A movement to make the four-lane undivided "Bloody Bayshore" safer all the way to San Jose began in Palo Alto. As a temporary measure, the state lowered the speed limit, installed traffic signals, closed minor crossroads, and prohibited left turns in places. The community convinced the state to extend the six-lane freeway. Contracts for the projects in Santa Clara County had been awarded by 1959, and the Bayshore Freeway was completed to San Jose in 1962, officially opening on February 2 of that year. The total cost of freeway conversion was , including to acquire right-of-way. The south end of the freeway was the old El Camino Real merge near Ford Road until the early 1980s, when the South Valley Freeway was built.