Following its renumbering from Route 11, Route 110 was originally defined as "from San Pedro to Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena." The conventional highway portions of the route were relinquished to the cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles in 2000 and 2009 respectively.[5]
Entering Interstate 110 in Harbor Gateway, Los Angeles
The Harbor Freeway is often heavily congested at rush hour.
Entrance to the Harbor Freeway in Downtown Los Angeles
The Harbor Freeway southbound entering "The Slot" after emerging from the "4-level"
Harbor Freeway
The Harbor Freeway, signed as I-110, begins at Gaffey Street in San Pedro, where it then travels mostly due north to the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) at a point south of downtown Los Angeles, where it becomes signed as SR 110. I-110 is primarily within the city limits of Los Angeles, running right along the South Los Angeles region and the Harbor Gateway, a two-mile (3.2 km) wide north–south corridor that was annexed by the city of Los Angeles specifically to connect San Pedro, Wilmington, and the Port of Los Angeles with the rest the city.
The Harbor Freeway, along with the Long Beach Freeway (I-710), are the principal means for freight from the Port of Los Angeles to railyards and warehouses further inland. Its interchange with the Santa Monica Freeway is notoriously busy and congested, and the portions bordering Bunker Hill in northwest Downtown Los Angeles are choked with traffic at peak travel times.
The Harbor Freeway is noted for its elaborate high-occupancy toll lane feature, with the HOT lanes elevated above the rest of traffic in many areas, constructed in 1994 by C.C. Myers, Inc. as HOV lanes and converted to HOT lanes in 2012. Of particular note is the Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange, which contains the most elaborate network of direct HOV/HOT connectors in Los Angeles County. It includes a seven-story ramp that connects the Century Freeway's HOV lanes to the Harbor Freeway's northbound HOT lanes and offers splendid views of the entire Los Angeles Basin and the San Gabriel Mountains. The interchange with SR 91 (formally known as the Edmond J. Russ Interchange) is also fairly large.
The Harbor Transitway is a grade-separated, shared-use express bus and high-occupancy toll (HOT) corridor, running in the median of I-110, between SR 91 (Gardena Freeway) and Adams Boulevard in the south side of Downtown Los Angeles. Southbound buses exit the HOT lanes at dedicated ramps connecting to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. Each vehicle using the HOT lanes is required to carry a FasTrakFlex transponder, with its switch set to indicate the number of the vehicle's occupants (1, 2, or 3 or more), regardless of whether they qualify for free.[9]
The state completed the Arroyo Seco Parkway which had been added to the state highway system in 1935 as Route 205, in early 1941, providing a faster route between SR 11 at Avenue 26 and Pasadena.[19] US 66 was moved to the new route, while SR 11 remained on Figueroa Street and Linda Vista Avenue, the former also becoming a new US Route 66 Alternate.[20] Construction of a freeway to San Pedro was much slower, despite having been in the earliest plans for an integrated system. Initially, the Harbor Parkway was to split at the merge with the Venice Parkway northeast of the University of Southern California, with the East By-Pass and West By-Pass straddling the Los Angeles Central Business District and rejoining at the split between the Arroyo Seco Parkway and Riverside Parkway south of Dodger Stadium.[21][22][23] The West By-Pass was soon incorporated into the Harbor Parkway,[24] and the first short piece, by then renamed the Harbor Freeway, opened on July 30, 1952, from the Four Level Interchange south to 3rd Street.[25] (The Arroyo Seco Parkway was completed to the Four Level Interchange on September 22, 1953, and renamed the Pasadena Freeway on November 16, 1954.[19])
The Harbor Freeway gradually pushed south, opening to Olympic Boulevard on March 23, 1954,[26] and Washington Boulevard on May 14, 1954.[27] On March 27, 1956, the highway was extended to 42nd Street,[28] and on April 24, 1957, it reached temporary[29] ramps at 88th Place.[30] Further extensions were made to Century Boulevard on July 31, 1958,[31] 124th Street on September 24, 1958,[32]Alondra Boulevard (which the county widened to carry the load) on May 2, 1960,[33] 190th Street on July 15, 1960,[34]Torrance Boulevard on August 28, 1962,[35] and finally Pacific Coast Highway (SR 1) on September 26, 1962.[36] There it connected with a section that had been open since June 19, 1956, from Pacific Coast Highway south to Channel Street.[37] Along with the Vincent Thomas Bridge to Terminal Island, the final piece in San Pedro opened on July 9, 1970, completing the Harbor Freeway to its present length.[38][39][40]
In December 1978, the Harbor Freeway was approved as an Interstate Highway by the FHWA. In 1981, the SR 11 designation was renumbered as I-110 on the Harbor Freeway, and SR 110 on the Pasadena Freeway.[41] The I-110 designation had been previously applied to what is now a spur of I-10 from 1958 to 1968.
