This northern section was deleted from the definition in the Streets and Highways Code in 2003, when the relinquished portion through downtown Sacramento was also removed, but it is still maintained and signed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as SR 160.

It cuts north across the center of Sherman Island as a two-lane surface road, reaching the Sacramento River on the opposite shore.

About a mile (1.5 km) beyond the Freeport Bridge, SR 160 leaves the levee, enters the city of Sacramento (where state maintenance and control ends), passes under I-5, and farms give way to suburbs.

[5] After a short jog west on Broadway, former SR 160 turns north on the one-way pair of 15th (southbound) and 16th (northbound) Streets, almost immediately crossing Business 80 and entering downtown Sacramento.

12th Street remains a one-way southbound roadway, but the two-way SacRT light rail now occupies its east side.

The light rail, which crosses the river between the two directions of SR 160, soon leaves at the Del Paso Boulevard interchange as the freeway turns east.

Two folded diamonds at local streets and a northbound-only entrance ramp from Tribute Road are all that remains before SR 160 merges with Business 80 at the Arden Way interchange.

[22] The legislature added this road to the state highway system in 1933, and it became part of Legislative Route 11, which had stretched east from Sacramento along US 50.

[26][27] The California Freeway and Expressway System was formed in 1959, and included in the planned upgrades was the road between Antioch and Rio Vista.

[32] The part of SR 160 through and north of downtown Sacramento began as part of Legislative Route 3, which was added to the state highway system under the first bond issue, passed in 1910,[33] and left the city on the 16th Street Bridge over the American River, following Del Paso Boulevard, El Camino Avenue, and Auburn Boulevard to Roseville.

[37] The North Sacramento Freeway opened on October 6, 1947, bypassing this route from the bridge to Auburn Boulevard near Ben Ali.

However, since Caltrans's main goal is to move traffic efficiently, the city was not able to carry out pedestrian-friendly projects that they and local residents wanted.

This will calm traffic while improving the intersection at the south end of the former one-way pair, which the SacRT light rail now crosses 21st Street just to the north of.