Information about Golden State Freeway

Golden State Freeway
Maintained by CalTrans
Formed:	1964 (from US-99)
Direction:	North/South
Southern end:	I-10 in Boyle Heights
Major junctions:	CA-134 in North Hollywood CA-170 in Burbank I-405 in Mission Hills I-210 in San Fernando CA-14 in Santa Clarita
Southern end:	SR 99 in Lebec
System:	Southern California Freeway System
California State Routes Unconstructed - Deleted - Freeway - Scenic

The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964.

The Route

I-5 and California State Highway 99 converge near the southernmost point of the San Joaquin Valley, approximately 30 miles (50 km) south of Bakersfield. At this point, the Golden State Freeway begins. It travels southward through the valley until sharply rising to cross the Tejon Pass through the Tehachapi Mountains, continuing through Grapevine Canyon. Path 26 power lines, a southern extension of Path 15, follow the freeway across the pass and onto Pyramid Lake. At one point along the treacherous route, the separated northbound and southbound lanes actually invert, with the southbound lanes being to the east of the northbound ones. The freeway continues into the Santa Clarita Valley, and then crosses Newhall Pass through the Santa Susana Mountains to enter the San Fernando Valley, and in turn, Los Angeles. Several major freeways split from the Golden State Freeway within a few miles of this point: the Foothill Freeway near Sylmar, the San Diego Freeway in Mission Hills, and the Hollywood Freeway in Sun Valley. Traveling through the cities of Burbank and Glendale, it closely follows the Los Angeles River as it skirts the Hollywood Hills. It ends at the East Los Angeles Interchange in Boyle Heights; I-5 continues thereafter as the Santa Ana Freeway.

While the former surface street portions of California State Route 99 are often named the Golden State Highway or Golden State Avenue, Highway 99 itself is not called the Golden State Freeway.

Legal definition

The Golden State Freeway is Route 5 from the 5/10/60/101 Junction to Route 14, as named by the Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board on February 28 1958.^[1] Note that the segment from California State Highway 14 to Highway 99 is still legally unofficial.

Earthquakes and the Golden State Freeway

On February 9, 1971, the Sylmar earthquake destroyed a portion of the Golden State Freeway, including its interchange (then under construction) with the Antelope Valley Freeway, between the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys. It was soon rebuilt with greater seismic reinforcement, but nevertheless sustained heavy damage in the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake (and had to be rebuilt again).

The risk of earthquake damage to the freeway remains high, as the Grapevine route crosses the notorious San Andreas Fault. The risk along this route is such that the proposed high-speed rail corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco, originally planned to be built within the Golden State Freeway's alignment, will instead veer east into the Antelope Valley, going through the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster before traversing the more seismically stable Tehachapi Pass on its way to Bakersfield. Despite adding over 50 miles (80 km) of line to the railroad and 20 minutes to its travel time, the route change will save billions of dollars in construction costs, as Tehachapi Pass presents relatively few engineering challenges.

Trivia

In 2002, a local artist^[2] took it upon himself to fix one of the signs from the Harbor Freeway to I-5.^[3] After nine months, the artists work was eventually discovered and taken down by Caltrans.^[4] However, Caltrans later replaced the artist’s sign with one of their own and later offered him a job.^[5]

Control cities

Northbound

• Sacramento (formerly Bakersfield)

Southbound

• Los Angeles
• Santa Ana

Communities

Communities along the Golden State Freeway include:

• Lebec
• Gorman
• Santa Clarita
• Sylmar
• San Fernando
• Mission Hills
• Pacoima
• Arleta
• Panorama City
• Sun Valley
• Burbank
• Glendale
• Atwater Village
• Glassell Park
• Cypress Park
• Lincoln Heights
• Boyle Heights

Major intersections

Miles are derived from bridge log.

County	Location	Mile	Road(s)	Notes

Los AngelesEast Los AngelesLA 0.00/ I-10 (Santa Monica Freeway/Pomona Freeway)East Los Angeles Interchange

Boyle HeightsLA 3 I-10 (San Bernardino Freeway)Concurrency with Interstate 10

LA 7 SR 110 (Pasadena Freeway)

Echo ParkLA 11 SR 2 (Glendale Freeway)

BurbankLA 15 SR 134 (Ventura Freeway)

North HollywoodLA 19 SR 170 (Hollywood Freeway)

Mission HillsLA 27 SR 118

LA 30 I-405 (San Diego Freeway)

San FernandoLA 34 I-210 (Foothill Freeway)

Santa ClaritaLA 43 SR-14 (Antelope Valley Freeway)

ValenciaLA 45 SR-126 (Magic Mountain Pkwy)

KernLebecKER 3 SR-99Golden State Freeway contines as Interstate 5

References

[ edit] Freeways in Greater Los Angeles
	Golden State Freeway		Santa Ana Freeway		Santa Monica Freeway • San Bernardino Freeway
	Temecula Valley Freeway • Ontario Freeway • Mojave Freeway		Corona Freeway		Needles Freeway
	Glenn Anderson Freeway		Harbor Freeway • Pasadena Freeway		Foothill Freeway
	Barstow Freeway		Escondido Freeway		San Diego Freeway
	San Gabriel River Freeway		'''Long Beach Freeway • California State Route 710		'''Hollywood Freeway
	'''Ventura Freeway		Glendale Freeway		Antelope Valley Freeway
	Garden Grove Freeway		Moorpark Freeway		Ojai Freeway
	Seaside Freeway		Costa Mesa Freeway		Orange Freeway
	Pomona Freeway • Moreno Valley Freeway		Chino Valley Freeway		Corona del Mar Freeway • San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor
	Marina Freeway		Gardena Freeway • Artesia Freeway		Riverside Freeway
	Terminal Island Freeway		Ronald Reagan Freeway		Santa Paula Freeway
	Laguna Freeway • Eastern Toll Road		Foothill Toll Road		California State Route 259
	Eastern Toll Road