('''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.
Until )
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.
was defined in 1933 to run from (
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 .
1942 Gousha Los Angeles map
The freeway replacement of SR 15/LR 167 was built from 1954 to 1961.
January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways The whole route of LR 167, including the proposed extensions west to and
State Route 134 .
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 ) The rest of the defined route, west on Ocean Boulevard to SR 47, is still locally maintained.
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.
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
Smog gy 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.
