News reports from 1975 California freeway cancellation bloodbath

[MaxConcrete]

I found these images while doing some file cleanup. These were obtained around 2002 from microfilm and I think all are from the L.A. Times. Of course you can find these on the LA Times digital archive, but it is convenient to have them all together in one place and should be of interest to California freeway historians.

The inflation multiplier since 1975 is 4.4. Even adjusting for inflation, many of the financial figures seem very low. Of course, land costs were much lower back then and so were construction costs.

This 11-Feb-1975 article reports on the expected cancellation of 400-500 miles of freeway. Perhaps most interesting is the last sentence which mentions the revenue generated by the sale of right-of-way. The right-of-way liquidation was perhaps the most devastating consequence of the 1975 freeway crisis, ensuring those freeways could never be built.


Thi 22-March-1975 reports on the cancellation of the Route 57 extension in Orange County and some other freeways outside SoCal.


This 23-May-1975 article reports on the official death of the Beverly Hills Freeway and part of the Nixon Freeway. ROW for the Beverly Hills Freeway has been acquired around Vermont Street.




This 18-July-1975 article reports on the death of the Route 18 freeway in Loma Linda, Route 33 in Ventura County and a freeway in Contra Costa County.


This 24-July-1975 article reports on the freeze on land acquisition, including suspension of acquisition for Route 710 in the South Pasadena area. The article also reports that an incredible 5300 parcels had been acquired in 1971-1972.





This 22-November-1975 article discusses the decline in construction funding.




This article is from 1964 when planning for the Malibu Freeway was still ongoing.

[TheStranger]

The Orinda route being referenced seems to be the portion of Route 93 east of I-80 heading southeast (as opposed to the part of that corridor that was built as Richmond Parkway).

Interesting that it took 35+ years to finally get a Lincoln bypass built (for Route 65).

The Harris Grade route north of Lompoc - is that Route 1/135 or 1964-1984 Route 176?

Wonder if that's the first newspaper article to officially describe I-105 as the "Century Freeway" (I remember searching and finding a piece from the 1980s or early 1990s about how that came about entirely through colloquial use).

The thing cited above as "Route 57" actually is (as noted in the article itself) the Route 39 freeway upgrade that never happened.


Fascinating that in 1975, there was still optimism to finish the Glendale Freeway southwestward towards the Hollywood Freeway (isn't there a plan to put a park on the overpass that Route 2 uses now over Glendale Boulevard?).

The "Route 90 at I-10" thing seems to be a misnomer as Route 90's unbuilt alignment basically is only that Slauson section from 405 east to about Route 57.

[sdmichael]

These two links show the documents regarding the cancellation of the Beverly Hills Freeway (State 2) in 1976. I found similar documents for the State 126 Santa Paula Freeway across Santa Clarita as well.

http://www.socalregion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/LA-02-Sept-1976.pdf

http://www.socalregion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/LA-02-April-1976.pdf

[Bigmikelakers]

Would have been cool if the 90 went all the way to the 57 in Brea/Yorba Linda and then possibly cut through Carbon Canyon to meet with the 15 in Eastvale. I think if the planners at the time knew of the future population explosion in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties within the last 20 years, they would have considered that. Would probably relieve some of the pressure off the 91.

[sdmichael]

Would have been cool if the 90 went all the way to the 57 in Brea/Yorba Linda and then possibly cut through Carbon Canyon to meet with the 15 in Eastvale. I think if the planners at the time knew of the future population explosion in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties within the last 20 years, they would have considered that. Would probably relieve some of the pressure off the 91.

However, such freeway expansions may have hastened and induced the growth in the first place. We may still be in the same mess today, but with more freeways. Eastvale is a good example of what NOT to do and yet is still done.

[ZLoth]

I guess this is along the lines of "don't build it, and they won't come". Well, they came anyways.

An example of this is the Elvas Freeway (CA-51/Business 80) northbound between Exposition Blvd and Arden Way where the freeway goes from three lanes to two lanes and is a major choke point. This is the same configuration since the highway was first constructed in the 1950s. The replacement was famously cancelled in the late 1970s and the already constructed parts was coverted over to the light rail system. To this day, I know of no other project, either suggested, proposed, or planned, to fix this choke point.

[sdmichael]

The "freeway everywhere" autocentric model just isn't sustainable. You still end up with major traffic jams. It isn't "don't build it and they won't come". What is being built, such as Eastvale, has no decent transit access and is far from job centers. All that does is put more pressure on ANY roadways.