 There was a brief delay in approving the money in February 1957 when there was a proposal to move the gunnery range . However , at the end of the month , the United States Navy obtained ownership from Imperial County of the old Niland – Blythe road running through the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range for the specified amount . The county then used this money to fund the construction of the Glamis Road , which Ben Hulse predicted would become a state highway . This portion of the road was specifically designed to address the challenges of building it through sand dunes . The engineers routed the highway according to the terrain and made cuts in the sand up to 80 feet ( 24 m ) deep . The routing roughly followed an old Native American trail that went from the Imperial Valley to the Palo Verde Valley . According to an Imperial County official , the road was predicted to be more busy than US 80 and to bring traffic to San Diego directly from Needles and US 66 . 
