Neha Patil (Editor)

California State Route 166

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West end:
  
SR 1 in Guadalupe

Length
  
154.3 km

East end:
  
SR 99 at Mettler

California State Route 166

Major cities
  
Santa Maria, Maricopa, Guadalupe, Mettler

State Route 166 (SR 166) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Central Coast to the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Contents

Map of CA-166, California, USA

This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System.

Route description

Route 166 starts off in Guadalupe in northwestern Santa Barbara County and heads East towards the largest city on its Eastern journey: Santa Maria. It then joins with U.S. Route 101 for the last few miles in Santa Barbara County before crossing the Santa Maria River and splitting off in San Luis Obispo County. For the next 75 miles (121 km), SR 166 crosses the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo county line a total of five times. This stretch follows the Cuyama River through a canyon separating the Sierra Madre Mountains from mountains in San Luis Obispo County, and then opens out into the Cuyama Valley, passing cattle ranches, going through the Russell Ranch Oil Field, and passing Aliso Canyon Road, the turnoff to the South Cuyama Oil Field. On the north during this stretch is the mile-high Caliente Range, which contains Caliente Mountain, the highest peak in San Luis Obispo County.

After going through the towns of New Cuyama and Cuyama, the highway meets SR 33 north of Ventucopa. SR 33 and SR 166 merge until reaching Maricopa, where SR 166 heads due east for its last 20 miles (32 km), intersecting with I-5 9 miles (14 km) north of the Grapevine. SR 166 ends at SR 99 in Mettler, and it is the last exit for both I-5 and SR 99 southbound before they merge near Wheeler Ridge.

Before 1964, the portion of SR 166 merged with SR 33 was part of US 399.

In Kern County, Highway 166 is known as the Maricopa Highway. West of Maricopa, where it skirts Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, it is called the Cuyama Highway. In the cities of Santa Maria and Guadalupe, it is known as Main Street.

From US 101 to the junction of SR 33, 166 is signed as the "CHP Officers Irvine and Stovall Memorial Highway". In February 1998 a large storm swelled the Cuyama River and caused it to wash out a section of the highway. Officers Britt Irvine and Rick Stovall were responding to an early morning call about a truck accident when their CHP cruiser drove off the washed out section, overturned and was buried in mud.[1]

Major intersections

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see the list of postmile definitions). Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

References

California State Route 166 Wikipedia