Interstate 710

Interstate 710 marker State Route 710 marker

Interstate 710 and State Route 710

Long Beach Freeway

I-710 highlighted in red

Route information

Defined by Streets and Highways Code § 622

Maintained by Caltrans

Length:

23 mi (37 km)

History:

1930s as highway, 1964 as a number (SR 7), 1983-1984 as an interstate (I-710)^[1]

Component
highways:

I-710 from Long Beach to Monterey Park

SR 710 (unsigned) from California Boulevard (South Pasadena Gap) to Pasadena

Main section

South end:

SR 47 in Long Beach

Major
junctions:

North end:

Valley Boulevard in Alhambra

Pasadena stub

South end:

California Boulevard in Pasadena

North end:

SR 134 / I-210 in Pasadena

Location

Counties:

Los Angeles

Highway system

Interstate Highway System

State highways in California

←

I-680

I-780

→

Interstate 710 (I-710), is a state highway in the Los Angeles area of the U.S. state of California, built to interstate standards. State Route 710 (SR 710) is the completed portion of the proposed northern extension of the route to Pasadena.

Interstate 710 is a north–south auxiliary interstate freeway running for 23 miles (37 km) through Los Angeles County, California. Officially known as the Long Beach Freeway, it runs north from Long Beach to Valley Boulevard, just north of I-10, the San Bernardino freeway, near the boundary between the cities of Alhambra and Los Angeles. South of I-5, Interstate 710 follows the course of the Los Angeles River, rarely wandering more than a few hundred feet from the riverbed. South of SR 1 in Long Beach, I-710 is officially part of the Seaside Freeway.^[2]

Also called the Los Angeles River Freeway prior to November 18, 1954,^[3] I-710 was initially planned to run all the way north to Pasadena, but construction of the segment from Alhambra to Pasadena through South Pasadena has been delayed for several decades due to community opposition. Until this gap is constructed, the segment already completed from California Boulevard north to its northern terminus at State Route 134 and Interstate 210 remains unsigned.

Prior to 1983, the road was not an Interstate, although it was built to Interstate standards. Until 1964 it was State Route 15, but it was renumbered to State Route 7 in the 1964 renumbering because of the existence of Interstate 15, and to I-710 in 1983.

Route description

Aerial view of the I-105/I-710 interchange

I-710 at its junction with SR 60 in East Los Angeles

Section 622 of the California Streets and Highways Code defines Route 710 as "from Route 1 to Route 210 in Pasadena." Section 622.1 amends the definition, stating "Route 710 shall also include that portion of the freeway between Route 1 and the northern end of Harbor Scenic Drive, that portion of Harbor Scenic Drive to Ocean Boulevard, that portion of Ocean Boulevard west of its intersection with Harbor Scenic Drive to its junction with Seaside Boulevard, and that portion of Seaside Boulevard from the junction with Ocean Boulevard to Route 47."^[4]

The southern terminus of the freeway presently signed as Interstate 710 is at Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. From there, the Long Beach Freeway follows the course of the Los Angeles River to Atlantic Boulevard in the city of Bell. 710 then travels roughly north, east of downtown Los Angeles, to its current northern terminus at Valley Boulevard (just north of Interstate 10) in Alhambra and the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Near its southern terminus, I-710 separates into three spur freeways. The first spur splits at the 9th Street interchange, with the left-branching ramps crossing the Los Angeles River and becoming West Shoreline Drive as they head to downtown Long Beach, passing the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Long Beach Convention Center among other attractions. This spur becomes a surface arterial at the intersection with South Chestnut Place and the Pike Parking Garage. Meanwhile, the main segment continues south as the Seaside Freeway, keeping the I-710 designation, until the interchange with Ocean Blvd., where offramps to Ocean Blvd. west carry both the Seaside Freeway name and I-710 designation to the approaches to the Gerald Desmond Bridge. The mainline continues south as Harbor Scenic Drive, leading to the eastern piers of the Port of Long Beach and the Queen Mary. Currently, the Interstate 710 designation terminates at the interchange with SR-47, while the actual roadway and Seaside Freeway designation continue over a bridge towards the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

There is a part of 710 in Pasadena that is constructed to freeway standards, extending from California Boulevard north to the Foothill (I-210)/Ventura (Hwy 134) freeway interchange. However, the route designation on this freeway stub is unsigned, and is instead marked as if it were merely freeway entrance and exit ramps to and from 210.

