Route 110, consisting of State Route 110 (SR 110) and Interstate 110 (I-110), is a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

and auxiliary Interstate Highway in the

Los Angeles metropolitan area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino C ...

of the

US state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The entire route connects San Pedro and the

Port of Los Angeles The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "America's Port", ...

with

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is a ...

and Pasadena. The southern segment from San Pedro to

I-10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally p ...

in downtown Los Angeles is signed as I-110, while the northern segment to Pasadena is signed as SR 110. The entire length of I-110, as well as SR 110 south of the Four Level Interchange with US Route 101 (US 101), is the Harbor Freeway, and SR 110 north from US 101 to Pasadena is the historic Arroyo Seco Parkway, the first freeway in the western United States.

Route description

Route 110 is part of the

California Freeway and Expressway System The California Freeway and Expressway System is a system of existing or planned freeways and expressways in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses both State highways and federal highways in California. It is defined by Article 2 (comme ...

, and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

Harbor Freeway

The Harbor Freeway, signed as I-110, begins at Gaffey Street in San Pedro, where it then travels mostly due north to the Santa Monica Freeway (

) at a point south of downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, where it becomes signed as SR 110. I-110 is primarily within the city limits of Los Angeles, running right along the South Los Angeles region and the

Harbor Gateway The Harbor Gateway is a in the Los Angeles Harbor Region, in the southern part of the city. The neighborhood is narrow and long, running along a north-south axis. Its unusual shape has given it the alternative name of "the Shoestring Strip". Th ...

, a wide north–south corridor that was annexed by the city of Los Angeles specifically to connect San Pedro, Wilmington, and the

with the rest the city. North of I-10, the freeway continues as SR 110 through

to its junction with US 101 at the Four Level Interchange. The Harbor Freeway, along with the Long Beach Freeway ( I-710), are the principal means for freight from the Port of Los Angeles to railyards and warehouses further inland. Its interchange with the Santa Monica Freeway is notoriously busy and congested, and the portions bordering Bunker Hill in northwest Downtown Los Angeles are choked with traffic at peak travel times.

Landmarks

Notable landmarks and attractions near the Harbor Freeway include the

California State University, Dominguez Hills California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH, CSU Dominguez Hills, or Cal State Dominguez Hills) is a public university in Carson, California. It was founded in 1960 and is part of the California State University (CSU) system. In 2020, ...

;

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

; Exposition Park (including the

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a me ...

, the

Banc of California Stadium Banc of California Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC and the National Women's Soccer League's Angel City FC. Opened o ...

and soon the

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a museum founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson. Once completed, the museum will hold all forms of visual storytelling, including painting, photography, sculpture, illust ...

); the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

;

Staples Center Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it w ...

; L.A. Live,

Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Harbor College (LAHC) is a public community college in Wilmington, California. It is one of two community colleges serving the South Bay region of Los Angeles. LAHC serves mainly students from Harbor City, Carson, San Pedro, Ga ...

; the skyline of

; and the

Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...

. The Harbor Freeway is noted for its elaborate

high-occupancy toll lane A high-occupancy toll lane (or HOT lane) is a type of traffic lane or roadway that is available to high-occupancy vehicles and other exempt vehicles without charge; other vehicles are required to pay a variable fee that is adjusted in response ...

feature, with the HOT lanes elevated above the rest of traffic in many areas, constructed in 1994 by C.C. Myers, Inc. as HOV lanes and converted to HOT lanes in 2012. Of particular note is the Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange, which contains the most elaborate network of direct HOV/HOT connectors in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. It includes a 7-story ramp that connects the

Century Freeway A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

's HOV lanes to the Harbor Freeway's northbound HOT lanes and offers splendid views of the entire

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountains collectively known as the ...

and the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies betw ...

. The interchange with SR 91 (formally known as the Edmund J. Russ Interchange) is also fairly large.

Arroyo Seco Parkway

SR 110 continues north as the Arroyo Seco Parkway from US 101 to Pasadena. From downtown, it passes through

Elysian Park Elysian Park is one of the largest parks in Los Angeles at 600 acres (240 ha). Most of Elysian Park falls in the neighborhood of the same name, but a small portion of the park falls in Echo Park. The park was created by city ordinance on April 5, ...

