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Interstate 10 (abbreviated I-10 or IH-10) is the southernmost east-west, coast-to-coast interstate highway in the United States. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California (map) to Interstate 95 in Jacksonville, Florida (map).
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Major cities
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|CA
|242.54[Federal Highway Administration Route Log and Finder List, Main Routes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways as of October 31, 2002]
|390.33
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|AZ
|392.33
|631.39
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|NM
|164.27
|264.37
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|TX
|881
|1418
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|LA
|274.42[Louisiana Interstate Highway Log]
|441.64
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|MS
|77.19
|124.23
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|AL
|66.31
|106.72
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|FL
|362.26[Florida Department of Transportation, GIS data]
|583.00
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|2460
|3959
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Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.
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Route description
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Between its west terminus in Santa Monica, California and the East Los Angeles Interchange it is known as the Santa Monica Freeway. The segment between the East Los Angeles Interchange and the city of San Bernardino, California (53 miles, or 92 km long) is known as the San Bernardino Freeway. Other names exist for the freeway. For example, a sign near the western terminus of the highway announces it as the "Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway". It is known to a considerably lesser degree as the "Veterans' Memorial Highway" and is listed as a Blue Star Highway. Many times it is just simply referred to as "the 10."
A stretch in Palm Springs is signed as the "Sonny Bono Memorial Freeway" as a tribute to the late entertainer who served both as mayor and as a United States Congressman. A second stretch a short distance east in Indio is signed as the "Doctor June McCarroll Memorial Freeway". As a nurse with the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1924, Dr. McCarroll was alarmed at the number of head-on traffic collisions on a nearby stretch of then-new U.S. Route 99, today known as State Route 86. She is credited with painting a white stripe down the middle of 99 near Coachella in order to separate the two lanes of traffic.
In Arizona, as well as Jacksonville, the highway is designated the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway". The portion through Phoenix is named the "Papago Freeway". This designation starts at the initial junction/southern terminus of I-17 and runs westward out to AZ 101, a loop route whose current western terminus is Interstate 10.
From the southern terminus of Interstate 17 to the junction with the US 60 freeway, the Superstition, the freeway is signed as the "Maricopa Freeway". This name holds true as well for I-17 from its southern terminus to its second junction with I-10, north of McDowell Road. From U.S. 60 south to Interstate 8 (eastern terminus in Casa Grande), the freeway is not signed with a name. ADOT has maps that show it as the Maricopa Freeway, while AAA and other sources show it as the Pima Freeway. The latter's name is used on a stretch of Loop 101 from U.S. 60 to Interstate 17.
In Tucson, I-10 is called the Casa Grande Highway from the western edge of town to the eastern terminus of Business Loop 10, where it picks up the name, Tucson-Benson Highway from that route.
In El Paso, Texas, I-10 is called Gateway Boulevard based on designations for the frontage roads.
A small portion of I-10 from Loop 1604 to downtown in San Antonio, Texas is known as the Northwest Expressway or the McDermott Freeway, while another portion from downtown to Loop 1604 East is called East Expressway or Jose Lopez Freeway.
In Houston, from the western suburb of Katy to downtown, I-10 is known as the "Katy Freeway." This section is currently being widened to as much as 26 lanes (12 mainlanes, 4 lanes of access roads, and 4-6 mid-freeway HOT/HOV lanes, not counting access road turning lanes) and will be one of the widest freeways in the world. The section east of downtown Houston is officially known as the "East Freeway," although it is widely known by locals as the "Baytown East Freeway" due to a marketing push by Baytown, the easternmost principal city of the Greater Houston Area.
In Beaumont, it is designated Eastex Freeway between both splits with U.S. Highway 69. Eastex is not to be confused with the designation for U.S. Highway 59 in Houston.
In Louisiana, an 18.2-mile (29.3 km) stretch of the elevated highway between Lafayette and Baton Rouge is known as the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway, as it goes over the Atchafalaya River and the adjacent swamps. In New Orleans, a stretch of I-10 from the I-10/I-610 split near the Orleans-Jefferson parish line to the U.S. Route 90 / U.S. Route 90 Business interchange is known as the Pontchartrain Expressway. Near Slidell, the final stretch of I-10 through the Mississippi state line is known as the "Stephen Ambrose Memorial Highway".
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Alternate routes
I-310 and I-510 are parts of what was slated to be I-410 and act as a southern bypass of New Orleans, Louisiana. I-610 is a shortcut from the eastern to western portion of New Orleans avoiding the I-10's detour into New Orleans' Central Business District.
