by Evan Davis

Interstate 710 Extension

I have always been fascinated with freeways, interchanges and transportation in general. This would probably explain my obsession with Sim City 4.

Living and working in the Pasadena area has made me painfully aware of the lack of connection between Interstate 10 and Interstate 210. After being in LA for a few years I realized that the 710 was designed to fill this need.

Excited to learn more about the project I looked into where the proposed path for the highway would be. I discovered that the people near the proposed route have been fighting a legal battle to prevent the highway for 50 years.

So I decided to read all their complaints:

In reality the finishing of the freeway will improve LA traffic, reduce surface street traffic, increase their property values and make it easier for everyone to get where they need to go.

Unfortunately I am unable to find a proper map of the proposed route for the 710 extension. So I made my own! Click on the image to the right to see a larger map of the 710 extension. Here is the break down:

  1. 710 Extension Map through El Sereno, South Pasadena and PasadenaValley Blvd Exit: The embankment is already built up. Build a bridge over valley and create ramps for the North side.
  2. Mission Blvd Exit: Continuing the raised freeway built up on earth, add a bridge over Mission with ramps connecting.
  3. Huntington Exit: Add another exit here from a raised freeway.
  4. Sierra Vista Tunnel: After Huntington drop the freeway into the hillside and build a tunnel to come out at Monterey & Gindon.
  5. Monterey Exit: Here the freeway could be raised on Pylons.
  6. Mission St Exit: Still on pylons the ramps would be lowered to Mission St. next to the transit tracks.
  7. 110 Interchange:
    1. The 710 would be one deck above the 110.
    2. The highway would dive into the mountainside in the area west of Freemont Ave forming the Buena Vista tunnel.
    3. All the interchange ramps would be contained in the area north of the transit tracks, but south of the 110.
  8. 110 Interchange Ramps
    1. 110W>710N: No Exit
    2. 110W>710S: Begins at Freemont next to 110W on-ramp. Up the hillside one deck above the 710 then turn south to merge.
    3. 110E>710S: Merge with 110W>710S before merging with 710.
    4. 110E>710N: Runs parallel to the 110E>710S, raises up to a bridge one deck below (ground) the descending 710 while turning North. Merge with the 710 before the tunnel.
    5. 710S>110E: Tunnel through hillside to connect to the 110E.
    6. 710S>110W: No Exit
    7. 710N>110W: Raised interchange to go one deck over the 110W>710S. Then over the 710S>110E Tunnel to connect farther down the highway.
    8. 710N>110E: No Exit
  9. Buena Vista Tunnel: This would end North of Columbia St & South of State St. The highway would be sunk into the ground and go under State St just west of Pasadena Ave.
  10. Because the houses near Freemont St, Columbia St & Pasadena Ave would be demolished anyway, Pasadena Ave, could be connected to Freemont St fixing problems there.
  11. Bellefonte Exit:
    1. Where Pasadena Ave jogs East the 710 will jog West under Pasadena Ave & Bellefonte St.
    2. The 710N exit will connect at where Bellefonte & Pasadena meet.
    3. The 710N on-ramp will come off of Pasadena Ave just north of Bellefonte.
    4. The 710S exit will terminate at St. John Ave & Bellefonte St.
    5. The 710S on-ramp will begin at Pasadena Ave & Hurlbut St.
  12. California Exit:
    1. The highway is still sunken below the surface streets here.
    2. The old 710S Exit will be used.
    3. New ramps would be created connecting from California St for the 710N & 710S on-ramps as well as the 710N Exit.
  13. 210 Interchange: Everything should remain the same here.

I hope this highway extension will be build. I know it will improve the life of locals and LA in general.

Update 6/15/2015: I started creating a marked up map on Google.