SR 86 begins at an intersection with SR 111, just east of the town of Heber, as Heber Road. After traveling west through Heber, and intersecting CR S31, SR 86 heads north and enters the city of El Centro (as 4th Street), having an interchange with I-8. Passing through downtown El Centro, SR 86 intersects Main Street (CR S80) before curving to the west (as Adams Avenue). The highway continues north on Imperial Avenue before it enters the city of Imperial and passes Imperial County Airport, continuing north as it leaves the city limits.[3]
North of Imperial, SR 86 intersects CR S27 before making a turn to the northeast, entering the city of Brawley. It passes to the west of downtown (as Western Avenue) before turning west onto Main Street, running concurrently with SR 78. Both SR 78 and 86 turn northwest before passing through the city of Westmoreland and intersecting CR S30. After briefly turning west, SR 78 and 86 turn northwest again and pass through Elmore and Kane Spring; SR 78 turns west (towards San Diego County), while SR 86 continues northwest along the western edge of the Salton Sea (just east of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park), before it intersects CR S22. SR 86 passes through the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation and Coolidge Spring before entering Riverside County.[3]
Just north of the county line in Oasis, SR 86 continues north on an expressway, turning away from the Salton Sea and heading through agricultural fields and farmlands. The route then meets SR 111, and turns northwest, running parallel to that highway. As it nears Indio, the expressway turns into a freeway. SR 86 ends at an interchange with I-10.[4]
In the late 20th century, SR 86 had a rather notorious reputation for frequent and often fatal collisions.[citation needed] For much of its length, especially between the southern tip of the Coachella Valley to the Imperial County line, SR 86 was a two-lane road with easy access from rural side roads. A driver trying to pass might find himself headed straight for the side of another vehicle pulling out from one of the side roads. This reputation earned SR 86 the nickname "Blood Alley".[citation needed]
Originally a part of U.S. Route 99 until the 1960s, the northern end of SR 86 was widened and rerouted through the new and rather unusually numbered "86S Expressway" (for “supplemental”[8]) soon after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), making SR 86 a four- or six-lane highway for most of its length. Since it is easier to enter California from the Imperial Valley than through San Diego, SR 86 sees a great deal of truck traffic to and from Mexico, earning it still another nickname, "The NAFTA Highway".[citation needed] The new highway has proven to be at least as dangerous as the old alignment owing to much the same problems of poorly marked and uncontrolled side roads. A rash of fatal crashes in early 2005 prompted the city of Coachella to push Caltrans for the installation of at least two more traffic signals on SR 86S.[citation needed]
State Route 86S (SR 86S) was an expressway running through the Coachella Valley. In December 2012, the SR 86 designation was transferred to the routing of SR 86S, and SR 86S ceased to exist.[9]State Route 195 was removed from the state highway system as a result. SR 86 was originally truncated to Avenue 46, but the State Route 86S expressway, which replaced SR 86 around the east side of Coachella and Indio, did reach I-10.
Major intersections
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).[10] 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.
^"Article 2 of Chapter 2 of Division 1". California Streets and Highways Code. Sacramento: California Office of Legislative Counsel. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
^Federal Highway Administration (March 25, 2015). National Highway System: California (South)(PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
^Natzke, Stefan; Neathery, Mike & Adderly, Kevin (June 20, 2012). "What is the National Highway System?". National Highway System. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
^ abCalifornia Department of Transportation. "State Truck Route List". Sacramento: California Department of Transportation. Archived from the original(XLS file) on June 30, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
SR 111 near Heber
I-10 in Indio
