| SR-60 | |||
| Get started | Los Angeles | ||
| End | Beaumon | ||
| Length | 75.4 mi | ||
| Length | 121 km | ||
|
|||
According to CITYPOPULATIONREVIEW, State Route 60 or SR-60 is a state route in the U.S. state of California. State Route 60 is completely freeway and is called the Pomona Freeway between Los Angeles and Riverside, and the Moreno Valley Freeway between Riverside and Beaumont.. The highway connects Los Angeles to the fast-growing eastern suburbs of the Inland Empire. It is one of the main highways connecting the Ontario and Riverside suburbs to the work sites in Orange County and Los Angeles County. The road is therefore severely congested and is often blocked for tens of kilometers during rush hour and well beyond. The route passes through 5 cities with more than a hundred thousand inhabitants and many smaller suburbs. State Route 60 is 113 kilometers long.
Travel directions
Pomona Freeway
The Pomona Freeway is named after the town of Pomona, which is located halfway on the route between Los Angeles and Riverside. This is the busiest part of State Route 60 and also has a lot of truck traffic. The interstate begins at the complex East Los Angeles Interchange, on the east side of downtown Los Angeles, where Interstate 5 and Interstate 10 run. The highway immediately has 2×5 lanes and passes through the East Los Angeles area. After a few miles, you’ll pass the first interchange with Interstate 710, the Long Beach Freeway, which runs between Pasadena and Long Beach. A huge number of trucks are entering here every day.
It passes by the suburbs of Monterey Park and Montebello and the highway cuts through a former garbage dump. Several large companies are scattered along the highway. South El Monte crosses Interstate 605, the San Gabriel River Freeway, which runs from El Monte to Long Beach. After this fairly simple junction, you arrive at the City Of Industry, a suburb with few inhabitants, but all the more industry, as the name implies. A large elongated industrial estate of 25 kilometers in length is located here and is responsible for an enormous load of trucks that drive here every day. This site is located north of the motorway; south of the highway are the more prosperous suburbsHacienda Heights and Rowland Heights.
This leads to the suburb of Diamond Bar, where the Orange Freewaybriefly merges with the Pomona Freeway. This corridor is extremely busy and this part has no less than 2×7 lanes. After Diamond Bar, the highway continues east, past Pomona, after which the highway is named, as well as the town of Chino Hills. Pomona is a large suburb with approximately 150,000 inhabitants. This area is roughly the boundary between the older part of the agglomeration to the west and the fast-growing new suburbs that extend over the next 60 kilometers. This rapid growth and infrastructure failure is causing severe congestion, exacerbated by massive numbers of trucks traveling inland from Los Angeles ports to the shunting yards. On the south side of Pomona one crosses the Chino Valley Freeway, from where one can travel to the southern suburb of Corona. You then pass through Chino itself, which has approximately 70,000 inhabitants.
This is followed by Ontario, with approximately 185,000 inhabitants a city in its own right, with also one of the larger airports in the agglomeration. On the east side of this city is a large industrial area which measures 11 by 12 kilometers. Via a 4-tier stack one crosses Interstate 15, the Ontario Freeway, leading to San Diego to the south, and Las Vegasruns in the north. Because I-15 is less of a commuter route, the traffic jams on this route are limited. After I-15 you enter a slightly less densely built-up urban area, so that the traffic jams on this section are not too bad. One passes through an area of so-called “unincorporated cities”, towns that do not have their own city council, but are governed by Riverside County, not to be confused with the city of Riverside itself. These include Mira Loma, Glen Avon, Sunnyslope and Rubidoux. One eventually ends up in the city of Riverside, which has approximately 315,000 inhabitants and, given its history as a separate city, can also function as such. Riverside and San Bernardino are often still seen as a separate agglomeration next to Los Angeles, although the urban area has grown together since the 1990s.Interstate 215 terminates the Pomona Freeway. Here one can also take the Riverside Freeway to Riverside and back to the southeastern suburbs of Los Angeles and Orange County.
