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THREE
SPRINGS CURVE - POTRERO The worst of all curves
on Hwy 94 was located 2.6 miles east of Potrero. It was a narrow
twisty road with sharp curves along the side of the mountain that was very
treacherous. From the
picture, you can see that a school bus and hay truck could hardly pass
safely. Those of us in
Potrero and Tecate who sent our children to school at Campo worried
whether they were safe on these curves. One horror story from the children
is that they could stick their arm out the window and
touch an oncoming truck. There
were many accidents, but to my recollection there was never a serious
school bus accident. It was
imperative to go slowly and carefully in rain or shine. In 1965 a realignment of
a 1.3 mile section of Route 94 between 2.6 miles and 3.9 miles east of
Potrero was proposed. This
new alignment would bypass a section known as “French’s” (where
Frank French lived) or
“Three Springs” (Blackburns) curve.
(Both residents on Highway 94).
It started just past the area known as “Maggie’s Bedroom” and
went to the end of French’s property.
See diagram. On January 7, 1966 there
was a public hearing at the State Division of Highways.
Jacob Dekema, District Engineer for the Division of Highways said
that the purpose of the hearing was to keep the public informed on highway
matters and to obtain information which would assist the Division in
planning for future improvements on this highway.
Economic and cultural needs of the community, as well as traffic
requirements had to be evaluated before final approval.
Even back in 1965 they had environmental regulations to follow. This project was approved
and Ferry Brothers Construction Co. of El Cajon contracted the job.
Work started in Nov. 1967 and the road was built 32 feet wide and
designed for traffic at 55 miles an hour.
The crew encountered hard rock in the cut that caused some delay.
This stretch of 1.3 miles was opened in March 1968.
This stretch of road
improvement has saved many lives over the years. Sometimes people use it as a speedway, but it is still safer
than the old road. The old
road can still be seen and anyone driving this road on a regular basis can
certainly be thankful we have this improvement. About the same time a
straight stretch of road was put in, to eliminate the “Maggie’s
Bedroom” curve. It is just
west of this new stretch of
road, but I could find no information on this.
This curve was very bad. A
café was located on this curve which
truck drivers used to frequent. Picture #36 - Diagram of road
#37 - Bus and Truck passing on old curve |
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