A stretch of Central California freeway infamous as a “Blood Alley” — and the location of James Dean’s deadly crash — has been revamped with a brand new interchange.
The flyover opened Thursday, June 12, on the intersection of highways 41 and 46 in San Luis Obispo County, the California Division of Transportation mentioned.
Each instructions of journey are being accommodated on the elevated roadway’s westbound lanes; full opening is predicted in eight weeks, Caltrans mentioned.
Till now, the intersection, generally known as the Cholame Y, required turning drivers to deal with fast-approaching site visitors on the two-lane rural freeway.
Dean was 24 when he died there on Sept. 30, 1955. He and a mechanic have been driving his Porsche 550 Spyder from Hollywood to Salinas for a weekend of auto racing. As they have been westbound on what was then generally known as Freeway 466 round 5:45 p.m., an eastbound driver started to show left onto Freeway 41, and the vehicles collided. Dean was useless on arrival at a Paso Robles hospital.
His final films, “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant,” have been launched posthumously, cementing his standing as a charismatic icon of rise up.
The fence on the Cholame Y turned a shrine, bearing mementos from followers. There’s a extra formal monument in a car parking zone a few mile to the west.
