California State Route 91

Major cities; Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs
	Beach Cities (westbound; via Artesia Blvd); Redondo Beach (westbound; via Artesia Blvd); Long Beach (westbound; via I-710); Artesia (westbound); Los Angeles (westbound; via I-5); Riverside (eastbound);

State Route 91
State Route 91
Gardena Freeway; Artesia Freeway; Riverside Freeway
Route information
	Maintained by Caltrans
Length	65 mi (105 km)
Major junctions
	I-110 in Carson; I-710 in Long Beach; I-605 in Bellflower; I-5 in Anaheim; SR 57 in Anaheim; SR 55 in Anaheim; SR 241 in Anaheim; SR 71 in Corona; I-15 in Corona
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
	State highways in California; Interstate; US; State; Scenic; History; Pre‑1964; Unconstructed; Deleted; Freeways;

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.

Route

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, California. 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, California. 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.

History

Although the 91 is an east-west road, it inherited its odd (as opposed to even) route number from the now mostly decommissioned U.S. Route 91 (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).

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. 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 12 miles, burrowing beneath the Santa Ana mountain range, and carrying up to 70,000 cars a day between California’s Riverside and Orange counties.^[2] The proposed tunnel project would essentially parallel the 91 freeway and would reduce traffic congestion that has already prompted the need for constructing the 91 Express Lanes. If completed, the Irvine-Corona Expressway would be the longest traffic tunnel in North America.

State law

Legal Definition of Route 91: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 391 Template:CAFESAlt Template:CAScenicAlt

Exit list

County	Location	Postmile^[3]	#^[4]	Destinations	Notes
Los Angeles	Gardena			Vermont Avenue	At-grade intersection; western terminus of SR 91
	Los Angeles	LA 6.36	6	I-110 (Harbor Freeway) to I-405 – San Pedro, Los Angeles	No exit number eastbound
	Carson	LA R6.90	7A	Main Street
		LA R7.44	7B	Avalon Boulevard
		LA R8.43	8	Central Avenue
	Compton	LA R9.15	9	Wilmington Avenue
		LA R9.80	10A	Acacia Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		LA R10.28	10B	Alamenda Street	Signed as exit 10 westbound; no westbound entrance
		LA R10.39	10C	Santa Fe Avenue	Signed as exit 10 westbound; no westbound entrance
	Long Beach	LA R11.10	11	Long Beach Boulevard
		LA R11.63	12A	I-710 (Long Beach Freeway) – Long Beach, Pasadena	Signed as exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) eastbound
		LA R12.09	12B	Atlantic Avenue	Signed as exit 12C eastbound
		LA R13.09	13	Cherry Avenue
		LA R13.59	14A	Paramount Boulevard
		LA R14.10	14B	Downey Avenue
	Bellflower	LA R14.61	15A	SR 19 (Lakewood Boulevard)	Signed as exit 15 eastbound
		LA R15.10	15B	Clark Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		LA R15.61	16	Bellflower Boulevard - Bellflower
	Cerritos	LA R16.95	17	I-605 (San Gabriel River Freeway) – Irwindale, Seal Beach	Signed as exit 17B westbound
		LA R17.08	17A	Studebaker Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		LA R18.09	18	Pioneer Boulevard - Artesia
		LA R18.67	19A	Norwalk Boulevard
		LA R19.17 LA R19.43	19B	Artesia Boulevard, Bloomfield Avenue	No eastbound entrance
		LA R19.81	19C	Park Plaza Drive	Eastbound exit and entrance
		LA R20.45	20	Carmenita Road	No eastbound entrance
Orange	La Palma	ORA R0.54 ORA R0.85	21	Orangethorpe Avenue, Valley View Street	Signed as exit 22 westbound
	Buena Park	ORA R1.85	23A	Knott Avenue
	Buena Park	ORA R2.61	23B	SR 39 (Beach Boulevard) – Buena Park
	Anaheim	ORA R3.53	24	I-5 south (Santa Ana Freeway) – Santa Ana	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		ORA R3.53	24	I-5 north (Santa Ana Freeway) – Los Angeles	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		ORA R3.85	23C	Magnolia Avenue, Orangethorpe Avenue	Eastbound exit is part of exit 24
		ORA 1.23	26	Brookhurst Street
		ORA 2.23	27	Euclid Street
		ORA 3.26 ORA 3.51	28	Harbor Boulevard, Lemon Street, Anaheim Boulevard
		ORA 4.26	29	East Street, Raymond Avenue
		ORA 5.26	30A	State College Boulevard	Signed as exit 30 westbound
		ORA 6.12	30B	SR 57 (Orange Freeway) – Santa Ana, Pomona	Signed as exit 31 westbound
		ORA 7.37	31	Kraemer Boulevard, Glassell Street	Signed as exit 32 westbound
		ORA 8.39	33	Tustin Avenue
		ORA R9.20	34	SR 55 south (Costa Mesa Freeway) – Newport Beach
		ORA R9.20		91 Express Lanes (western terminus)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		ORA R10.09	35	Lakeview Avenue
		ORA R11.54	36	SR 90 west (Imperial Highway)
		ORA R14.43	39	Weir Canyon Road, Yorba Linda Boulevard
		ORA R15.90	40	SR 241 south (Eastern Toll Road) – Irvine	Signed as exit 41B westbound
		ORA R16.40	41	Gypsum Canyon Road	Signed as exit 41A westbound
		ORA R17.95	42	Coal Canyon Road	Closed since 2003 for environmental reasons^[5]^[6]
		ORA R18.90 RIV 0.00		91 Express Lanes (eastern terminus)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Riverside		ORA R18.90 RIV 0.00		91 Express Lanes (eastern terminus)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		RIV R1.03	44	Green River Road
	Corona	RIV R2.09	45	SR 71 north (Chino Valley Freeway) – Ontario, Pomona
		RIV R3.71	47	Serfas Club Drive, Auto Center Drive
		RIV 4.16	48	6th Street, Maple Street
		RIV 5.38	49A	Lincoln Avenue	Signed as exit 49 westbound
		RIV 5.99	49B	Grand Boulevard	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		RIV 6.34	50	Main Street	Former SR 31
		RIV 7.54	51	I-15 (Corona Freeway) – Barstow, San Diego
		RIV 9.18	53	McKinley Street	Signed as exits 53A (south) and 53B (north) westbound
	Riverside	RIV 10.81	54	Pierce Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		RIV 11.10	55A	Magnolia Avenue
		RIV 11.99	55B	La Sierra Avenue
		RIV 13.04	56	Tyler Street
		RIV 14.08	58	Van Buren Boulevard - Arlington
		RIV 15.63	59	Adams Street, Auto Center Drive
		RIV 16.65	60	Madison Street
		RIV 17.82	61	Arlington Avenue
		RIV 18.41	62	Central Avenue - Magnolia Center
		RIV 20.00	63	14th Street
		RIV 20.45 RIV 20.53	64	University Avenue, Mission Inn Avenue - Downtown Riverside
		RIV 21.47	65A	Spruce Street, Poplar Street	Signed as exit 65 eastbound
		RIV 21.68	65B	I-215 south / SR 60 east (Moreno Valley Freeway) – San Diego, Indio
		RIV 21.68	65C	SR 60 west (Pomona Freeway) – Los Angeles
		RIV 21.68	65D	I-215 north (Riverside Freeway) – San Bernardino, Barstow