![]() Already, those living near the 710 Freeway face high rates of asthma and other health disparities, with some referring to the corridor as " cancer alley." Community groups for decades have fought plans to widen the freeway. If nothing is done, transportation officials warn in environmental documents, "roadways will get worse," and this in turn "will have the potential to adversely affect the competitive position of the Los Angeles region in the global economy."īut nearby residents urge planners to weigh the human cost. With port traffic expected to nearly triple between 20, the situation is only expected to decline. Together, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle more than 30% of the nation’s waterborne containerized shipping traffic.Ĭurrently, 50,000 diesel-fueled freight trucks and 165,000 other vehicles travel the freeway each day bottlenecks are common. The southern portion of the 710 Freeway, a roughly 20-mile stretch that runs from Long Beach to Alhambra, is congested with diesel-spewing trucks that deliver imported furniture, auto parts, electronics and clothing across the country. The project, Omishakin said, “is not aligning with the direction that we are taking at the state from a transportation standpoint, just plain and simple.”īalancing the demands of expanding commercial traffic against the health needs of people living near the freeway has long been a challenge. “I don’t see how we can move forward with this project in its current format,” said Toks Omishakin, director of the California Department of Transportation, at a meeting last week of the California Transportation Commission. Federal environmental regulators recently found that the latest $6-billion proposal to expand the 710 Freeway might violate Clean Air Act standards, forcing state and local transportation officials to consider scrapping the effort and starting over with an entirely new approach. ![]() Now the project faces another, potentially even greater, complication. ![]()
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