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California State Route 91
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State Route 91, also known as simply The 91, is a major east-west freeway located entirely within Southern California and serving several regions of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. Specifically, it runs from Vermont Avenue in Gardena, just west of the junction with the Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110), east to Riverside at the junction with the Pomona (State Route 60 west of 91), Moreno Valley (State Route 60 east of the 91), and Escondido (I-215) freeways.
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Encyclopedia
State Route 91, also known as simply The 91, is a major east-west freeway located entirely within Southern California and serving several regions of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. Specifically, it runs from Vermont Avenue in Gardena, just west of the junction with the Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110), east to Riverside at the junction with the Pomona (State Route 60 west of 91), Moreno Valley (State Route 60 east of the 91), and Escondido (I-215) freeways. The route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and, since the portion west of Vermont Avenue was relinquished to local governments, it is entirely a freeway. SR 91 is part of the State Scenic Highway System from SR 55 to the east city limit of Anaheim, in the western part of the Santa Ana Canyon, and is eligible for the system through the canyon to I-15.
Although SR 91 is an east-west road, it inherited its odd (as opposed to even) route number from the now mostly decommissioned U.S. 91 which passed through the Inland Empire in a northeasterly direction on its way to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and points beyond. Those segments of U.S. 91 are now parallel to, or have been replaced altogether by, Interstate 15 (I-15).
The area from post mile 10.4 to 11.1 is known as the Juanita Millender-McDonald Highway.
Route description
Major cities
Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs |
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From the Harbor Freeway to its intersection with the Long Beach Freeway in northern Long Beach, SR 91 is named the Gardena Freeway. Between the Long Beach Freeway and its intersection with the Santa Ana Freeway at the Fullerton-Anaheim border, it is named the Artesia Freeway. From the Santa Ana Freeway to its eastern terminus at the intersection of the Pomona, Moreno Valley, and Escondido Freeways, it is named the Riverside Freeway.
Gardena Freeway
The Gardena Freeway is a short freeway in southern Los Angeles County. It is the westernmost freeway portion of State Route 91. It begins just west of the Harbor Freeway at the intersection with Vermont Avenue in the eastern edge of the city of Gardena, proceeding eastward approximately six miles (10 km) until it intersects the Long Beach Freeway. Thereafter, SR 91 is known as the Artesia Freeway.
Until 1991, the Gardena Freeway was known as the Redondo Beach Freeway. The name change reflected the successful efforts of the cities of Torrance and Redondo Beach to block the extension of the freeway westward to its intended terminus at the cancelled Pacific Coast Freeway in Redondo Beach.
Artesia Freeway
The Artesia Freeway is a freeway in southeastern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County. It is signed as State Route 91 for its entire length. It runs east-west from its western terminus at the Long Beach Freeway in northern Long Beach to its eastern terminus at the Santa Ana Freeway at the Fullerton-Anaheim border. (SR 91 continues west of the Long Beach Freeway as the Gardena Freeway, and east of the Santa Ana Freeway as the Riverside Freeway.) The "Artesia Freeway" name originally was assigned to the entire length of SR 91 west of the Santa Ana Freeway in the early 1970s since it was, in sense, the freeway realignment of SR 91 from the paralleling Artesia Boulevard.
As the only freeway to link Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties, the 91 is one of the most heavily congested routes in Southern California.
Riverside Freeway
The Riverside Freeway is the assigned name of a segment of State Route 91 (SR 91), a major east-west freeway located entirely within Southern California that links the cities/communities of Orange and Riverside counties. This named segment extends from the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5 (I-5), in Buena Park to its eastern terminus at its junction with the San Bernardino Freeway, Interstate 10 (I-10) in San Bernardino. Note that the freeway's number assignment changes to Interstate 215 (I-215) at its junction with the Pomona Freeway, State Route 60 (SR 60) in Riverside. Thus, for the last of its eastern alignment is the Riverside Freeway, Interstate 215. Recent improvements to the I-215/SR 60/SR 91 interchange have included new signs, including a "91 South" sign above the last portion of the I-215 southbound lanes which continue on to become the westbound SR 91. A novel feature, for California, is the presence of the toll road (the 91 Express Lanes) that shares alignment with the Riverside Freeway. The Riverside Freeway was first opened in 1963 signed as U.S. Route 91 and U.S. Route 395 and the last section was built in 1975.