Moreno Valley Freeway
Between Riverside and Moreno Valley, State Route 60 is double-numbered with I-215, the Escondido Freeway. This part is quite mountainous and therefore has few residential areas. On the west side of Moreno Valley, I-215 turns south to the suburbs that are 90 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Moreno Valley is one of the youngest cities in Riverside County, and with rapid growth in the 1980s, 1990s, and today, the city is home to more than 200,000 residents. The road network is not designed for this, although Moreno Valley is too far from downtown Los Angeles to commute there. Journey times of more than 2 hours to cover 100 kilometers are normal, especially as State Route 60 becomes increasingly congested as it approaches Los Angeles. On the east side of Moreno Valley, the continuous urban area ends after 110 kilometers. The highway passes through a mountain range called the Badlands, which separates the Moreno Valley from the satellite towns in the Mojave Desert. The route through the Badlands has 2×3 lanes, but the connecting road sections have 2×2 lanes.Interstate 10.
History
Pomona Freeway
Originally, the San Bernardino Freeway was the primary link between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. In 1960, San Bernardino County had a population of 500,000 and Riverside County had a population of 300,000. This area is called the Inland Empire, and it used to be mainly industrial and agricultural in character. In 1959, the San Bernardino Freeway was the only east-west connection in the region. The US 60was the secondary east-west connection at the time, parallel to I-10 (San Bernardino Freeway). The San Gabriel Valley began to industrialize, mainly because of the availability of water. The cities of Pomona and Ontario were the primary centers of this area. At the same time, suburbanization east of Los Angeles began to ramp up, necessitating a second east-west highway. In the early 1960s, the first plans were made for the Pomona Freeway (SR-60), which was initially to run between Los Angeles and Pomona.
The first section of the Pomona Freeway opened to traffic at its western end in Los Angeles in September 1965. In the spring of 1967, the Pomona Freeway continued to open between I-710 and I-605. In November 1967, the highway opened further east to Rowland Heights. On May 1, 1970, the Pomona Freeway opened between Rowland Heights and Diamond Bar. Also in 1970, the highway was extended through Pomona to the San Bernardino county line. Around the turn of the year 1970-1971 the Pomona Freeway was extended through Ontario and on March 1, 1973 the freeway opened at Mira Loma for 4 kilometers. The opening dates of the last section between Mira Loma and Riverside are unknown, but it probably opened in 1972 or 1973.
Moreno Valley Freeway
The section between Riverside and Moreno Valley is double-numbered with Interstate 215. In 1964, the former US 60 was upgraded to freeway, but it is unknown when this section was opened. This double-numbered section was also originally part of US 395 until 1969 and then temporarily from Interstate 15 until 1976. In 1982, the number I-215 was assigned. The portion east of I-215 was part of US 60, which was then shortened to Quartzsite in Arizona. It is not known when the Moreno Valley Freeway was built exactly, but in the 1960s. The city of Moreno Valley did not begin to grow strongly until the 1980s.