, where the northbound lanes pass through the four

Figueroa Street Tunnels The Figueroa Street Tunnels are a set of four four-lane tunnels that carry northbound traffic on State Route 110 (the Arroyo Seco Parkway) through Elysian Park in Los Angeles, California, United States. From south to north, the four tunnels mea ...

and the higher southbound lanes pass through a cut and over low areas on bridges. Then after crossing the

Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...

and the

Golden State Freeway Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, stretching from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro crossing to the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington. The segment of I-5 in ...

(

I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

), the parkway runs alongside the Arroyo Seco seasonal river towards Pasadena.

Harbor Transitway

The Harbor Transitway is a grade-separated, shared-use

express bus Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications ...

and high-occupancy toll (HOT) corridor, running in the

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic f ...

of I-110, between SR 91 ( Gardena Freeway) and

Adams Boulevard Adams may refer to: * For persons, see Adams (surname) Places United States * Adams, California *Adams, California, former name of Corte Madera, California * Adams, Decatur County, Indiana * Adams, Kentucky *Adams, Massachusetts, a New England t ...

in the south side of Downtown Los Angeles. Southbound buses exit the HOT lanes at dedicated ramps connecting to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. Each vehicle using the HOT lanes is required to carry a FasTrak ''Flex'' transponder, with its switch set to indicate the number of the vehicle's occupants (1, 2, or 3 or more), regardless of whether they qualify for free.

History

Interstate 10 Under Construction at SR 11 in California

In the 1924 Major Street Traffic Plan for Los Angeles, a widening of

Figueroa Street Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington north to Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of Figueroa Street runs just south of Marengo Driv ...

to San Pedro as a good road to the

was proposed. Progress was slow, and, in 1933, the state legislature added the entire length to the state highway system as Route 165, an unsigned designation. This route not only extended from San Pedro north to Los Angeles, but continued through the city-built

and along the northern extension of Figueroa Street to Eagle Rock, and then followed Linda Vista Avenue (via an

overlap Overlap may refer to: * In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram. * In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases * O ...

on Route 161 ( SR 134) over the Colorado Street Bridge) to Route 9 (now I-210) at the Devil's Gate Reservoir. The entire length of Route 165 became Sign Route 11 in 1934. US Route 6 was also assigned to the portion between SR 1 and Avenue 26 in 1937, and, at about the same time, US 66 was moved from Eagle Rock Boulevard to Figueroa Street, overlapping SR 11 between

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

( US 101) and

Colorado Street Colorado Boulevard (or Colorado Street in Glendale and Arcadia) is a major east–west street in Southern California. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arca ...

( SR 134). The state completed the Arroyo Seco Parkway which had been added to the state highway system in 1935 as Route 205, in early 1941, providing a faster route between SR 11 at Avenue 26 and Pasadena.

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(J. Philip Gruen and Portia Lee)
Arroyo Seco Parkway (HAER No. CA-265) written historical and descriptive data
August 1999, pp. 34, 57, 65, 67 US 66 was moved to the new route, while SR 11 remained on Figueroa Street and Linda Vista Avenue, the former also becoming a new US Route 66 Alternate. Construction of a freeway to San Pedro was much slower, despite having been in the earliest plans for an integrated system. Initially, the Harbor Parkway was to split at the merge with the Venice Parkway northeast of the

, with the East By-Pass and West By-Pass straddling the Los Angeles Central Business District and rejoining at the split between the Arroyo Seco Parkway and Riverside Parkway south of

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ...

. Automobile Club of Southern California, map from Traffic Survey, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, 1937, reproduced in Janet L. Abu-Lughod, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities, 1999, p. 256 Transportation Engineering Board, map from A Transit Program for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Region, 1939, reproduced in Gerrylynn K. Roberts, Philip Steadman, American Cities and Technology: Wilderness to Wired City, 1999, p. 79 The West By-Pass was soon incorporated into the Harbor Parkway, Los Angeles County Regional Planning District
Master Plan of Metropolitan Los Angeles Freeways
adopted August 6, 1947 and the first short piece, by then renamed the Harbor Freeway, opened on July 30, 1952, from the Four Level Interchange south to 3rd Street. (The Arroyo Seco Parkway was completed to the Four Level Interchange on September 22, 1953, and renamed the Pasadena Freeway on November 16, 1954.) The Harbor Freeway gradually pushed south, opening to Olympic Boulevard on March 23, 1954, and Washington Boulevard on May 14, 1954. On March 27, 1956, the highway was extended to 42nd Street, and on April 24, 1957, it reached temporary ramps at 88th Place. Further extensions were made to Century Boulevard on July 31, 1958, 124th Street on September 24, 1958, Alondra Boulevard (which the county widened to carry the load) on May 2, 1960, 190th Street on July 15, 1960, Torrance Boulevard on August 28, 1962, and finally Pacific Coast Highway ( SR 1) on September 26, 1962. There it connected with a section that had been open since June 19, 1956, from Pacific Coast Highway south to Channel Street. Along with the Vincent Thomas Bridge to

