California State Route 22

State Route 22
Garden Grove Freeway
Route information
Maintained by Caltrans
Length	15 mi (24 km)
Existed	1967–present
Major junctions
West end	SR 1 in Long Beach
Major intersections	I-405 in Seal Beach SR 39 in Garden Grove I-5 in Santa Ana
East end	SR 55 in Orange
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
State highways in California Interstate US State Scenic History Pre‑1964 Unconstructed Deleted Freeways
← →

State Route 22 in the U.S. State of California is an east-west highway in southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County. It runs between Long Beach and Orange by way of Garden Grove. The westernmost part of it is a surface street, Long Beach's 7th Street. From Long Beach to its eastern terminus in Orange, it is known as the Garden Grove Freeway. It is one of the two principal east-west routes in Orange County, California (the other being the Riverside Freeway approximately eight miles (13 km) to the north).

The route

Major cities Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs
Long Beach (westbound) Garden Grove (eastbound) Westminster Orange (eastbound) Santa Ana

The 22 begins at the intersection of 7th Street and Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) in Long Beach. Then, 7th Street widens from an expressway into a freeway just before crossing the San Gabriel River (and with it, the Los Angeles/Orange County line). It then merges with the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) at the Interstate 605 interchange and runs concurrently with it for approximately three miles before the two routes diverge in northeastern Seal Beach. Thereafter, the Garden Grove Freeway travels mostly within the city of Garden Grove or along its border with neighboring Westminster. Just inside the Orange city limits, the freeway enters the infamously congested Orange Crush interchange with the Santa Ana and Orange Freeways (Interstate 5 and State Route 57, respectively. It continues along the border of Orange and Santa Ana for three miles (5 km) until terminating at the Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55).

History

Opened in the 1967, the Garden Grove Freeway had the distinction of being one of the few freeways in Southern California to never have been widened from its original alignment. This resulted in its suffering from severe rush hour congestion, particularly as Santa Ana's population surged to over 300,000 during the 1990s.

Planned improvement

In late 2004, in response to California's budgetary deficit, OCTA began a widening project to add one mixed-flow and one high occupancy vehicle lane to the route in each direction, as well as to update onramps and offramps to contemporary standards, all funded by Measure M, the half-cent tax of Orange County, CA. This first phase of the project, scheduled to conclude in late 2006, opened May 2007. A later phase to add HOV lane interchanges at the I-605 junction and at the split with I-405 (Los Alamitos Curve) is in the planning stages, but funding has not yet been procured to start this phase.

State law

Legal Definition of Route 22: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 322 Template:CAFESAlt

Route 22 from Route 405 to Route 55 is known as the Garden Grove Freeway, as named by the State Highway Commission on October 22 1957.

Exit list

County	Location	Postmile	#	Destinations	Notes
Los Angeles	Long Beach	LA 0.00		SR 1 (Pacific Coast Highway)
				Bellflower Boulevard
		West end of freeway
		LA 1.14	1	Studebaker Road
Orange	Seal Beach	ORA 0.65	2	I-405 north (San Diego Freeway) / I-605 north (San Gabriel River Freeway) – Santa Monica	West end of I-405 overlap
			22	Seal Beach Boulevard, Los Alamitos Boulevard
	Westminster	ORA R0.66		I-405 south (San Diego Freeway) – San Diego	East end of I-405 overlap; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Garden Grove	ORA R0.92	5A	Bolsa Chica Road, Valley View Street	Signed as exits 5A (Bolsa Chica Road) and 5B (Valley View Street) eastbound
		ORA R2.69	7	Knott Street, Golden West Street
	Westminster	ORA R3.59	8	SR 39 (Beach Boulevard)	Serves Stanton, Westminster
	Garden Grove	ORA R4.81	9	Magnolia Street
		ORA R5.82	10	Brookhurst Street - Garden Grove
		ORA R6.81	11	Euclid Street - Garden Grove
		ORA R7.83	12	Harbor Boulevard	Signed as exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) eastbound
		ORA R8.82	13	Fairview Street, Haster Street
	Orange	ORA R9.73	14A	The City Drive
	Santa Ana	ORA R10.01	14B	Bristol Street	No westbound exit
	Orange	ORA R10.48	14C	I-5 south (Santa Ana Freeway) – San Diego	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		ORA R10.48	14D	I-5 north (Santa Ana Freeway) / SR 57 north (Orange Freeway) – Los Angeles, Pomona	Signed as exit 14B westbound
	Santa Ana	ORA R10.99	15	Main Street – Santa Ana
	Orange	ORA R11.84	16	Glassell Street, Grand Avenue
		ORA R12.85	17A	Tustin Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		ORA R13.17	17	SR 55 (Costa Mesa Freeway) – Newport Beach, Riverside	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; signed as exits 17B (south) and 17C (north)

External links

• OCTA - SR-22
• WestCoastRoads - State Route 22
• Caltrans: Route 22 highway conditions
• California Highways: SR 22