California State Route 198

The road begins at a remote interchange with US 101 south of King City in the Salinas River Valley. Leaving US 101, SR 198 passes through the Priest Valley, climbs the Diablo Range as a two-lane road and crosses over an unnamed pass. It then descends along Warthan Canyon to the town of Coalinga in the agricultural Central Valley, where it briefly runs concurrently with SR 33. On both sides of Coalinga the road passes through the enormous Coalinga Oil Field.[2]

SR 198 then intersects Interstate 5 (I-5) in Fresno County near the Harris Ranch Airport before becoming a freeway west of Lemoore. The landscape becomes a bit less rural as it goes through Hanford and passes near the Hanford Municipal Airport, where it continues as a four-lane expressway from the intersection with SR 43 until SR 198 encounters a freeway-to-freeway interchange with SR 99 as it enters Visalia, the largest city it passes through, and goes by the Visalia Municipal Airport. It remains a freeway until east of Visalia, intersecting SR 65 and passing by College of the Sequoias. SR 198 starts to climb the forested Sierra Nevada and ends at the Sequoia National Park boundary, near Lake Kaweah, where the road continues through the park as the Generals Highway.[2] This is one of the main routes providing access to Sequoia National Park, the other being SR 180 to the north.[3]

SR 198 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System,[4] and east of I-5 is part of the National Highway System,[5] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.[6] SR 198 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System,[7] but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the California Department of Transportation.[8]

All of SR 198 was added to the state highway system in the three bond issues floated to pay for the construction of the system. The first bond issue, approved by the state's voters in 1910, included the road from Visalia west to Hanford, connecting the two county seats with the central north–south highway (Route 4, now SR 99). As part of the 1916 bond issue, the route was extended west from Hanford through Coalinga to the coast trunk highway (Route 2, now US 101) near San Lucas, and assigned it the Route 10 designation. The third bond issue, passed in 1919, included a further extension east from Visalia to Sequoia National Park.[9] The entire length of Route 10 was marked as Sign Route 198 in 1934,[10] and this number was adopted legislatively in the 1964 renumbering.[11] The portion east of Interstate 5 near Coalinga was added to the California Freeway and Expressway System in 1959,[12] and parts of it have been built as such. The construction of the freeway east of Visalia to Road 192 was approved in January 1961, with the remainder of the freeway unplanned at that time as contingent on the routing of SR 65.[13] The projected cost in 1958 of the entire freeway east of Visalia was $13 million (equivalent to $95.1 million in 2021[14]) and was scheduled to be completed by 1964.[15] The freeway through Visalia was completed by 1965, with an expressway connecting it to US 99. Also completed was the expressway heading west out of Hanford, with part of it access-controlled west of Lemoore.[16][17]

Construction began in November 2009 on a project to widen a two-lane, 10-mile (16 km) section of SR 198 between SR 43 and SR 99 into a four-lane expressway. The $60 million project was completed in December 2012.[18]

The Kings County Association of Governments has plans to improve the state highways within the county. Developers are interested in building distribution warehouses in Kings County because of its strategic location midway between the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, but they are currently turned off by the lack of freeway access. For SR 198, the plan is to extend the freeway segment from Naval Air Station Lemoore to I-5. However, Kings County voters have shown little interest in passing any transportation taxes to fund these projects.[19]

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 to an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see California postmile § Official postmile definitions).[1] 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.

County	Location	Postmile [1][20][21]	Exit [22]	Destinations	Notes
Monterey MON R0.00-25.79	San Lucas	R0.00		Lockwood-San Lucas Road, Bunte Road	Continuation beyond US 101
		R0.11		US 101	Interchange; west end of SR 198; US 101 exit 273
	​	14.00		SR 25 north – Pinnacles National Park, Hollister	Southern terminus of SR 25
Fresno FRE 0.00-42.73	Coalinga	22.37		Polk Street to SR 33 south – Stratford, Taft
		22.65 15.71[N 1]		SR 33 south (Fifth Street) to I-5 south / Coalinga Plaza (Fifth Street)	West end of SR 33 overlap
	​	24.32[N 1] 22.66		SR 33 north (Coalinga-Mendota Road) to I-5 north / Shell Road – Mendota, Los Banos, Fresno	East end of SR 33 overlap
	​	26.81		I-5 (West Side Freeway) – Sacramento, Los Angeles	Interchange; I-5 exit 334
	​	34.66		SR 269 (Lassen Avenue) – Five Points, Huron
Kings KIN 0.00-28.33	Lemoore Station	3.01		Lemoore NAS (Reeves Boulevard)
		​	West end of freeway
		4.99	73	Stratford (Jackson Avenue)	Eastbound signage
				Avenal (Avenal Cutoff Road)	Westbound signage
	Lemoore	R8.90	77	SR 41 – Lemoore, Paso Robles, Fresno
		​	78	19th Avenue
		R10.56	79	18th Avenue, Lemoore Avenue – Central Lemoore
	​	R12.11	81	Houston Avenue, D Street – Lemoore
	Armona	R14.77	83	14th Avenue – Armona
		R15.75	84	Hanford-Armona Road, 13th Avenue – Armona
	Hanford	R16.91	85	12th Avenue
		R17.91	86	11th Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R18.3	87A	Redington Street – Central Hanford	Westbound exit and entrance
		R18.51	87	Douty Street – Central Hanford	No westbound exit
		R18.96	87B	10th Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		​	Short gap in freeway
		R20.98	89	SR 43 – Selma, Corcoran
	​	​	East end of freeway
Tulare TUL 0.00-44.16	​	​	West end of freeway
	Visalia	R3.83	101	SR 99 – Los Angeles, Sacramento	Signed as exits 101A (south) and 101B (north) westbound; former US 99; SR 99 north exits 96-97, south exit 97
		R4.80	102	Plaza Drive (CR J19)
		5.76	103	Shirk Road
		6.76	104	Akers Street
		7.76	105A	Demaree Street
		R8.75	105B	SR 63 south (Mooney Boulevard) – Tulare	West end of SR 63 overlap
		R9.97	107A	SR 63 north (Court Street) – Cutler, Orosi, Kings Canyon, Central Visalia	East end of SR 63 overlap
		R10.73	107B	Ben Maddox Way – Woodlake
		R11.72	108	SR 216 east (Lovers Lane / CR J15) – Visalia	Western terminus of SR 216
	​	R13.74	110	Road 156 – Ivanhoe
	Farmersville	R14.65	111	Farmersville Boulevard (CR J23)
	​	​	East end of freeway
	​	R18.76		SR 65 south (Road 196 / CR J27) – Exeter, Lindsay, Porterville	Northern terminus of SR 65 south segment
	​	R19.76		SR 245 north / Road 204 – Woodlake, Kings Canyon	Southern terminus of SR 245
	Lemon Cove	27.96		SR 216 west – Woodlake	Eastern terminus of SR 216
	Sequoia National Park boundary	44.16		Generals Highway	East end of SR 198; continuation beyond the Sequoia National Park boundary
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to California State Route 198.

• Caltrans: State Route 198 highway conditions
• Caltrans Traffic Conditions Map
• California Highway Patrol Traffic Incidents
• California @ AARoads.com - State Route 198
• California Highways: SR 198