LOS ANGELES — When a sinkhole opened up in the Pasadena Freeway this summer, shutting down all northbound traffic, a lot of attention focused on the aging of what is California's first freeway and the first high-speed, limited-access road in the western United States. The Pasadena Freeway was once a model of modern freeway design, but people wondered anew how well the slow-speed curves and frightening on-ramps, with stop signs and no acceleration lanes, can continue to hold up to Los Angeles traffic. Unsurprisingly, this prompted a review of the freeway's distinctive features and design.
The Pasadena Freeway, which comprises the northern portion of Highway 110, runs from downtown Los Angeles to the southern border of the city of Pasadena. It was once part of the historic U.S. Route 66. According to “The Historic American Engineering Record,” a project of the National Park Service and the American Society of Civil Engineers, most of the freeway opened as the Arroyo Seco Parkway in 1940, the culmination of a vision to make a better route between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena.
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