Long Beach Freeway

A transportation advisory panel, charged with devising ways to minimize environmental effects of the proposed extension of the Long Beach Freeway, is fracturing a month before the group is scheduled to release its conclusions to the Clinton Administration. Three of the 13 members have resigned in recent weeks, including South Pasadena's two representatives whose resignation letter was effective Wednesday.

To complete or not to complete the Long Beach Freeway? That sometimes seems to be the only question, and has been for three decades: Should the "missing link" of the roadway be completed through this small city on the western edge of the San Gabriel Valley? Not surprisingly, the freeway issue also defines the current campaign for a vacant City Council seat. In a special election Nov. 7, voters will decide who among three candidates will fill the post of the late Joseph Crosby.

A panel representing the ports and cities along the Long Beach Freeway has recommended ways to improve traffic flow on the chronically clogged roadway, but the panel's action has baffled and angered some residents fighting to save homes and prevent increased air pollution. Just last week, the MTA board of directors voted 10 to 0 to shelve three construction designs to upgrade the freeway -- designs that would have meant eliminating homes, businesses, schools and parks.

Two drivers speeding on the 710 Freeway triggered a multi-vehicle wreck Monday that killed two and critically injured three others, while shutting down a portion of the freeway for several hours, authorities said. One person was later arrested. The accident caused a traffic jam several miles long as crews worked to pull out the victims and clear up the wreckage. The crash involved three big rigs, a two-axle box truck and a red Nissan compact carrying four passengers.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday approved a long-range plan that moves dozens of rail and highway projects closer to reality while putting the much-delayed Long Beach Freeway on the back burner. The new plan, approved on a 10-0 vote, gives priority status to expansion of the Santa Ana Freeway from the Orange County border to the Long Beach Freeway. Two lanes in either direction are to be added to the Santa Ana Freeway.

Hospital and fire officials who responded to Sunday morning's 198-vehicle crashes on the Long Beach Freeway said Monday that all those deemed at the time of the incidents to have been critically hurt were out of danger, although some remained in serious condition. More than 100 people sought treatment at eight hospitals. At one time, several trauma centers in the Long Beach area were at their limit, said Dr.

Amid public outcry that a refurbished Long Beach Freeway could remove hundreds of homes, local officials are asking if current plans could be altered so less land would be needed to widen the 18-mile freeway from East Los Angeles to Long Beach. A key panel will ask engineers at a meeting today if changes could be made so that fewer homes would fall within the footprint of three leading proposals, said William C. Pagett, chairman of a panel of local and state officials reviewing the project.

After suffering vociferous complaints from commuters and some local businesses, Alhambra officials announced Thursday that they were taking down the traffic barricades they put up earlier this week near the Long Beach Freeway. Instead, city officials say they will attempt a less provocative way to deal with traffic from South Pasadena: re-timing signal lights on the major routes leading to and from the freeway.

Facing increased truck traffic on an already congested corridor, a coalition of government agencies Tuesday offered a dozen options for the Long Beach Freeway, including adding elevated truck lanes, carpool lanes and a high-speed rail line. Cost estimates were not included with the 12 alternatives, which were developed for a group of state transportation officials and local policymakers along Interstate 710.

Leaders from several San Gabriel Valley cities warned Thursday that without the construction of the Long Beach Freeway extension, the region will not be able to comply with the Clean Air Act and could lose federal funding for other transportation projects. But later in the day, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials discounted that claim, saying that no single project would make such a significant difference to regional air quality.