I-710 and SR 710 are part of the California Freeway and Expressway System,^[5] and north of SR 1 are part of the National Highway System,^[6] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.^[7]

History

The highway connecting Long Beach and Monterey Park that later became I-710 was originally signed as State Route 15 from 1934 to 1964

I-710 was previously signed as State Route 7 from 1964 to 1985

1930–65

Legislative Route 167 was defined in 1933 to run from San Pedro east to Long Beach and north to Monterey Park.^[8] An extension was added in 1947, taking it north to Pasadena.^[9] 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 along Los Robles Avenue (Pasadena) and Atlantic Boulevard.^[1]^[10] The freeway replacement of SR 15/LR 167 was built from 1953 to 1965.^[11] The whole route of LR 167, including the proposed extensions west to San Pedro and north to Pasadena, was renumbered State Route 7 in 1964, after it was decommissioned from portions of the San Diego Freeway (which is now Interstate 405) as part of the state highway 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.

1965–present

The Long Beach Freeway was approved as a non-chargeable interstate in September 1983 by FHWA, and on May 30, 1984, the AASHTO approved the SR 7 designations to be renumbered to Interstate 710. In October 1984, the FHWA approved additional 1.6 mile extension from CA 1 to Ocean Boulevard.^[12] ^[13] The short stub in Pasadena was built in 1975, along with the adjacent sections of Interstate 210 and State Route 134.^[11] There are still remaining overhead street signs pointing motorists to State Route 7 on Ford Boulevard in Monterey Park.^[14]

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.^[15] In 2013, Caltrans adopted the remainder of the Seaside Freeway from Ocean Boulevard to SR 47 over the Gerald Desmond Bridge as part of Route 710. Caltrans and the Port of Long Beach plan to replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge by 2016.^[16]

Future

I-710 Corridor Project

The significant growth of cargo volumes handled at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has added a large 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, since 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.^[17] In response, an Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report is currently being conducted to analyze possible significant improvements to I-710 between the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the Pomona Freeway (SR-60).^[18]

The South Pasadena Gap

Merging onto the northern stub of I-710 in downtown Pasadena. Note dormant construction equipment lining the median, and the road sign structures installed on the overpass without any signs posted

Overview

The planned segment from Alhambra to Pasadena through South Pasadena has been subject to legal battles which have stopped construction.^[19] Because of these legal disputes, the freeway's northern terminus has been Valley Boulevard since the 1960s. However, a short unsigned freeway does exist in Pasadena, heading south from the interchange of Interstate 210 and State Route 134 to California Boulevard. This freeway was supposed to be the northern terminus of I-710. There is a sign on a carpool lane exit on I-210 that marks this unsigned freeway as I-710.

As a result of the route's incomplete condition, freeway signs are inconsistent in their identification of the northbound Long Beach Freeway's destination, with some indicating Pasadena as a control city and others identifying Valley Boulevard as the freeway's terminus. For example, approaching I-710 from State Route 60 (Pomona Freeway) in East Los Angeles, westbound traffic is given Valley Boulevard as the destination for northbound I-710, while eastbound traffic is given a destination of Pasadena. Signs at the interchange with Interstate 105 show Pasadena as the destination for northbound I-710.

Currently, traffic headed for Pasadena on I-710 is redirected to Interstate 10 (San Bernardino Freeway) eastbound by signs at the interchange between the two routes in Monterey Park. These signs identify both Pasadena and San Bernardino as control cities for the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway, although it does not actually pass through Pasadena. Rather, traffic to the city is directed to take State Route 19 (Rosemead Boulevard) northbound from its junction with I-10 (about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the Long Beach Freeway) to reach Pasadena. Traffic from northbound I-710 is routed onto Fremont Avenue in Alhambra and South Pasadena, and the Pasadena Freeway (State Route 110).