Interstate 12 between Baton Rouge, Louisiana and I-59 in Slidell is actually a shorter route than I-10 between the two adjoining points, since I-10 dips to the south to go through New Orleans. Those traveling through Baton Rouge who do not wish to detour into New Orleans should leave I-10 and take I-12 for its entire route until it again meets with I-10.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the I-10 Twin Span Bridge, a portion of I-10 between New Orleans and Slidell spanning the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain, was severely damaged, causing a break in I-10 at that point. Unlike the Escambia Bay Bridge (east of Pensacola, Florida and damaged by Hurricane Ivan) which is a major artery, Interstate 12 is available to bypass New Orleans and taking I-12 to the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway allowed entry and exit to and from the Greater New Orleans area from the East. On October 14, 2005 at 3:00 PM, the eastbound span was reopened to two way traffic. On January 6, 2006 at 6:00 AM, both lanes of the westbound span were reopened to traffic using temporary metal trusses and road panels to replace damaged sections. * This restored all four lanes of the I-10 twin spans for normal traffic with a 45 mph (70 km/h) speed limit for the westbound lanes and 60 mph (100 km/h) for the eastbound lanes. Oversized and overweight traffic is prohibited until a new permanent six lane span is built to replace the two temporarily repaired spans. Construction is slated to begin in mid-July 2006, with the new westbound span opening in 2008/2009 and the new eastbound span opening in 2011. See WWL-TV story
In Mississippi, the twin spans crossing the Pascagoula River were opened on October 1 and are now operational, making that state's portion fully functional.
I-610 is also the designation for the "loop" circling Houston, Texas.
I-410 is also the designation for the "loop" circling San Antonio, Texas.
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Intersections with other interstates
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Spur routes
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Notes
In January 1994, the I-10 overpasses over La Cienega and Venice Boulevards in Los Angeles, California collapsed during the Northridge earthquake. This section of freeway bears one of the heaviest traffic loads in California, and was reopened just 66 days later after emergency around-the-clock construction.
The interstate's route through Phoenix was hotly contested in the 1960s and 1970s. A plan proposed by the Arizona Department of Transportation involved city block-sized 270-degree "helicoils" that would connect motorists to freeway lanes 100 feet (30 m) in the air, but voters killed it in 1973 as a result of opposition from the Arizona Republic and a growing nationwide anti-freeway sentiment. Ten years later, ADOT unveiled the current below grade plans. Despite local opposition, Interstate 10 was finally completed on August 10, 1990.
I-610 in New Orleans and the aforementioned I-12 make I-10 one of only two interstates in the country to have two "bypasses" that are shorter than the "main" route. The other is I-64, which also has two "bypasses" shorter than the "main" route in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia.
I-10 is one of the very few interstates that have at-grade intersections (roads that intersect it at a 90 degree angle, as opposed to an overpass with on and off ramps). These are private access roads (mostly from large ranches) which occur over a limited stretch in western Texas.
I-210 was planned as a bypass of Mobile, Alabama, but it was never completed. The highway was eventually renamed I-165.
As of November, 2005, I-210 in California does not actually connect to either I-10 or any other I-10 spur route (the 210 does connect however with Interstate 5 in Sylmar and Interstate 15 in Rancho Cucamonga). This is expected to change when construction of a ten-mile (16 km) connector is completed in western San Bernadino county, and SR-30 and SR-210 are re-designated as I-210. The construction is schedule for completion on or before 2010. Before 2002, the I-210 did connect with the I-10, the 57 and 71 freeways at the Kellogg Interchange; today the stretch from the current 210 to the I-10 is now signed as the 57 Freeway.
At just under 881 miles (1,418 km), the length of Interstate 10 crossing Texas, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest continuous untolled freeway under a single authority in North America, a title formerly held by Ontario's Highway 401. Mile marker 880 (and the corresponding exit number) near Orange, Texas are the highest numbered mile marker and exit on the interstate highway system, or for that matter, on any freeway in North America.
Texas alone contains more than a third of the interstate's entire length. El Paso, Texas (on the Texas-New Mexico border) is 785 miles (1,263 km) from the western terminus of Interstate 10, making it closer to Los Angeles than it is to Orange, Texas, approximately 880 miles (1,416 km) away. Likewise, Orange, Texas on the Texas-Louisiana border is only 789 miles (1,270 km) from the eastern terminus of Interstate 10 in Jacksonville, Florida.
A three-year construction project is currently underway on Interstate 10 between Causeway Boulevard and the 17th Street Canal in Metairie, Louisiana. The $68.9 million project will add new lanes in both direction and improve the exit and entrance ramps at Causeway and Bonnabel Blvd. The state has recently completed a widening project between Causeway and Clearview Pkwy and between the I-10/I-610 split and Airline Highway (US 61).
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California
Legal Definition of Route 10: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 310
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California
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Arizona
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Texas
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