Santa Ana Freeway

Infobox road
marker_

state=CA
highway_name=Santa Ana Freeway
maint=Caltrans

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established=
direction_a=South
terminus_a=jct|state=CA|I|5|I|405|name2=El Toro Y
junction=jct|state=CA|SR|22|SR|57|name2=Orange Crush
jct|state=CA|I|605 in Norwalk
jct|state=CA|I|5|I|10|SR|60|name3=East LA Int.
direction_b=North
terminus_b=jct|state=CA|US|101|SR|110|name2=4 Level Int.
system=Southern California freewaysThe Santa Ana Freeway is one of the principal freeways in Southern California, connecting Los Angeles, California and its southeastern suburbs. The freeway begins at the four level Bill Keene Memorial Interchange complex in downtown Los Angeles, signed as U.S. Route 101. From there, it proceeds one mile (1.6 km) east to the East Los Angeles Interchange where it takes the designation of Interstate 5. Its alignment then generally goes northwest to southeast towards its junction with the San Diego Freeway, Interstate 405 (I-405) (informally referred to as the El Toro Y), in Irvine.

North of the East Los Angeles Interchange complex, Interstate 5's name changes to the Golden State Freeway. South of its junction with the I-405, its name changes to the San Diego Freeway. (Interstate 405 ends at this junction.)

An abundance of landmarks, most importantly (Disneyland and Angel Stadium of Anaheim) along the Orange County portion of its route combines with a severe bottleneck beginning at the Los Angeles County border (shrinking from 12 to 6 lanes) to make it one of the most congested freeways in Southern California. The infamously busy intersection of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Orange freeways in southwestern Orange is nicknamed the Orange Crush.

History

The Santa Ana Freeway is a bypass of the original state highway from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, which passed through Whittier and mostly became SR 72 in the 1964 renumbering. Southeast of Santa Ana, this earlier highway, added to the state highway system in 1910 as Route 2, generally followed the present freeway from Tustin past East Irvine to El Toro. [Ben Blow, California Highways: A Descriptive Record of Road Development by the State and by Such Counties as Have Paved Highways, 1920 ( [http://www.archive.org/details/californiahighwa00blowrich Archive.org] or [http://books.google.com/books?id=osgNAAAAYAAJ Google Books] ), pp. 165, 194-195] This route was marked as part of US 101 in 1928. [California Highways and Public Works, [http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/history/1928_highways.html United States Numbered Highways] , January 1928]

In 1933, the state legislature added a number of routes to the state highway system, including two that later formed parts of the Santa Ana Freeway. Route 166 began at the new Route 172 (now SR 60), at the corner of Indiana and Third Streets, and headed south on Indiana Street and east and southeast on Mines Avenue (Olympic Boulevard) and Anaheim-Telegraph Road (now Telegraph Road) to Route 171 (now SR 39) at the intersection with Los Nietos Road near Santa Fe Springs. Route 174 began at Route 60 (then signed Alternate U. S. 101 now SR 1) and followed Manchester Avenue and Firestone Boulevard (then under construction alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad's Santa Ana Branch) to Route 2 (then Los Angeles Street now Anaheim Boulevard) in southern Anaheim. A second piece began further southeast on Route 2, where it turned east on Chapman Avenue, and followed the shorter Santa Ana Boulevard diagonally to Route 2 (Main Street) in northern , [http://www.scvresources.com/highways/la1939.htm Los Angeles and Vicinity] , 1939] )

A U.S. Route 101 Bypass was created by 1941, beginning at the intersection of Routes 166 (Indiana Street, soon moved to Downey RoadFact|date=December 2007 ) and 2 (US 101 along Whittier Boulevard), and following Routes 166 and 174 to Route 2 (US 101) in Anaheim. The connection between Routes 166 and 174 was made via Route 168 (Rosemead Boulevard, then and now SR 19). This resulted in SR 10 being truncated further, to the intersection of Firestone and Rosemead Boulevards, though SR 26 continued to extend east to Buena Park. [H.M. Gousha Company, [http://members.cox.net/mkpl5/hist2/LA-1941.jpgLos Angeles and Vicinity] , 1941: SR 10 overlaps US 101 Bypass to Anaheim] [H.M. Gousha Company, [http://members.cox.net/mkpl2/hist/droz-laca42.jpgLos Angeles and Vicinity] , 1942: SR 10 has been truncated] [Division of Highways, [http://www.americanroads.us/citymaps/1944CaStateMapLosAngeles.pngLos Angeles and Vicinity] , 1944]

A freeway connecting downtown Los Angeles with Orange County was planned by 1939, [Los Angeles Times, Super-Road Hearing Set, September 8, 1939, p. 20] and was included in A Transit Program for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, published that year by the Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board. [Ann Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia: The Planned Communities of Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands, University of California Press, 2005, ISBN 0520241665, p. 61] To allow for its construction by the state, the definition of Route 166 was modified in 1941, changing the southeast end to Route 174 near Norwalk; at the same time, the northernmost piece was changed from Indiana Street to Downey Road. [cite CAstat|year=1941|ch=142|p=1185: "Route 166 is from Route 172, at the intersection of Downey Road to Route 174, near Norwalk."]

The entire Santa Ana Freeway began construction in 1947 and completed in 1956. Originally it was signed as US 101 before the segment of the 101 between the East Los Angeles Interchange and the United States–Mexico border in San Ysidro, California was decommissioned in favor of Interstate 5. It was approved as a chargeable interstate in 1961. The Santa Ana Freeway and also portions of San Diego Freeway (before the freeway was built) south of El Toro Y went up changing the U.S. 101 signs to Interstate 5 in 1964, including full length of Golden State Freeway which was originally signed as US 99.

Legal definition

Routes 101 and 5 from Route 110 (Four Level Interchange) to Route 405. [cite book | url=http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hseb/products/Named_Freeways.pdf | title=2007 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California | publisher=Caltrans | pages=63 | accessdate=2007-03-28]

Control Cities

Northbound
Santa Ana - El Toro Y to Orange Crush Interchange
Los Angeles - Orange Crush Interchange to East Los Angeles Interchange
Civic Center - East Los Angeles Interchange to Alameda Street
Hollywood - Alameda Street to Four Level Interchange
Southbound
Santa Ana - Four Level Interchange to Orange Crush Interchange
San Diego - Orange Crush Interchange to El Toro Y

Exit list

:"Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column."

References