El Toro Y
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The El Toro "Y" is a freeway interchange in
Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
where the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5 (I-5), and the San Diego Freeway (at that point the I-405) merge. South of the El Toro Y, the highway is named the " San Diego Freeway" with the
highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
designation "I-5." Located in south Orange County, the interchange was named after the nearby city El Toro (now Lake Forest), and the now-closed Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, located northeast of the interchange. The "Y" is one of the busiest interchanges in the world; from 1975 to 2002, daily traffic surged from 102,000 to 356,000 vehicles a day. The "Y" was where American broadcast reporter Zoey Tur of
KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...
, via news helicopter, first located and broadcast O.J. Simpson's white Ford Bronco slow-speed police chase exclusively for 22 minutes on June 17, 1994. In the cleft of the "Y" lies the Irvine Spectrum Center.


History

By the early 1990s, the El Toro Y had become one of the most congested freeway interchanges in the world, its severe overcrowding fed by a housing boom in southern Orange County. In November 1990, Orange County voters approved Measure M, a half-cent increase in the county
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
to finance transportation improvements. In 1993, the
California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
(Caltrans) began a massive expansion project, adding a new interchange and collector/distributor roads at Bake Parkway (signed as truck bypass lanes) and Lake Forest Drive, and carpool lanes and connectors. The $166-million project also vastly increased regular traffic lanes. The project increased the number of vehicles per day from 300,000 to 400,000. After the project was completed in 1997, the El Toro Y stood as one of the widest roads in the world, at 26 traffic lanes wide. The traffic delays at the interchange sparked the construction of several parallel bypass
toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...
s. The San Joaquin Hills Toll Road, designated State Route 73 (SR 73), opened in November 1996 and connects San Juan Capistrano and
Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge o ...
. Another parallel road to the El Toro Y is SR 241, the Foothill Toll Road, and the free southern extension, known as "Los Patrones Parkway", that currently ends at Cow Camp Road near SR 74. An extension is planned from Cow Camp Road to Avenida La Pata (Antonio Parkway) in San Clemente in the near future. SR 241 was proposed to connect to I-5 in northern
San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...
, but local opposition regarding environmental issues near Trestles have put the project on hold. In 2017, the Transportation Corridor Agencies considered extending SR 241 to San Clemente. However, residents opposed the proposed route because it would have cost $2 billion, would have intersected at the busiest interchange in San Clemente, Avenida Pico, would have demolished many new homes with real estate value, would have been constructed next to a high school, and would waste taxpayers’ money because the interchange had undergone improvements between 2015 and 2018. Local residents also say that traffic would be worse, equivalent to the SR 91 and SR 241 interchange. The Irvine Spectrum Center, a large shopping center featuring a movie theater, numerous shopping destinations and a large obelisk, which conceals a cell phone and television tower inside of it, is in the cleft of the Y. On July 29, 2008, a moderate earthquake centered in Chino Hills caused damage to an expansion joint on one of the overpasses in the interchange.
Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
closed the 5 Southbound Truck Bypass/Bake Parkway/Lake Forest exit to replace the expansion joint that was damaged during the quake.


In popular culture

The El Toro Y was referenced the 2011 episode "Angry Dad: the Movie" of the animated sitcom
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
, when Bart gives Homer a list of "Must-See Attractions" in Los Angeles. In the third episode of The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, it was initially reported that
O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...
was spotted in Al Cowlings's
Ford Bronco The Ford Bronco is a model line of SUV, SUVs manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company, Ford. The first SUV model developed by the company, five generations of the Bronco were sold from the 1966 to 1996 model years. A sixth generation of ...
on Interstate 405 at Irvine Center Drive at the El Toro Y. However, the scenes were shot elsewhere in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.


See also

* *


References


External links

* {{Irvine, California Southern California freeways Road interchanges in California Roads in Orange County, California Interstate 5 Irvine, California Laguna Hills, California