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.

I-680 curves around the eastern cities of the Bay Area to join I-80 in Fairfield, providing a connection to Sacramento.

[1] 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.

[1] 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.