91 Express Lanes
Opening in 1995, the 91 Express Lanes was the first privately-funded tollway built in the United States since the 1940s, and the first fully automated tollway in the world. Tolls are collected when a vehicle carrying a transponder mounted on the inside of the vehicle's windshield passes beneath the toll 'booth' (actually a transceiver array above the toll lanes that is located at about the five-mile (8 km) point of the toll road). Other characteristics of the toll road include: variable toll based on traffic volume (i.e. variable congestion pricing) with road signs alerting users to the toll to be paid; an alignment contained entirely within the median of the existing Riverside Freeway with two lanes in each direction; limited access provided only at the east and west ends of the toll road (where the toll lanes become regular carpool lanes; and separation between the regular, main lanes of the Riverside Freeway is provided by reflective yellow, high, plastic lane markers (as opposed to concrete barriers or a similar solid barrier)).
History
Original US 91 - Barstow to Nevada
The Arrowhead Trail, an auto trail connecting Salt Lake City with Los Angeles, initially took a longer route via present US 95 and former US 66 between Las Vegas and Needles, as the more direct Old Spanish Trail was in very poor condition. The "Silver Lake cutoff", which would save about 90 miles (145 km), was proposed by 1920, and completed in 1925 as an oiled road by San Bernardino County. The Bureau of Public Roads and the state of Nevada both urged its inclusion in the state highway system, the former as part of the federal aid highway connecting Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, and the state legislature did that in 1925, with it becoming an extension of Route 31. (Across the state line, State Route 6 continued through Las Vegas to Arizona.) The initial plan for the U.S. Highway system simply stated that Route No. 91 would run from Las Vegas "to an intersection with Route No. 60" (which became US 66 in 1926), but in 1926 the cutoff was chosen, ending at US 66 at Daggett, just east of Barstow. (The roadway south from Las Vegas later became part of US 95.) The route was added to the federal-aid secondary system in 1926, which helped pay for a mid-1930s widening and paving, including some realignments (parts of the old road are now known as Arrowhead Trail). The new routing generally followed the present I-15, except through Baker (where it used Baker Boulevard) and into Barstow (where it followed former SR 58 to First Avenue, ending at Main Street, which carried US 66).
SR 18 - former extension of US 91 through Santa Ana Canyon to Long Beach
US 91 was extended southwest to Long Beach in the late 1940s. Beginning at Barstow, the extension overlapped US 66 over Cajon Pass to San Bernardino. From San Bernardino west through Riverside and Santa Ana Canyon to Olive, the state took over a mostly-paved county highway in 1931 as part of an extension of Route 43 to Newport Beach via Santa Ana. Two branches leading west from Route 43 near Olive along mostly-constructed county roads were added in 1933: Route 175 along Orangethorpe Avenue and Artesia Boulevard from near the mouth of the canyon west to Route 60 (now SR 1) in Hermosa Beach (unconstructed through Compton until the mid-1950s), and Route 178 along Lincoln Avenue and Carson Street from Olive west to Route 168 (now SR 19) in Lakewood. When state routes were marked in 1934, Route 175 became Sign Route 14, and Sign Route 18 included all of Route 178 and most of Route 43 into the San Bernardino Mountains. When US 91 was extended to Long Beach, it overlapped SR 18 from San Bernardino to Lakewood, where it turned south along SR 19 to the Los Alamitos Traffic Circle. There it turned west along US 101 Alternate to near downtown Long Beach, where it ended at SR 15 (Atlantic Avenue), at a terminus shared with US 6. (This routing along SR 19 and US 101 Alt. also became an extension of SR 18.)
In 1935, the state improved the alignment between Fairmont Boulevard and Gypsum Canyon Road, including a bypass of the old road, which curved along the south slope of the canyon, east of Weir Canyon Road. In the late 1930s, the Prado Dam project resulted in the bypassing of a longer section, replacing Prado Road, an abandoned road curving to the east end of the dam, Pomona Rincon Road, Auto Center Drive, Pomona Road, and Yorba Street with the present Green River Road, Palisades Drive, part of SR 91, and 6th Street.
