Tomorrow, Metro's board will vote on a proposal to expand the 105 Freeway. Metro and Caltrans' 105 Freeway ExpressLanes project would add more lanes to the entire 17-mile freeway, plus expand ramps and streets connecting to the freeway.
Metro/Caltrans ExpressLanes projects add freeway toll lanes, but generally don't stop there. The highway builders can't seem to resist adding more general purpose (un-tolled) freeway capacity at the same time.
Metro and Caltrans plan to expand the 105 Freeway in three phases, moving west to east.
The initial project segment is from just west of the 405 Freeway (close to LAX) to Central Avenue in Watts. Segment 1 includes portions of the cities of Los Angeles, Hawthorne, Inglewood, and unincorporated L.A. County communities of Del Aire, Lennox, West Athens, and Willowbrook.
The vote tomorrow [staff report] would be to approve $638 million to greenlight construction of just the initial seven-mile segment, anticipated to cost $757 million. [Early cost estimates came in higher ($1-1.4 billion); Metro since worked with the contractor to bring costs down.]
Tomorrow's 105 item also includes approving $44 million for the tolling systems.
The 105 project is partially funded by $175 million in Measure M sales tax revenue, and a $150 million state Solutions for Congested Corridor Program (SCCP) grant. The majority of the budget would come from future toll revenues. Metro forecasts that toll revenues will exceed $6.6 billion over 40 years ($165+ million annually).
All of the 105 expansion would be done within the existing freeway right-of-way, so Metro and Caltrans do not anticipate any demolitions of homes or businesses.
On the freeway itself, Metro and Caltrans plan to add one more lane in each direction. Generally the current ten lanes would expand to twelve lanes.
The project would maintain existing general purpose lanes (four in each direction, more in some stretches) while, in each direction, converting the current single carpool lane into two toll lanes.
According to the project's Environmental Impact Report (EIR), adding that one more lane in each direction "would require widening at some locations to accommodate the ingress lane and improve or maintain stopping sight distances at curves." The selected design (Alternative 3) requires expanding the overall roadway by "up to 25 feet." The EIR notes that, with that widening, the project will also add "an additional 12-foot auxiliary lane at on-ramps and ExpressLanes direct connectors."
The project includes adding more than a mile of new auxiliary lanes (non-tolled general purpose lanes that extend from one on-ramp to the next off-ramp) in five locations:
- Westbound 105/Northbound 110 ExpressLanes Connector (~1,000 feet)
- Southbound 110/Eastbound 105 ExpressLanes Connector (~1,000 feet)
- Southbound 710/Eastbound 105 Connector (~1,000 feet)
- Northbound 710/Westbound 105 connector to Westbound 105/Long Beach Boulevard off-ramp (~2,800 feet)
- Eastbound 105 from the Long Beach Boulevard on-ramp to the Southbound 710 Connector (~1,800 feet)
All that added width means widening twenty bridges and over/under crossings.
And then there are on- and off-ramp widenings. The EIR notes that "realignment of ramps is required to accommodate outside widening for the ExpressLanes." Ramps are widened not just for the toll lanes, but also expanded to increase capacity, "widened to correspond with anticipated traffic forecasts." The project design shows expanding 23 ramps.
And then there are widened streets leading to the freeway, termed "local improvements." The Metro/Caltrans design widens Central Avenue, Fir Street, Bullis Road, Harris Avenue, and Imperial Highway, adding additional lanes for cars. (The Central Avenue widening conflicts with L.A. City's Mobility Plan 2035 and Measure HLA.)
There are also a few further components - sound walls, interchange ramps, etc. Metro often touts multimodal components of its highway expansion projects. For this one, the multimodal aspect is to "replace sidewalks, ADA ramps, and bikeway connections" on those local streets the project widens.
After the 2020 EIR determined that all this expansion would have de minimis environmental impacts, Caltrans approved the project via a 2021 Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).
But is there really no significant impact of this freeway expansion? How will expanding the 105 impact equity?
Metro claims that its 105 Freeway expansion (and other Metro freeway expansions) would benefit low income communities of color. For the 105, Metro equity efforts include:
- Metro operates a Low-Income Assistance program that discounts toll costs for eligible low-income drivers
- Metro has "identified potential projects that could be funded with future net toll revenue." Metro ExpressLane projects distribute some toll revenue in the form of grants - generally for walk, bike and transit improvements - in communities along the freeway corridor (examples).
But to be clear: added capacity - from additional toll lanes and auxiliary lanes - would induce more car trips. This would mean more more tailpipe pollution for South L.A.'s low income Black and Latino neighborhoods, which already suffer from unhealthy air quality.
And these expanded harms would come at a time when many residents still recall how the 105 Freeway razed a broad swath of South Los Angeles.
Because the 105 Freeway is just three decades old. It opened in late 1993.
To make way for the 105 Freeway, Caltrans demolished around 8,100 homes, displacing an estimated 25,000 residents. South L.A. leaders filed lawsuits that resulted in Caltrans agreeing to a consent decree, which committed the department to make space for what would become the Metro C Line light rail, plus invest in housing, job training, local hire, and more.
Since then, Metro and Caltrans have pledged to do better.
The latest plan to add ExpressLanes to the 105 doesnt match the large scale destruction that Southern California highway builders wrought on vulnerable communities for most of the past century. But this harmful project still contributes to and compounds a burden that these agencies should be working to repair.