The areas around I-710, northeastern Los Angeles and the northwestern San Gabriel Valley are subject to traffic congestion. There are no completed north–south freeways in the twelve-mile 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 traffic congestion, or merely displace it from surface streets to the freeway.

Current plans

Caltrans and its local partner, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), are researching the possibility of extending the Long Beach Freeway from Valley Boulevard to Pasadena by building a bored tunnel under Alhambra, El Sereno, and South Pasadena. The premise is that a tunnel would allow Caltrans to extend the freeway without disturbing the residential neighborhoods on the surface, similar to other tunnels throughout the world.^[19] The proposed twin 4.5-mile-long tunnels would be the longest in the United States, but are small compared with others around the world. Between January and May 2009, Caltrans conducted soil samples for the tunneling project in the Pasadena area and is currently in the process of completing a combined environmental impact statement (EIS) and environmental impact report (EIR), in which the tunnel is one option.^[20]

In August 2012, Metro narrowed down the list of potential alternatives to study in the EIR/EIS process. The alternatives include: (1) a no-build alternative, where no additional infrastructure would be built to address the gap in the freeway plan between Valley Boulevard and I-210; (2) a roadway tunnel without exits to connect the northern terminus of the freeway at Valley Boulevard to Pasadena; (3) a light rail line connecting East L.A. with Pasadena using a route that travels along the I-710 right of way until Valley Boulevard where it would become a subway until connecting with the Metro Gold Line at the Fillmore Metro station in Pasadena; (4) a bus rapid transit line from Montebello to Pasadena; and (5) Transportation System Management/Transportation Demand Management (TSM/TDM).^[21]^[22]

California Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena had in February of 2017 sponsored a bill to block the closing and completion of the nb/sb I-710 to the eb/wb I-210 gap, in which the cities of Monterey Park and Alhambra had for many years bore the brunt of the I-710 detoured street traffic, and hoped for the completed extension, but the cities of South Pasadena and Pasadena remained staunchly opposed.^[23]

The Caltrans/Los Angeles Metro authorities have in May of 2017 concluded to no longer pursue the completion of the I-710 freeway gap between the northernmost terminus at Valley Blvd in Alhambra to what was hoped to be traffic relieving extension to potentially the I-210 in Pasadena; the $780 million allocated through Measure R for the intended project of closing of the gap between the I-710 to the I-210 will now be allocated to improvement of certain local surface street projects, improved traffic signal synchronizations, and other "mobility improvement projects".^[24]^[25]

Exit list

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see the list of postmile definitions).^[26] Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The entire route is in Los Angeles County.

