5 Freeway widening completed
La Mirada-to-Santa Fe Springs stretch now has 5 lanes each side, culminating a 30-year endeavor
More than 30 years in the making, the 5 Freeway now has 10 lanes — up from six — from the Orange County border to the 605 Freeway.
Caltrans on Thursday opened a car-pool and a regular lane northbound from the Orange County line in La Mirada to Alondra Boulevard in Santa Fe Springs.
This is the final segment of the $1.9 billion widening project that began late in 2011 with the Carmenita Road interchange.
Discussions actually date back to 1989 when Caltrans originally proposed widening to 12 or 14 lanes that then would have taken three Santa Fe Springs council members' homes as well as a then-proposed auto row. Neither ever happened.
Instead, the freeway has been widened from three lanes on each side to four lanes plus a car-pool lane on each side.
“It's been a long time coming,” said former La Mirada
Councilman Hal Malkin who represented his city from the late 1990s to 2015 on the I-5 Joint Powers Authority that represents the cities of Commerce, Downey, La Mirada, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.
“I'm thrilled they're getting done after so many years,” Malkin said. “It's going to move the bottleneck out of La Mirada.”
Caltrans in February opened a stretch of freeway from Alondra to the 605 Freeway and later in April opened the entire southbound side.
Marc Bischoff, Caltrans spokesman, called Thursday's opening “a big step and a last piece of the puzzle.”
But the project is not complete. Two more lanes need to be opened on the Valley View Avenue bridge, increasing the number from four to six, Bischoff said. The southbound onramp and a ramp connecting South Firestone to the bridge still must be completed, he added.
Ideally, all will open at the same time, most likely in late summer, Bischoff said. But local officials already are celebrating what has been done so far.
“I'm very excited this has finally come to this point in the project,” Santa Fe Springs Councilman John Mora, who represents his city on the I-5 Joint Powers Authority, said.
“There were a few delays from COVID and the rare rain,” Mora said. “We're glad this is finally happening. I could not be happier.”
La Mirada Councilman Steve De Ruse, who represents his city on the I-5 Joint Powers Authority, said this will be great for La Mirada motorists. But he is unhappy there are no plans to continue widening the freeway to the north in Downey and Commerce.