April 4: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1949:  The Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway opens between Soto Street and Eastman Avenue in the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles.

 

 

The Santa Ana Freeway is considered an important transportation route in that it follows a northwesterly-southeasterly direction, making it of particular strategic value since so many important traffic arteries intersect with it on a north-south east-west grid.

 

 

More information can be found in the May-June, 1949 issue of California Highways and Public Works.

 

 

2008:  Metro joins Caltrans and other officials in dedicating Los Angeles County’s first High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV), or carpool lane, on the Golden State Freeway.

The project adds 6.2 miles of HOV lanes to northbound and southbound I-5 between the Simi Valley Freeway (SR-118) and the Antelope Valley Freeway (SR-14).

More information can be found in the April 10, 2008 MyMetro employee news digest.