Route 66 Turned 100 This Week. Upland's Stretch of It Is Still Being Rebuilt.

A pioneer mother stands at Euclid Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. She holds a baby in her left arm and a rifle in her right, another child clings to her, and she has been there since February 1, 1929. On Wednesday, November 11, U.S. Route 66 turned 100. If you drove past the Madonna of the Trail this week, you were also driving through one of the largest street projects Upland has taken on in years.

That pairing tells you how Upland is marking the centennial. The party already happened, in a park, a month early. The lasting work is going into the road itself: water pipe under the pavement, rock cobble in the medians, and new businesses opening onto it.

The Statue at Euclid Honors the Road Before Route 66

The Madonna is the corridor's oldest civic landmark, and it is not really about Route 66. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed twelve of these statues across the country. They commemorate westward expansion and the importance of a national highway, with special tribute to pioneer women. According to California's Office of Historic Preservation, Upland's statue represents four historic trails.

The money behind it came from the National Old Trails Road Association, which guaranteed the cost of putting the monuments up after a DAR committee advanced the highway memorial plan. So the statue was dedicated three years after Route 66 got its number, in honor of the trail system the numbered highway grew out of. The National Society DAR says California's state DAR owns and maintains it. The local San Antonio Chapter keeps watch over its care.

That corner also matters for the construction. The city's project page puts the rebuild's eastern end at Euclid Avenue, right at the Madonna's feet.

Upland Threw Its Party in October, Away From the Boulevard

The City of Upland held its free Route 66 Centennial Celebration on Saturday, October 3, from noon to 5 p.m. at Upland Memorial Park. The city billed it as a family afternoon of classic cars, music and Route 66 nostalgia. It is listed on the national Route 66 Centennial calendar next to events in other towns along the route.

A park makes sense when the boulevard is a work zone. During construction, the city told drivers to expect lane reductions, closures and detours on Foothill. Holding a car-themed celebration on that street this fall would have meant lining up vintage cars beside traffic cones.

What $13.2 Million Puts Into Foothill

The city calls it the Foothill Blvd. Improvement Project, a $13.2 million rehabilitation from Benson Avenue to Euclid Avenue. The posted schedule ran from October 2025 to August 2026. The listed work covers almost every layer of the street:

• Asphalt grinding and roadway resurfacing
• Water pipelines
• Curbs, gutters, sidewalks and driveway approaches
• Traffic signals and enhanced lighting
• Bike lane improvements
• Landscaping

The funding is a patchwork. San Bernardino County Supervisors Curt Hagman and Jesse Armendarez put in $4 million in discretionary funds. The rest comes from Upland's water and sewer funds, Gas Tax, ARPA and RMRA. The city says the work will extend pavement life, improve road safety, improve water service and support local development. The published scope is pipes, pavement, signals, lighting and planting, with no Route 66 theming on the list.

Where the Work Stood in Late October

August has come and gone, and crews are still at it. The city manager's weekly Notable News report for the week ending October 22, 2026 describes the project as Benson Avenue to Redding Way and breaks it into segments:

If you drive this stretch often, the table shows the project moving on two tracks at once. Cobble and planting were already going in at both ends of the corridor while the middle section between Mountain and San Antonio was still waiting on its water line tests and south-side connections. The city moved the south-side shutdowns to overnight hours "when most businesses are closed." That tells you who the project is trying to keep open during the day: the shops and restaurants along Foothill.

Two other projects in the same report are close by. City Council approved a construction contract on October 12 for public parking lot improvements downtown, at the southwest corner of Arrow Highway and 3rd Avenue. A city rehabilitation project for Grove Avenue, from Foothill north past 15th Street, had a community meeting set at the Carnegie Library on November 5.

The Businesses Opening Onto the New Pavement

The city said the rebuild would support local development, and new businesses are already showing up along the corridor.

Better Buzz Coffee, 1317 E. Foothill Blvd. It sits on the former longtime Taco King site, which The Sun reported in November 2025 was set to become a Better Buzz. The Upland location has a café and drive-through, is open daily from 3:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and takes orders ahead. A 3:30 a.m. opening suits a commuter road.

Big T's Pizza, 1261 W. Foothill Blvd., Suite A. The west end of the corridor has its own new spot. City staff listed Big T's in a zoning clearance review this fall. The Upland location is open for orders Wednesday through Sunday and closed Monday and Tuesday.

Quick Quack Car Wash, 950 Monte Vista Ave. The car wash sits at the southeast corner of Foothill and Monte Vista. The Upland Chamber held its ribbon cutting there, which the Chamber had scheduled for October 13. The location page lists daily hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Black Rock Coffee, 1382 E. Foothill Blvd. This one is a few doors east of Better Buzz. City staff worked through the water plan approval for the site this fall. Once it opens, the 1300 block of East Foothill will have two drive-through coffee chains within about a block of each other.

A pre-dawn coffee drive-through, a car wash and a pizza counter are each built around the car. That fits a road that has carried drivers since before the Madonna went up.

One More Centennial Stop This Week

Upland's own celebration is over, but the Foothill corridor has one more event this week. The California Historic Route 66 Association's centennial calendar lists a "Salute to Veterans" on Saturday, November 14, at the Cucamonga Service Station in neighboring Rancho Cucamonga. The event falls three days after Veterans Day, which is also the day Route 66 turned 100. The station is a short drive east of the Madonna on the same old road, and the calendar has the latest details.

If you live near Foothill and wonder how a rebuilt boulevard and its new storefronts could affect what your home is worth, Carlos & Pat Samuelson and Associates can walk you through recent sales near the corridor. Start with your Instant Home Valuation and we'll take it from there.