The eastern part of the route between Morenoy Valley and Beaumont runs through the ‘Badlands’, a hilly area. This part was actually not a full-fledged motorway, but a winding and steep road with 2×2 lanes on a very tight profile, so there were no emergency lanes. This was a very traffic jam and accident prone route. Between 2020 and 2022, the 7-kilometer section was redeveloped by the Badlands as a concrete highway with 2×3 lanes and emergency lanes, making it twice as wide. The extra lane was designated as a truck lane and was put into use on May 20, 2022. However, the widening did not extend all the way to I-10 at Beaumont. Also, the section between Moreno Valley and the beginning of the truck lanes through the Badlands has not been widened.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Opening |
| SR-91/I-215 Riverside Fwy | Canyon Crest Road | 4 km | 00-00-1961 |
| Armstrong Rd | SR-91/I-215 Riverside Fwy | 7 km | 00-00-1963 |
| San Gabriel Blvd | I-605 | 6 km | 00-00-1963 |
| I-215 | Perris Blvd | 6 km | 00-00-1963 |
| Gilman Springs Road | I-10 | 14 km | 00-00-1963 |
| Perris Blvd | Gilman Springs Road | 9 km | 08-06-1964 |
| I-5 | 3rd Street | 3 km | 10-11-1965 |
| Canyon Crest Drive | I-215 | 4 km | 28-01-1966 |
| Paramount Blvd | San Gabriel Blvd | 1 km | 13-01-1967 |
| 3rd Street | I-710 | 1 km | 22-03-1967 |
| I-710 | Paramount Blvd | 18 km | 24-05-1967 |
| I-605 | Fullerton Road | 12 km | 02-11-1967 |
| Fullerton Road | SR-57 Orange Freeway | 9 km | 05-05-1970 |
| SR-57 Orange Fwy | Euclid Avec | 15 km | 25-01-1971 |
| Euclid Avec | Milliken Avenue | 9 km | 12-05-1971 |
| Milliken Avenue | Mission Blvd | 5 km | 28-02-1973 |
| Mission Blvd | Armstrong Rd | 7 km | 16-01-1976 |
HOV
Much of the Pomona Freeway has HOV lanes, from I-605 at Avocado Heights to the end of the highway east of Moreno Valley, a distance of about 90 kilometers. This is one of the longest HOV facilities in the region. Only the western part from Downtown Los Angeles to I-605 has no HOV lanes.
History
On February 2, 1999, the HOV opened lanes around Diamond Bar up to the San Bernardino County Line to traffic. At the same time, the HOV lanes probably opened up to I-15 near Ontario. Around 2003, HOV lanes between Rubidoux and Riverside opened and around 2008, the HOV lanes between Ontario and Rubidoux were put into use. About 2007 or 2008, the HOV lanes opened on the double-numbered portion of I-215 through Riverside. In 2004 or 2005, the HOV lanes opened through Moreno Valley. It wasn’t until January 2011 that the HOV lanes between I-605 and SR-57 at Diamond Bar opened to traffic.
Traffic intensities
| Exit | Place | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 |
| Exit 1 | Los Angeles ( I-5 ) | 168,000 | 171,000 | 180,000 |
| Exit 3 | East Los Angeles ( I-710 ) | 239,000 | 243,000 | 261,000 |
| exit 12 | South El Monte ( I-605 ) | 246,000 | 254,000 | 261,000 |
| Exit 24 | Diamond Bar ( SR-57 ) | 340,000 | 348,000 | 370,000 |
| Exit 29 | Pomona ( SR-71 ) | 226,000 | 216,000 | 231,000 |
| Exit 41 | Ontario ( I-15 ) | 187,000 | 187,000 | 189,000 |
| exit 53 | Riverside ( SR-91 ) | 136,000 | 130,000 | 130,000 |
| Exit 31 (I-215) | Riverside | 173,000 | – | 184,000 |
| exit 58 | Riverside ( I-215 ) | 128,000 | 130,000 | 140,000 |
| Exit 74 | Beaumont ( I-10 ) | 44,000 | 45,000 | 55,000 |
Congestion
The Pomona Freeway is a very busy highway, especially west of Pomona. The part around Ontario and further to Riverside is less busy, but the double-numbered part with I-215 through Riverside is very busy. East of Moreno Valley, the highway is fairly quiet. Crowds steadily increase closer to Los Angeles, the Pomona Freeway is one of 3 east-west highways from the Inland Empire to Los Angeles, and along with the parallel San Bernardino Freewaythe only ones that lead directly to downtown Los Angeles, making these two highways popular for traveling downtown. The intensities are usually between 200,000 and 250,000 vehicles per day between Ontario and Los Angeles, with a peak of 370,000 vehicles on the double numbering with the Orange Freeway (SR-57) in Diamond Bar, this is one of the busiest road sections in the United States.
