East Los Angeles Interchange
The East Los Angeles Interchange is an interchange complex located in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Downtown Los Angeles. With its southern portion handling over 550,000 vehicles per day (2008 AADT), it is the busiest freeway interchange in the world.[1] The northern portion, called the San Bernardino Split,[2] is often considered a separate interchange. Four numbered routes converge at the interchange: Interstate 5 (I-5), I-10, U.S. Route 101 (US 101), and State Route 60 (SR 60), but the freeway segments shift alignments and directions.
East Los Angeles Interchange
I-5 (Golden State Freeway / Santa Ana Freeway)
I-10 (Santa Monica Freeway / San Bernardino Freeway)
SR 60 (Pomona Freeway)
US 101 (Santa Ana Freeway)
Hybrid two-level directional T/turbine (northern) and three-level directional T (southern) interchange complex
The interchange was named the Eugene A. Obregon Memorial Interchange to honor U.S. Marine Corps member and Medal of Honor recipient Eugene A. Obregon.[3][4]
At the time of its construction in the early 1960s, the East Los Angeles Interchange was considered a civil engineering marvel. Located along the east bank of the Los Angeles River in the Los Angeles district of Boyle Heights,[5] east of Downtown Los Angeles, the interchange comprises six freeway segments; that is, there are six freeway paths of travel into the complex. The actual number of numbered highways intersecting at this interchange is four:
The interchange is so complex because the intersecting freeways shift alignments and directions:
There is not complete freedom of movement within the interchange. Traffic flowing into it on certain freeways cannot leave it on all of the others.
Further complication is caused by the varying designs of each intersecting freeway and their related transition roads. Some have four lanes and are relatively straight and wide, while others have one lane, are narrow, or have curves with tighter radii or cambers. Traffic congestion is thus exacerbated as vehicles moving at high speed on the wider transition roads try to merge with slower moving vehicles coming from the narrow transition roads.
In popular culture[edit]
Although not commonly called such by residents and other reporters, the freeway intersection was often called "Malfunction Junction" by former KNX traffic reporter Bill Keene, because of its complicated interchange structure. The interchange has also been referred to as "The Beast" L.A. Interchange and the "East Delay" Interchange, names attributed to KNX's Jim Thornton,[7] as well as the "Nickel/Dime" during traffic reports.