SR 14 - present SR 91 to Hermosa Beach
Prior to 1991, the Gardena Freeway was known as the Redondo Beach Freeway, referring to Caltrans' original intention for the freeway portion of the route to continue all the way to the never-built Pacific Coast Freeway.
Also, before 1997, the 91 continued all the way to State Route 1 in Hermosa Beach. At that time, the route became discontinuous in Gardena, the portion between Vermont Ave. and Western Ave. being turned over to the city. In 2003, the western portion, from SR 1 to Western Ave. was relinquished to the local jurisdictions. The first segment of the freeway was made in 1965 signed as US 91, and the last segment was made in 1975.
91 Express Lanes
By the early 1990s, rapid development of the areas of the Inland Empire around Riverside had made the Riverside Freeway—which is the sole freeway connecting the working class, bedroom communities and industrial areas of the Inland Empire to the wealthy suburbs and commercial centers of Orange County—one of the most congested in the Greater Los Angeles region. In response, a private consortium created the 91 Express Lanes, a fully automated, RFID-activated tollway contained entirely within the median of the existing Riverside Freeway. This route operates between the Orange/Riverside county line and the Costa Mesa Freeway interchange in eastern Anaheim. Opening in 1995, the 91 Express Lanes were the first privately funded tollway built in the United States since the 1940s, and the first fully automated tollway in the world. In 2003, their ownership and operation was taken over by the Orange County Transportation Authority.
Future
Testing evaluations are slated to begin in the winter of 2007 for a tunnel proposal, currently called the Irvine-Corona Expressway proposal, designed to carry traffic from Interstate 15 south of Corona near Cajalco Road to California State Route 241 near Irvine. One concept for this project specifies a set of three tunnels—two for cars and one for both trucks and high-speed light rail—that would stretch for , burrowing beneath the Santa Ana mountain range, and carrying up to 70,000 cars a day between California’s Riverside and Orange counties. The proposed tunnel project would follow a similar route to the 91 Freeway and is designed to reduce the growing traffic congestion on the 91 that prompted the construction of the 91 Express Lanes. If completed, the Irvine-Corona Expressway is projected to be the longest traffic tunnel in North America.
Exits and major intersections
- Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.
| County | Location | Postmile
| # | Destinations | Notes |
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Los Angeles
LA 0.00-R20.74 | Hermosa Beach,
Redondo Beach | 0.00 | | Gould Avenue | Continuation beyond SR 1 | | 0.00 | | | | | Lawndale | | | Redondo Beach Bouleard to I-405 north / Hawthorne Boulevard north | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | Redondo Beach | | 2.47 | | | No left turn eastbound | | Torrance | | 3.07 | | | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; former SR 7 south | | 3.07 | | | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; former SR 7 north | | Gardena | 6.01 | | Vermont Avenue | West end of SR 91 | | Los Angeles | | West end of freeway |
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| R6.34 | 6 | | No exit number eastbound | | Carson | R6.90 | 7A | Main Street | No westbound entrance | | R7.43 | 7B | Avalon Boulevard | | | R8.44 | 8 | Central Avenue | | | Compton | | R9.16 | 9 | Wilmington Avenue | | | R9.80 | 10A | Acacia Avenue | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | 10.27 | 10B | Alameda Street (SR 47) – Compton | Signed as exit 10 westbound | | 10.41 | 10C | Santa Fe Avenue | Signed as exit 10 westbound | | Long Beach | R11.10 | 11 | Long Beach Boulevard | | | R11.68 | 12A | | Signed as exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) eastbound | | R12.09 | 12B | Atlantic Avenue | Signed as exit 12C eastbound; former SR 15 | | R13.09 | 13 | Cherry Avenue | | | R13.59 | 14A | Paramount Boulevard | | | R14.10 | 14B | Downey Avenue | | | Bellflower | | R14.62 | 15A | | Signed as exit 15 eastbound | | R15.11 | 15B | Clark Avenue | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | | R15.61 | 16 | Bellflower Boulevard – Bellflower | Former Legislative Route 169 | | Cerritos | R16.94 | 17 | | Signed as exit 17B westbound | | R17.09 | 17A | Studebaker Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | | Artesia | R18.09 | 18 | Pioneer Boulevard – Artesia | Former SR 35 | | Cerritos | R18.65 | 19A | Norwalk Boulevard | | R19.17-
R19.43 | 19B | Artesia Boulevard, Bloomfield Avenue | No eastbound entrance | | R19.81 | 19C | Shoemaker Avenue | Eastbound exit and entrance | | R20.45 | 20 | Carmenita Road | No eastbound entrance | Orange
(ORA R0.00-R18.91) | La Palma | R0.49-
R0.85 | 21 | Orangethorpe Avenue, Valley View Street | Signed as exit 22 westbound | | Buena Park | | R1.84 | 23A | Knott Avenue | | | R2.62 | 23B | | | Anaheim,
Fullerton | R3.64 | 24 | | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | R3.64 | 24 | | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | | R3.85 | 23C | Magnolia Avenue, Orangethorpe Avenue | Eastbound exit is part of exit 24 | | 1.23 | 26 | Brookhurst Street | | | 2.23 | 27 | Euclid Street | | 3.26-
3.51 | 28 | Harbor Boulevard, Lemon Street, Anaheim Boulevard | Former SR 72 | | Anaheim | 4.26 | 29 | East Street, Raymond Avenue | | | 5.26 | 30A | State College Boulevard | Signed as exit 30 westbound; no westbound exit from SR 91 HOV lane interchange west; former SR 250 | | 6.12 | 30B | | Signed as exit 31 westbound | | 7.36 | 31 | Kraemer Boulevard, Glassell Street | Signed as exit 32 westbound | | 8.40 | 33 | Tustin Avenue | | | R9.19 | 34 | | Left exit westbound | | | | 91 Express Lanes | Eastbound left exit and westbound entrance | | R10.09 | 35 | Lakeview Avenue | | | R11.54 | 36 | | | | R14.43 | 39 | Weir Canyon Road, Yorba Linda Boulevard | | | Yorba Linda | | R15.93 | 40 | | Signed as exit 41B westbound | | R16.40 | 41 | Gypsum Canyon Road | Signed as exit 41A westbound | | R17.95 | 42 | Coal Canyon Road | Closed since 2003 for environmental reasons | | | | | 91 Express Lanes | Westbound left exit and eastbound entrance | Riverside
RIV R0.00-21.66 | | | R1.03 | 44 | Green River Road | | | Corona | R2.09 | 45 | | | | R3.71 | 47 | Serfas Club Drive, Auto Center Drive | | | 4.16 | 48 | 6th Street, Maple Street | | | 5.38 | 49A | Lincoln Avenue | Signed as exit 49 westbound | | 6.02 | 49B | Grand Boulevard | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | 6.34 | 50 | Main Street | Former SR 31 / SR 71 | | 7.45 | 51 | | | | 9.18 | 53 | McKinley Street | Signed as exits 53A (south) and 53B (north) westbound | | Riverside | 10.81 | 54 | Pierce Street | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | 11.10 | 55A | Magnolia Avenue | | | 11.99 | 55B | La Sierra Avenue | | | 13.04 | 56 | Tyler Street | | | 14.08 | 58 | Van Buren Boulevard – Arlington | | | 15.63 | 59 | Adams Street, Auto Center Drive | | | 16.65 | 60 | Madison Street | | | 17.82 | 61 | Arlington Avenue | | | 18.41 | 62 | Central Avenue – Magnolia Center | | | 20.00 | 63 | 14th Street | | 20.45-
20.53 | 64 | University Avenue, Mission Inn Avenue – Downtown Riverside | Former US 60 / US 395 | | 21.47 | 65A | Spruce Street, Poplar Street | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | 21.66 | 65B | | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; former US 395 south | | 21.66 | 65C | | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | | 21.66 | | | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; former US 91 north/US 395 north |
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