California State Route 16
state highway in California, United States
State Route 16 (SR 16) is a state highway in the northern region of the U.S. state of California that primarily crosses the Sacramento Valley. It consists of two discontinuous segments. The western segment runs from SR 20 in Colusa County to Interstate 5 (I-5) in Woodland. The eastern segment then runs from U.S. Route 50 (US 50) in Sacramento to SR 49 just outside Plymouth in Amador County. The gap in SR 16 through Sacramento can be transversed along I-5 and US 50.
Route description
Route 16 is defined in section 316, subdivision (a), of the California Streets and Highways Code. The definition omits the gap in the route in the Sacramento area:
Route 16 is from:
(1) Route 20 to Route 5 near Woodland via Rumsey and Woodland.
(2) Route 50 near Perkins to Route 49 near Drytown.
In addition, section 316, subdivisions (b), (c), and (d) permit the state to relinquish control of portions of Route 16 in the City of Sacramento, unincorporated Sacramento County, and the City of Rancho Cordova, respectively, to local jurisdictions.
SR 16 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and the eastern segment is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “California State Route 16” is state highway in California, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through California, State and Route, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “state highway in California, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q493022. Authority coordinates are 38.812, -122.182. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “California State Route 16” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.