The Long Beach Freeway, signed as Interstate 710 throughout its entire length, is a freeway running for 23 miles in a north-south direction through Los Angeles County, California. For most of its route, it follows the course of the Los Angeles River. As originally planned, its route would travel from downtown Long Beach to the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena, where it would also connect the Pasadena and Foothill freeways. However, opposition to the project by residents of the city of South Pasadena, and the litigation resulting therefrom, have prevented Caltrans from completing the northernmost leg of the route; the freeway's northern terminus has thus been Valley Boulevard in far eastern Los Angeles since the 1960s.
The failure to complete both the Long Beach Freeway and the Glendale Freeway (which stops short of its intended southern terminus at the Hollywood Freeway in Echo Park) has resulted in incredible 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 the Golden State and San Gabriel River freeways.
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. Even if funds were available, the vulnerability of such an ambitious structure to earthquakes and terrorism might preclude its construction.
Communities Served
Communities along the Long Beach Freeway include:
Long Beach
Carson
Compton
Paramount
Lynwood
South Gate
Cudahy
Bell
Bell Gardens
Maywood
Vernon
Commerce
East Los Angeles
Monterey Park
Alhambra
El Sereno
Major Intersections
Freeways intersected by the Long Beach Freeway include:
The failure to complete the LongBeachFreeway has contributed to 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 StateFreeway) and Interstate 605 (San Gabriel River Freeway).
In 1965 the route was truncated to State Route 1 in LongBeach; 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.
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 LongBeach for former State Route 103 north of SR 1.
The LongBeach City Council I-710 Oversight Committee was appointed on June 17, 2003, charged with the responsibility of addressing the significant policy issues that the City faces regarding the improvements to the I-710 Freeway.
LongBeach residents first voiced their concerns during the I-710 Major Corridor Study, a multi-agency regional study charged with developing an overall strategy to improve the I-710 Freeway from the Port to the I-60 Freeway.
As community meetings continued, MMA began the process of developing a design concept for the eight mile of freeway in LongBeach, with the understanding that the City was looking for a systems approach that addressed the issues and concerns of the residents as a condition of any physical improvements to the I-710 Freeway.
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