Improvements to Interstate 215 in San Bernardino, Calif., may ease travelers’ access to Mount Vernon Avenue, an old alignment of Route 66, reports the San Bernardino County Sun.
The improvements include several new exit ramps off the freeway by 2013 for Second, Third and Fifth streets as well as Base Line. Currently, drivers sometimes have to take complicated routes to access the city’s west side.
One of those hoping for more business from the improvements is a historic Route 66 restaurant:
Also on Mount Vernon Avenue, Mitla Cafe has been in business since 1937. The eatery has survived not only the shift in transportation patterns that came with the birth of the freeway system, but also economic shocks like the closure of Norton Air Force Base in the mid-1990s.
Mitla manager Steven Oquendo said freeway improvements could help Westside businesses but the project won’t be an economic cure-all.
“I know it will bring more traffic. I’m hoping it will pick up. People still need the feeling they can spend,” he said.