Richard Ankrom signage
In 2001, Richard Ankrom, a local artist who got lost trying to get onto I-5 North from northbound SR 110 because there was no clear official signage labeling access to I-5 North, solved his frustration by covertly modifying one of the overhead signs on the freeway just before the Four Level Interchange (34°03′21″N118°15′22″W / 34.055759°N 118.256181°W / 34.055759; -118.256181). Using official government sign specifications, Ankrom fabricated two sign pieces, one being an I-5 marker shield and the other with the word "NORTH", and affixed them to the left side of the sign. He performed his modifications in broad daylight, disguised as a Caltrans worker. In that district, Caltrans has three sign crews, each thinking one of the other two crews did the installation. After nine months, at Ankrom's request, the Los Angeles Downtown News broke the story.[42]
Prior to Ankrom's work, the only signage directing motorists to the I-5 North off-ramp came at a quarter-mile (0.4 km) before the exit, thus forcing many to merge across multiple lanes in a very short distance. The signs were inspected by Caltrans to ensure they would not fall off onto the road below. Ankrom was never charged, despite statements from officials that his actions were illegal. Ankrom referred to his sign project as "Guerilla Public Service".[43]
Caltrans later added an additional "5 North" sign over the left northbound lane at the entrance to the Figueroa Street Tunnels, as well as new electric signage, which will note when an additional lane is available for those wishing to transition to northbound I-5 (converting the current single lane transition to dual lanes).[citation needed]
In 2009, Caltrans replaced all signage along this segment with newer, more reflective versions. These new signs include Ankrom's original improvements.[44][45]
^ abCalifornia Department of Transportation. "State Truck Route List". Sacramento: California Department of Transportation. Archived from the original(XLS file) on September 5, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
^"Article 2 of Chapter 2 of Division 1". California Streets and Highways Code. Sacramento: California Office of Legislative Counsel. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
^Federal Highway Administration (March 25, 2015). National Highway System: Los Angeles, CA(PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
^Natzke, Stefan; Neathery, Mike & Adderly, Kevin (June 20, 2012). "What is the National Highway System?". National Highway System. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
^"Using Metro ExpressLanes". www.metroexpresslanes.net. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
^Los Angeles Times, City Moves in Figueroa Plan, September 29, 1926, p. 13
^California State Assembly. "An act...relating to State highways". Fifty-first Session of the Legislature. Statutes of California. State of California. Ch. 274 p. 959, 285.: "Route 165 is from San Pedro to Route 9 near La Canada via Figueroa Street and Linda Vista Avenue."
^Automobile Club of Southern California, map from Traffic Survey, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, 1937, reproduced in Janet L. Abu-Lughod, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities, 1999, p. 256
^Transportation Engineering Board, map from A Transit Program for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Region, 1939, reproduced in Gerrylynn K. Roberts, Philip Steadman, American Cities and Technology: Wilderness to Wired City, 1999, p. 79
^Andrew Hamilton, New York Times, Los Angeles Roads Plan, February 25, 1940, p. 128