Terminal Island Terminal Island, historically known as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington and San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Long ...

, the final piece in San Pedro opened on July 9, 1970, completing the Harbor Freeway to its present length. In December 1978, the Harbor Freeway was approved as an

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

by the

FHWA The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

. In 1981, the SR 11 designation was renumbered as I-110 on the Harbor Freeway, and SR 110 on the

Pasadena Freeway Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

. The I-110 designation had been previously applied to what is now a spur of I-10 from 1958 to 1968.

Richard Ankrom signage

In 2001, Richard Ankrom, a local artist who got lost trying to get onto

North from northbound I-110 because there was no clear official signage labeling access to I-5 North, solved his frustration by covertly modifying one of the overhead signs on the freeway just before the Four Level Interchange (). Using official government sign specifications, Ankrom fabricated two sign pieces, one being an I-5 marker shield and the other with the word "NORTH", and affixed them to the left side of the sign. He performed his modifications in broad daylight, disguised as a

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacrame ...

worker. In that district, Caltrans has three sign crews, each thinking one of the other two crews did the installation. After nine months, at Ankrom's request, the ''

Los Angeles Downtown News The ''Los Angeles Downtown News'' is a free weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, serving the Downtown Los Angeles area. The newspaper focuses on general news with an emphasis on real estate and business along with coverage of the arts sc ...

'' broke the story. Prior to Ankrom's work, the only signage directing motorists to the I-5 North off-ramp came at a quarter-mile () before the exit, thus forcing many to merge across multiple lanes in a very short distance. The signs were inspected by Caltrans to ensure they would not fall off onto the road below. Ankrom was never charged, despite statements from officials that his actions were illegal. Ankrom referred to his sign project as "Guerilla Public Service". Caltrans later added an additional "5 North" sign over the left northbound lane at the entrance to the Figueroa Street Tunnels, as well as new electric signage, which will note when an additional lane is available for those wishing to transition to northbound I-5 (converting the current single lane transition to dual lanes). In 2009, Caltrans replaced all signage along this segment with newer, more reflective versions. These new signs include Ankrom's original improvements.

Preservation

Despite the increased traffic in Los Angeles, including trucks shipping products from the

in San Pedro, there are no plans to upgrade the rest of I-110 from I-10 to Pasadena to Interstate standards. Instead,

has pushed for a protected status alternative to preserve the Arroyo Seco Parkway as a historic landmark. The state legislature designated the original section, north of the Figueroa Street Viaduct, as a "California Historic Parkway" (part of the State Scenic Highway System reserved for freeways built before 1945) in 1993; the only other highway so designated is the Cabrillo Freeway ( SR 163) in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. The

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

named it a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1999, and it became a

National Scenic Byway A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

in 2002. U.S. Department of Transportation
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mineta Names 36 New National Scenic Byways, All-American Roads
June 13, 2002

Exit list

References

External links

Metro ExpressLanes
– includes toll information on the I-110 Express Lanes
A written account of Richard Ankrom's sign modification

* ttp://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/i110 Caltrans: Route 110 highway conditions {{I-10 aux 1 (California) 10-1 Interstate 10-1 Southern California freeways 10-1 California Transportation in Los Angeles

State Route 110 Route 110 or Highway 110 can refer to multiple roads: Australia * Nepean Highway * Bellarine Highway Bangladesh * Brazil * BR-110 Canada * Manitoba Highway 110 * New Brunswick Route 110 * Prince Edward Island Route 110 China * China ...

Carson, California 110 South Los Angeles Graffiti and unauthorised signage 110