Location	Postmile ^[26]^[11]^[27]	Exit^[28]	Destinations	Notes
Long Beach			SR 47 south – San Pedro	South end of I-710
			SR 47 north to SR 103 north – Piers A S
			Pier T Avenue – Piers S T	Northbound entrance only; southbound exit demolished for bridge construction
		Gerald Desmond Bridge over Cerritos Channel
		Southbound 710 Freeway Connector closed for bridge construction.^[29]
			Pico Ave	Southbound entrance only; temporary south end of southbound I-710 detour
	4.96		Port of Long Beach, Piers A-J	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	5.46	1A	Queen Mary (Harbor Scenic Drive) – Piers F-J	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	5.98	1B	Pico Avenue – Piers B-E	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; temporary north end of southbound I-710 detour due to closure of connector bridge
	6.06	1C	Downtown Long Beach, Aquarium (Long Beach Freeway, Shoreline Drive)	Southbound left exit and northbound entrance
	6.38	1D	Anaheim Street	Signed as exit 1 northbound
	6.88	2	SR 1 (Pacific Coast Highway)	Former US 101 Alternate / US 6
	7.89	3	Willow Street	Signed as exits 3A (east) and 3B (west)
	9.07	4	Wardlow Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	9.41	4	I-405 (San Diego Freeway) – San Diego, Santa Monica	Former SR 7; I-405 exits 32A-B
	10.82	6	Del Amo Boulevard	Signed as exits 6A (east) and 6B (west) northbound
	12.01	7	Long Beach Boulevard	Signed as exits 7A (south) and 7B (north) southbound
	12.89	8A	Artesia Boulevard	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	12.97	8	SR 91 (Artesia Freeway, Gardena Freeway) – Riverside, Redondo Beach	Signed as exits 8A (east) and 8B (west) northbound and the opposite southbound; SR 91 east exits 12A-B, west exit 12A
Compton	13.95	9	Alondra Boulevard – Compton	Signed as exits 9A (east) and 9B (west) southbound
Paramount	R14.98	10	Rosecrans Avenue
Lynwood	R15.69	11A	I-105 (Century Freeway) – Norwalk, El Segundo	Signed as exit 11 northbound; I-105 exit 13
Lynwood		11B	Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard	Southbound exit and entrance
South Gate	16.99	12	Imperial Highway – Lynwood	Signed as exits 12A (east) and 12B (west) southbound
South Gate	18.44	13	Firestone Boulevard	Former SR 42
Bell	19.73	15	Florence Avenue – Bell
Bell	21.92	17A	Atlantic Boulevard, Bandini Boulevard	Signed as exits 17A (north/east) and 17B (south/west) northbound
Commerce	22.45	17B	Washington Boulevard – Commerce	Signed as exit 17C northbound
	23.28	18A	I-5 north (Santa Ana Freeway) – Los Angeles	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; I-5 south exit 130B
	23.28	18	I-5 south (Santa Ana Freeway) – Santa Ana	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; I-5 north exit 130C
East Los Angeles	23.77	19	Whittier Boulevard, Olympic Boulevard	Signed as exit 18B northbound; Whittier Boulevard is former US 101 / SR 72
	24.47	20A	3rd Street	Signed as exit 20B northbound
	24.63	20B	SR 60 (Pomona Freeway) – Pomona, Los Angeles	Signed as exit 20A northbound; SR 60 exit 3B
	24.97	20C	Cesar Chavez Avenue
Monterey Park	26.38	21	Ramona Boulevard	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; former US 99
Monterey Park	26.50	22	I-10 (San Bernardino Freeway) – Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Pasadena, Phoenix, Las Vegas	Signed as exits 22A (west) and 22B (east) southbound; north end of I-710; south end of SR 710; I-10 exit 21
Alhambra	T27.48	23	Valley Boulevard	At-grade intersection; former US 60
Gap in route
Pasadena	T30.95		Columbia Street	At-grade intersection
	T31.76		California Boulevard	At-grade intersection
		North end of freeway
	T32.11		Del Mar Boulevard	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	T32.45		Colorado Boulevard – Pasadena	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; former US 66 Alt. / SR 11
	R32.72		SR 134 west (Ventura Freeway) – Ventura	SR 134 exit 13B; northbound exit and southbound entrance.
	R32.72		I-210 (Foothill Freeway) – San Fernando, San Bernardino	I-210 east exit 25A; northbound exit and southbound entrance; north end of SR 710.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus Incomplete access

South Harbor Scenic Drive spur (exit 1A)

The entire route is in Long Beach, Los Angeles County.

mi	Destinations	Notes
	Queen Mary	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Harbor Scenic Drive, Harbor Plaza – Piers H-J	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Harbor Plaza – Port of Long Beach, Piers F-G	Southbound exit only
	Downtown Long Beach (Queensway Bridge)	Northbound exit and entrance
	Queensway Drive	Northbound exit and entrance
	Pico Avenue – Piers F-G	No northbound exit
	Downtown Long Beach (Ocean Boulevard)	Northbound exit only
	I-710 north (N. Harbor Scenic Drive) – Pasadena	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Shoreline Drive spur (exit 1C)