Interstate 710
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Template:Infobox CA Route Interstate 710 (I-710), mostly named the Long Beach Freeway, is a freeway running for 23 miles (37 km) in a north-south direction through Los Angeles County, California, United States. For most of its route, it follows the course of the Los Angeles River, rarely wandering more than a few hundred feet from the riverbed.
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Route description
Image:LONGBEACH FREEWAY.jpg Until November 18, 1954 the freeway was called the Los Angeles River Freeway.<ref>Caltrans, 2004 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances In California (PDF)</ref>
The road presently signed as Interstate 710 runs from Ocean Boulevard west of downtown Long Beach north to Valley Boulevard (just north of Interstate 10) in Alhambra, just west of the Los Angeles community of El Sereno.
A short unsigned freeway stub exists in Pasadena, heading south from the interchange of Interstate 210 and State Route 134 to California Boulevard. The section in between has not been built. Only the section from SR 1 north to Interstate 5 is officially the Long Beach Freeway.
The original plans for that section ran parallel to Atlantic Boulevard in Alhambra and Los Robles Avenue in San Marino and Pasadena. Opposition to this route by Alhambra and San Marino resulted in a routing that skirted Alhambra to the west and bisected South Pasadena. Subsequent opposition to the rerouted project by residents of South Pasadena and the Los Angeles district of El Sereno, and the resulting litigation, have prevented Caltrans from completing the northernmost leg of the route. The freeway's northern terminus has therefore been Valley Boulevard on the border between the East Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley regions since the 1960s. As a result, freeway signs for the destination of the northbound Long Beach Freeway have control cities varying between Pasadena and Valley Boulevard. (Heading northbound, signs point west on Interstate 10 for Pasadena, in order to reach State Route 110 via Interstate 5.)
The failure to complete the Long Beach Freeway has resulted in major traffic congestion in northeastern Los Angeles and the northwestern San Gabriel Valley, as there are no north-south freeways in the heavily populated area between Interstate 5 (Golden State Freeway) and Interstate 605 (San Gabriel River Freeway). Pro- and anti-710 lobbies have debated whether finishing I-710 would alleviate any of the San Gabriel Valley's congestion, or merely displace it from surface streets to the freeway.
History
Legislative Route 167 was defined in 1933 to run from San Pedro east to Long Beach and north to Monterey Park.<ref>California Highways: Chronology of California Highways 1933-1946</ref> An extension was added in 1947, taking it north to Pasadena.<ref>California Highways: Chronology of California Highways 1947-1962</ref> State Route 15 was signed in 1934 along the section of Legislative Route 167 from Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 3, later U.S. Route 101 Alternate, now State Route 1) in Long Beach north to Garvey Avenue (U.S. Route 99, replaced by Interstate 10) in Monterey Park. The original pre-freeway alignment ran entirely along Atlantic Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard.<ref name="cah 710"/><ref>1942 Gousha Los Angeles map</ref>
The freeway replacement of SR 15/LR 167 was built from 1954 to 1961.<ref name="bridge log">January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways</ref> The whole route of LR 167, including the proposed extensions west to San Pedro and north to Pasadena, was renumbered State Route 7 in the 1964 renumbering, as the number 15 conflicted with Interstate 15. In 1965 the route was truncated to State Route 1 in Long Beach; the part from SR 1 south and west to State Route 47 was deleted, and the rest from SR 47 west to State Route 11 (now Interstate 110) became part of SR 47.<ref name="cah 7">California Highways: State Route 7</ref> The short stub in Pasadena was built in 1975, along with the adjacent sections of Interstate 210 and State Route 134.<ref name="bridge log"/>
The section from SR 1 south and west to SR 47 was re-added to the legislative definition at some point. The existing freeway from SR 1 south to Ocean Boulevard was taken over by the state on August 25, 2000 in a trade with the City of Long Beach for former State Route 103 north of SR 1.<ref>Caltrans - District 7: A Closer Look At 2000 Achievements (PDF)</ref> The rest of the defined route, west on Ocean Boulevard to SR 47, is still locally maintained.
Future plans
South Pasadena
Currently, Caltrans is researching the possibility of using advanced tunneling technologies to build the Long Beach Freeway under South Pasadena without disturbing the residential neighborhoods on the surface; such technologies have been used to build freeways through similarly sensitive cities like Versailles in France. South Pasadena's government has grudgingly conceded that it may assent to such a project. However, it is unclear whether this option would be financially feasible, owing to the state budget crisis of the early 21st century. Caltrans has indicated that the South Pasadena real estate that it owns along the original 710 right-of-way, which has appreciated several hundred percent in real terms since its acquisition in the mid-1960s, would currently command a sufficiently high price to pay for the state's share of the tunnel. However, the vulnerability of such an ambitious structure to earthquakes and terrorism, and the resultingly high cost of insuring against such mishaps, might still preclude the tunnel's construction.
