California highway upgrade comes to site of James Dean’s deadly crash

Nearly seven decades after the head-on crash that killed actor James Dean, the deadly interchange on the highway linking the San Joaquin Valley to the Central Coast will finally be reconfigured into a four-lane expressway.

On Friday, Caltrans announced that the California Transportation Commission had approved funding for the $171 million project, which will break ground in March and take three years to complete.

The long-awaited upgrade will replace the dangerous Cholame “Y” interchange with a flyover connection that routes Fresno-bound traffic from Highway 46 East to northbound Highway 41.

The stretch of renovated road includes the location of Dean’s Sept. 30, 1955, fatal head-on collision, where his Porsche Spyder collided with a pickup truck turning left across the roadway to Highway 41.

It has long been the key missing piece in years of upgrades to widen the highway that was long known as “Blood Alley.”

The project follows the widening of a five-mile segment of Highway 46 East between the Shandon Rest Area to to east of the Jack Ranch Café, according to a news release from Caltrans. The café is the site of the memorial honoring Dean.

“We are pleased to have received this funding allocation to continue these safety improvements in this important east-west corridor,” Caltrans District 5 Director Tim Gubbins said in the release.

Atkinson Construction of Irvine received the contract to complete the renovations to the highway, the release said.

“The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments applauds District Director Tim Gubbins’ leadership to secure the funding needed so the planned grade-separated interchange at the Highway 46 and 41 Junction can proceed on schedule. This improvement will serve so many Californians traveling to and from the coast,” San Luis Obispo Council of Governments Executive Director Peter Rodgers said in the release.

Once this project is complete, only one final 3.5-mile segment of Highway 46 East along the Antelope Grade in San Luis Obispo County to roughly half a mile within Kern County will remain to be widened at a later date, the release said.

“At the completion of these corridor projects, Highway 46 East will become a four-lane divided expressway from U.S. 101 in Paso Robles to I-5 in Lost Hills in Kern County,” the release said.