page_title: California State Route 87
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: California State Route 87 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: State Route 87 looking north from communications hill[1] towards downtown San Jose. The light rail (2 cars near lower left) runs between the northbound and southbound lanes; the freeway is under construction to add an additional lane in both directions.Curtner Avenue underpass is at lower left; the Almaden Expressway overpass is just further north.
context_page_description: State Route 87, locally called the Guadalupe Freeway, is a north–south state highway in San Jose, California, United States. Before being upgraded to a freeway, it was Guadalupe Parkway.
  For most of its length, especially in Downtown San Jose, the highway follows the course of the Guadalupe River. Its southern terminus is at SR 85, and its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 101 just north of San Jose International Airport. Unusually, it crosses over Interstate 880 without an interchange.
context_section_description: A Guadalupe Parkway connection between Downtown San Jose and the present day US 101 had existed since the early 1960s; the road channeled traffic between the Bayshore Freeway and ramps that connected directly to Market Street.  However, construction on a freeway over the same path and southward beyond Downtown began a decade later and stretched across 30 years.
  The first stage of the SR 87 freeway, its 4-level interchange with I-280, replaced an old downtown neighborhood in the mid 1960s.  A ramp to Julian Street, north of the interchange with I-280, was completed in the mid-1970s.  The freeway extension north to Taylor Street was completed in May 1988. Construction of SR 87 in the 1980s is shown in this photo. The southern part, from I-280 to SR 85, was opened to Almaden Expressway in September-October 1992 and to SR 85 in August 1993, built in conjunction with the construction of a light rail line. Local-express lanes were constructed along this segment, the Northbound segment running from I-280 to Julian Street and the Southbound extension from I-280 to Alma Avenue. At SR 87's northern terminus, its 3-level interchange with Highway 101 and North First Street was completed in 1992. Finally, with all grade-level intersections replaced by grade separations, construction of the six-lane freeway between Taylor Street and the Highway 101/North First interchange began in the late 1990s was completed in 2004, and the name Guadalupe Parkway stopped being used (except on some signs).  The final ramps at the Skyport interchange opened in 2005. The widening of the southern segment, from Taylor Street to Highway 85, to six lanes was completed in 2007. In each direction, two lanes are for regular traffic and one lane is an HOV lane.
  The right-of-way for SR 87 south of I-280 includes two tracks for the Guadalupe line of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail system. Stations are accessible from the streets via staircases and elevators.  Beyond 87's terminus, the line continues southeastward in the median of SR 85.
  SR 87, as once defined legislatively, would have extended from its current northern terminus, skirting the edge of San Francisco Bay as the Bayfront Freeway to San Francisco. This would have provided an eastern bypass to US 101 along the Peninsula (US 101 itself being originally a bypass to El Camino Real along the Peninsula). The route would have ended at SR 480 (the Embarcadero Freeway) practically underneath the Bay Bridge, and it would also have connected to the approaches of the unconstructed San Francisco Bay Southern Crossing. Along with SR 61, a similar project on the eastern shore of the Bay, this portion of SR 87 was abandoned due to local opposition to the project that would have destroyed a nearly pristine wildlife habitat. In 1980, the route was truncated to end at SR 237.
  A resolution of the state legislature in 2007 named a section of this highway (between I-280 and Julian Street/Santa Clara Street) the Lewis E. Platt Memorial Highway (honoring the late chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard who successful campaigned for local ballots to fund transportation improvements), and required that signage be paid by private donations.
caption: SR 87 looking north towards downtown San Jose from Communications Hill in 2006. VTA light rail runs between the northbound and southbound lanes; the freeway was under construction to add an additional lane in both directions.
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