State Route 22 in the U.S. state of California is an east-west highway in southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County. It runs between Long Beach and Orange by way of Garden Grove. The westernmost part of it is a surface street, Long Beach's 7th Street. From Long Beach to its eastern terminus in Orange, it is known as the Garden Grove Freeway. It is one of the two principal east-west routes in Orange County (the other being the Riverside Freeway approximately eight miles (13 km) to the north).

This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System.

Route description

The 22 begins at the intersection of 7th Street and Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) in Long Beach. Then, 7th Street widens from an expressway into a freeway just before crossing the San Gabriel River (and with it, the Los Angeles/Orange County line). It then merges with the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) at the Interstate 605 interchange and runs concurrently with it for approximately three miles before the two routes diverge in northeastern Seal Beach. Thereafter, the Garden Grove Freeway travels mostly within the city of Garden Grove or along its border with neighboring Westminster. Just inside the Orange city limits, the freeway enters the infamously congested Orange Crush interchange with the Santa Ana and Orange Freeways (Interstate 5 and State Route 57, respectively). It continues along the border of Orange and Santa Ana for until terminating at the Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55).

Route 22 from Route 405 to Route 55 is known as the Garden Grove Freeway, as named by the State Highway Commission on October 22, 1957.

An stretch of Route 22 is named the Garden Grove Police Officers Memorial Highway to honor police officers killed in the line of duty.

History

SR 22 was originally designated in 1934, when the state highway system was first numbered. Before the freeway was built, it was routed along Garden Grove Boulevard (formerly Ocean Avenue).

Opened in 1967, the Garden Grove Freeway had the distinction of being one of the few freeways in Southern California to have never been widened from its original alignment, eventually resulting in severe rush hour congestion, particularly as Santa Ana's population surged to over 300,000 during the 1990s.

Future

In late 2004, in response to California's budgetary deficit, OCTA began a widening project to add one mixed-flow and one high occupancy vehicle lane to the route in each direction, as well as to update onramps and offramps to contemporary standards, all funded by Measure M, the half-cent tax of Orange County, CA. This first phase of the project has already concluded. A later phase to add HOV lane interchanges at the I-605 junction and at the split with I-405 is in the planning stages, but funding has not yet been procured to start this phase.

Major intersections

Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

County	Location	Postmile	#	Destinations	Notes
Los Angeles LA 0.00-1.47	Long Beach	0.00		7th Street	Continuation beyond SR 1
		0.00			Access from SR 22 west to SR 1 south is via Bellflower Boulevard
		0.08		Bellflower Boulevard
		West end of freeway
		1.14	1	Studebaker Road
Orange ORA 0.00-R13.16	Seal Beach	R0.37- R0.65 405 23.28	2		West end of I-405 overlap; no exit number westbound; former SR 7
		405 22.64	22	Seal Beach Boulevard, Los Alamitos Boulevard
	Westminster	405 20.75 R0.66			East end of I-405 overlap; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Garden Grove	R0.92	5A	Bolsa Chica Road, Valley View Street	Signed as exits 5A (Bolsa Chica Road) and 5B (Valley View Street) eastbound
		R2.65	7	Knott Street, Golden West Street
	Westminster	R3.59	8
	Garden Grove	R4.81	9	Magnolia Street
		R5.82	10	Brookhurst Street – Garden Grove
		R6.81	11	Euclid Street – Garden Grove
		R7.83	12	Harbor Boulevard	Signed as exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) eastbound
		R8.82	13	Fairview Street, Haster Street
	Orange	R9.73	14A	The City Drive
	Santa Ana	R10.01	14B	Bristol Street	No westbound exit
	Orange	R10.48	14C		Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R10.48	14D		Signed as exit 14B westbound
	Santa Ana	R10.99	15	Main Street
	Orange	R11.83	16	Glassell Street, Grand Avenue
		R12.87	17A	Tustin Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R13.16	17		Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; signed as exits 17B (south) and 17C (north)

References

1. CA Codes (shc:250-257)
2. California Highways
3. Orange County Transportation map-Garden Grove Frwy construction 2006
4. California Department of Transportation, State Truck Route List (XLS file), accessed February 2008
5. California Department of Transportation, Log of Bridges on State Highways, July 2007
6. California Department of Transportation, All Traffic Volumes on CSHS, 2005 and 2006
7. California Department of Transportation, California Numbered Exit Uniform System, State Route 22 Freeway Interchanges, Retrieved on 2009-02-05.

External links

• California @ WestCoastRoads.com - State Route 22
• Caltrans: Route 22 highway conditions