This may be of more interest to folks who live in the San Joaquin Valley of California since we pass the intersection of Hwy 41 & 46 when we travel to the Central California Coast. Us folks from the 'valley' have driven by this spot hundreds of times. My family has always referred to this intersection as the 'James Dean cut-off' as this is the place where the iconic actor met his infamous end. There is an official memorial set up about half a mile or so from the accident site next to the Jack Ranch Cafe. But there is also a make-shift memorial of flowers, cards, etc placed on the fence much closer to the actual accident site.
Anywayz...
The James Dean cut-off is still a relatively dangerous intersection due to very high traffic volume. I found this link for the road safety improvements that are currently in the works. It looks like the 'new' Hwy 46 route will now completely bypass the infamous accident site, but it should make the intersection much safer. And it's only part of a much bigger project to connect the more coastal Hwy 101 to I-5 via a wider 4 lane corridor (about time).
Again, this will probably only interest the San Joaquin Valley folks (or big time James Dean fans).
Scroll down about 1/3 of the way to see maps of the project. [
www.cahighways.org]
