Valley Blvd. WB at the northern end of I-710. The freeway was supposed to continue due north from this obvious stub, and just a tiny bit east to another obvious stub. To make things 100% transparent, the northern stub freeway is numbered CA 710, shedding any doubt as to Caltrans' intentions. What keeps the pieces disconnected? In a word, Pasadena. They also keep the end of CA 110 from connecting directly to the CA 710 stub to at least salvage some utility out of the raw deal. A deep bored tunnel is one solution, but too expensive to be truly feasible.


Merging onto the freeway's through pavement, and leaving just as quickly at Exit 22B (I-10, of course). While the Exit 22B ramp heads to I-10 EB, the Express Busway goes west, ending at Union Station. Since it's a buses-only exit, it shouldn't cause any confusion. The busway merges into the I-10 general lanes east of this interchange.


On the (Exit 20B) ramp to former US 60.


3rd St. is now (thanks to the recent innovation known as an "exit number") SB Exit 20A, but paradoxically, it's NB Exit 20B. What was Caltrans smoking? Oh, wait, it's California. Duuuuuude.


Mixed up in that area are one good shield and a pair of bad ones on Eastern Ave. I'll forgive the latter, at Cesar E. Chavez Ave., since it's clearly being reused and abused as a work zone mainstay. The former, at 3rd St. (along with the therefore redundant first shield), has no business being permanent.


Unfortunately, because I was traveling NB when I took these photos, they just didn't come out that well. Such a shame. When you're done drying off my sarcasm, know that the last two photos are the left and right sides of the same gantry. I didn't want to sacrifice one pixel of resolution. The I-710 shield is a patch over the original route designation, CA 7. I-710 was approved much later, and the number is no coincidence - the parent route is I-10 (I-210 if it's ever finished), and the original number is 7. The Interstate designation is non-chargeable, meaning that AASHTO granted the number but won't allow the traditional 90% funding match that other Interstates get.


The last photo is on the Exit 15 ramp. Don't let the CA 42 shield fool you next to Firestone Blvd.; that's an old designation that CA never bothered to cover on all of the intersecting freeways. It was supposed to have been supplanted by I-105, but its death is slow.


CA 42 was decommissioned in 2000, but the sign is much older than that. The second photo is on the Exit 11 ramp to the succeeding route.


The last photo is on the Exit 1C ramp, which happens to be in the median of I-710.


The signage was clearly redone not too long ago in the area of the piers, not just because of the fresh look to the signs, but because I-710 wasn't extended past this area along Ocean Blvd. all that long ago. It is now Seaside Freeway, and crosses the Gerald Desmond Bridge to end at CA 47 instead of here.

Over to the NB side
Future I-710, the unsigned CA 710 stub
Back to I-710 main page

Onto I-10
Onto CA 60
Onto I-5
Onto Pacific Coast Hwy., CA 1
Back to California Roads
Back to Roads