{{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox road junction |country=USA |name=Joe Colla Interchange |image=101-280-680 Joe Colla Interchange 1975.jpg |image_caption=The Joe Colla Interchange in 1975, with its then-unfinished flyover ramps |maint=[[California Department of Transportation|Caltrans]] |location=[[San Jose, California]] |coord={{coord|37.33965|-121.851683|region:US_type:landmark|display=inline, title}} |roads={{plainlist|1= *{{jct|state=CA|I|680}} *{{jct|state=CA|I|280}} *{{jct|state=CA|US|101}} *Story Road}} |type=Four-level Interchange |const=1976–81 |opened={{start date|1981}} |height= |other_names= }}
The '''Joe Colla Interchange''' is a [[interchange (road)|highway interchange]] in [[San Jose, California]], United States, connecting [[Interstate 280 (California)|Interstate 280]] (I-280), [[Interstate 680 (California)|I-680]], and [[U.S. Route 101 in California|U.S. Route 101]] (US 101). It is named after '''Joe Colla''', a former [[councilman]] of San Jose, who also participated in a stunt in 1976 to protest the interchange's delayed construction.<ref name="mercurynews.com">{{cite news |first= Scott |last= Herhold |url= http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_24322997/herhold-story-behind-joe-collas-famous-1976-highway |title= Herhold: The Story Behind Joe Colla's Famous 1976 Highway Stunt |work= [[San Jose Mercury News]] |date= October 16, 2013 |page= A4 |access-date= April 3, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013101619/https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/10/16/herhold-the-story-behind-joe-collas-famous-1976-highway-stunt/ | archive-date=October 13, 2016}}</ref>
==Description== [[File:San Jose Traffic Jam.jpg|thumb|View from a high ramp of the Joe Colla Interchange]]
The highway is a four level [[stack interchange]]. US-101 serves the first level of the complex. The second level marks the southern termini of both I-280 and I-680, as their primary lanes head into each other; I-280 then runs from the interchange southwesterly to [[Downtown San Jose]], while I-680 runs northeasterly. The third level contains ramps connecting northbound US-101 to northbound I-280 and southbound US 101 to northbound I-680, and the fourth level is a ramp connecting southbound I-680 to southbound US-101. This ramp is a site of major traffic, as there are only two lanes of the ramp from southbound I-680 to southbound US-101. The fourth-level ramp connects the third level ramp as they enter US-101, while the third-level ramp heading to northbound I-680 connects a ramp from northbound US-101 to northbound I-680. A one-lane ramp connects southbound US-101 to northbound I-280 and a [[cloverleaf interchange|cloverleaf]] ramp connects southbound I-280 to northbound US-101. The ramps to and from US-101 south then extend over the cloverleaf interchange with Story Road.
The interchange is a major traffic hub for the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]. From the interchange, I-280 then runs just to the west of the larger cities of [[San Francisco Peninsula]] for most of its route to [[San Francisco]]. I-680 curves around the eastern cities of the Bay Area to join [[Interstate 80 in California|I-80]] in [[Fairfield, California|Fairfield]], providing a connection to [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]]. US 101 heads north along the eastern side of the San Francisco Peninsula to San Francisco, and south to the [[California Central Coast]] and [[Los Angeles]].
==History==
The construction of the Joe Colla Interchange was delayed for almost five years.<ref name="mercurynews.com"/> By January 1976, the state's budget woes resulted in construction being abandoned, leaving three uncompleted flyover ramps hanging over US-101 and unfinished I-280/I-680.<ref name="mercurynews.com 2016"/> At this time, both I-280 and I-680 were completed to their current southern terminus. I-280 ended at [[California State Route 17|State Route 17]] (SR-17), now [[Interstate 880 (California)|I-880]], and I-680 ended in [[Milpitas, California]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-680_ca.html |title= Interstate 680 California |work= Interstate-Guide |access-date= April 3, 2016 |archive-date= February 23, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100223070223/http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-680_ca.html |url-status= dead }}{{self-published source|date= April 2016}}</ref>
===Joe Colla stunt=== Near midnight, protesters of the unfinished interchange – San Jose councilman Joe Colla, union representative Tom Carter, and construction executive Doug Beatty – lifted a [[Chevrolet Impala#Second generation (1959–1960)|1960 Chevrolet Impala]] with a crane and placed it on top of an unfinished ramp. They were not seen by police, although one officer recalled seeing a crane on the unfinished ramp, but assumed that it was late night work.<ref name="mercurynews.com"/>
Later that morning, Joe Colla rode a helicopter to the top of the same unfinished ramp and took a picture with the Impala. The next day, that picture ran in dozens of newspapers and according to the ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'', pressured then-governor of California [[Jerry Brown]]. In part because of the publicity of the stunt, the interchange eventually received the necessary funding to be completed.<ref name="mercurynews.com"/>
In 2010, this interchange was named the Joe Colla Interchange.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml;jsessionid=fd20cbcb8e1e1d4879ebf6f2603a |title=Bill Text |accessdate=October 5, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006100011/http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml%3Bjsessionid%3Dfd20cbcb8e1e1d4879ebf6f2603a |archivedate= October 6, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100ACR102 |title=Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 102 - Joe Colla Interchange |publisher=California State Legislature |date= August 30, 2010 |accessdate=November 10, 2013}}</ref> Signs naming the interchange were posted in January 2016.<ref name="mercurynews.com 2016">{{cite news |first= Joe |last= Rodriguez |date= January 9, 2016 |title= San Jose's Infamous Monument to Nowhere Freeway Interchange Finally Named after Joe Colla |url= http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_29360940/infamous-monument-nowhere-freeway-interchange-finally-named-after |work= San Jose Mercury News |access-date= April 6, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107094438/https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/01/08/san-joses-infamous-monument-to-nowhere-freeway-interchange-finally-named-after-joe-colla/ | archive-date=November 7, 2016}}</ref>
==See also== *{{portal-inline|California Roads}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
[[Category:Transportation in San Jose, California]] [[Category:Road interchanges in California]]