Reconstruction
The explosive growth of cargo volumes handled at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has added an enormous amount of truck traffic to the Long Beach Freeway, since it is the most direct route between the port complex and the railyards in Vernon and East Los Angeles, as well as the Pomona and San Bernardino freeways that connect Los Angeles to railyards in San Bernardino and Colton. The freeway's pavement has been badly damaged as a result, as it was not designed to carry nearly as large of a load of truck traffic. It has also become a major source of air pollution, emanating from diesel-fueled trucks idling in rush hour traffic congestion and giving cities along its route some of the worst air quality in already smoggy Southern California. In response to these developments, Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have called for a radical expansion of the segment of the freeway between the San Diego and Pomona Freeways. It would include dedicated truck lanes, elevated carpool lanes similar to those on the Harbor Freeway (I-110), and up to 10 lanes for general traffic. By using existing right-of-way along the Los Angeles River, very few homes would need to be taken by eminent domain. (Initial plans for the construction called for the condemnation of nearly a thousand residences, drawing fierce opposition from local governments and community activists along the route.) Groundbreaking on the ambitious new freeway, which would be one of the world's most advanced, is pending allocation of federal transportation funds.
Exit list
| Postmile<ref name="bridge log">January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways</ref> | Municipality | #<ref>Cal-NExUS Interchange Exit Numbering</ref> | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach | Piers S-T; Terminal Island | southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 1A | Piers F-J; Queen Mary | southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 1B | Pico Avenue - Piers B C D E | southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 1C | Downtown Long Beach; Aquarium | southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 1D | Anaheim Street | exit 1 northbound | ||
| LA 6.80 | 2 | Image:California 1.svg State Route 1 - Pacific Coast Highway | ||
| LA 7.89 | 3 | Willow Street | split into 3A and 3B | |
| LA 9.42 | 4 | Image:Interstate 405 (California).svg Interstate 405 - San Diego; Santa Monica | ||
| LA 10.82 | 6 | Del Amo Boulevard | split into 6A and 6B northbound | |
| 7 | Long Beach Boulevard | split into 7A and 7B southbound | ||
| LA 12.98 | 8 | Image:California 91.svg State Route 91 - Riverside; Redondo Beach | split into 8A and 8B | |
| LA 13.95 | Compton | 9 | Alondra Boulevard - Compton | split into 9A and 9B southbound |
| Paramount | 10 | Rosecrans Avenue | ||
| Lynwood | 11A | Image:Interstate 105 (California).svg Interstate 105 - Norwalk; El Segundo | exit 11 northbound | |
| 11B | Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard | southbound exit and entrance | ||
| South Gate | 12 | Imperial Highway - South Gate; Lynwood | split into 12A and 12B southbound | |
| LA 18.45 | 13 | Image:California 42.svg Firestone Boulevard (State Route 42) | ||
| Bell | 15 | Florence Avenue - Bell | ||
| LA 21.92 LA 21.99 | 17A | Atlantic Boulevard; Bandini Boulevard | split into 17A and 17B northbound | |
| LA 22.45 | Commerce | 17B | Washington Boulevard - Commerce | exit 17C northbound |
| LA 23.27 | 18A | Image:Interstate 5 (California).svg Interstate 5 north - Los Angeles | northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
| LA 23.27 | 18 | Image:Interstate 5 (California).svg Interstate 5 south - Santa Ana | southbound exit and northbound entrance | |
| LA 23.44 | Los Angeles | 19 | Olympic Boulevard | exit 18B northbound |
| 20A | 3rd Street | exit 20B northbound | ||
| LA 24.63 | 20B | Image:California 60.svg State Route 60 - Pomona Freeway; Pomona; Los Angeles | exit 20A northbound | |
| LA 24.97 | 20C | Cesar Chavez Avenue | ||
| LA 26.38 | Monterey Park | 21 | Ramona Boulevard | northbound exit and southbound entrance |
| LA 26.50 | 22 | Image:Interstate 10 (California).svg Interstate 10 - San Bernardino Freeway; Los Angeles; San Bernardino; Pasadena | split into 22A and 22B southbound | |
| LA 27.47 | Los Angeles | Valley Boulevard | northbound exit and southbound entrance (at-grade intersection) | |
| gap | ||||
| LA 32.08 | Pasadena | California Boulevard | southbound exit and northbound entrance (at-grade intersection) | |
| LA 32.11 | Del Mar Boulevard | southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| LA 32.73 | Image:California 134.svg State Route 134 west - Ventura | northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| LA 32.73 | Image:Interstate 210 (California).svg Interstate 210 east - San Bernardino | northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| Colorado Boulevard - Pasadena | southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
| LA 32.73 | Image:Interstate 210 (California).svg Interstate 210 west - San Fernando | northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
References
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