When was the 110 fwy built

So, while there may be plans underway to make the Arroyo Seco Parkway safer for modern drivers , there's still plenty of great history to admire about the historic, scenic route. Support for LAist comes from. Become a sponsor. LAist logo. We Explain L. The Brief. How To New LA. Search Query Show Search. Stay Connected. Keep up with LAist Our top stories delivered weeknights. Share This Facebook Twitter. Aesthetic considerations aside, the tunnels were first and foremost a traffic relief measure, the key part of a program to widen and extend Figueroa Street between downtown and Pasadena.

The grade-separated intersection of Temple and Figueroa is another legacy of this program. Previously, the principal route north of downtown had been North Broadway, which often choked with traffic where it crossed the Los Angeles River.

The four tunnels represented a shortcut around North Broadway and through Elysian Park, whose southeastern flank was sacrificed in the name of traffic flow. Workers with contractor's H. Rohl's construction firm began drilling through the sandstone and mudstone of the Elysian Hills in April Tunnels two and four counting from the south they built by drilling outward from the center of the bore toward each portal. Tunnel three -- the shortest -- they constructed using the cut-and-cover method.

These three tunnels opened to traffic in Nov. A second burst of construction activity from to gave birth to tunnel one -- the longest -- which burrowed feet through the hills between Bishops Road and Solano Avenue. On August 4, , two-way traffic flowed through all four of the Figueroa Street Tunnels for the first time.

But the tunnels would not remain part of Figueroa Street for long. The opening of the Arroyo Seco Parkway to Pasadena created a chronic traffic jam at the tunnels, where several lanes merged into two. To eliminate the bottleneck, state highway engineers rushed to upgrade Figueroa Street to freeway standards.

Blasting through the hills above and to the west of the tunnels, workers built a new open-cut roadway to carry four lanes of southbound traffic through Elysian Park to Castelar now Hill Street. Northbound lanes were routed through the tunnels. By Dec. By , when construction began on the final tunnel, he had already been promoted to deputy city engineer.

Tending Nature. The Mallorca Files. Professor T Belgium. Fine Cut. SoCal Wanderer. Soon, the first freeway evidenced two of the problems that would bedevil its modern-day counterparts: traffic jams and air pollution. As early as , pictures show old sedans bumper to bumper along the route. And in , the just 3-year-old freeway got the blame for a murky pall of smoke and gases that descended on downtown L. Today, the Pasadena Freeway looks much the same as ever.

The landscaped median is gone. And brown, cinder-block sound walls have risen here and there. But times have changed around the mother of all California freeways. If you have questions, comments or story ideas regarding driving or traffic in Southern California, send an e-mail to behindthewheel latimes. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events.