New Report Quantifies Five Years of Caltrans Freeway Expansion, including Demolitions

In 2023, the state legislature approved Senator Lena Gonzalez’ S.B. 695 which mandated Caltrans share project data publicly. One result of the new legislation is a new Caltrans’ report summing up five years of freeway expansion throughout the state. The report may not be scintillating reading material, but it is an invaluable resource in compiling a great deal of hard to find data on Caltrans projects.

This post touches on a few highlights in Caltrans’ 342-page Select State Highway System Project Outcomes: 5-Year Summary of Projects Completed Between July 2018 to June 2023.

The biggest takeaway? Caltrans continues to add more and more freeway lanes all over California, contrary to some press and agency accounts asserting that the state’s massive highway building is somehow in the past.

From 2018 to 2023, Caltrans added 553 new highway system lane miles statewide. Corrected 3/14: The counties Caltrans Districts with the most new miles were district 8 (San Bernardino and Riverside Counties – 161.7 miles) and district 7 (Los Angeles and Ventura Counties – 133.3 miles). The county with the most new highway lane miles was Los Angeles County – with 132.93 lane miles (reported by LAist).

Caltrans freeway expansion adds lots of kinds of new lanes: toll lanes, HOV lanes, ramps, auxiliary lanes, etc. Nearly half of Caltrans’ recently completed new lanes are general purpose lanes, the regular unmanaged kind of lanes that are well known to induce more driving, increasing congestion and pollution.

To expand freeways, Caltrans continues to tear down lots of homes and businesses. For the five years in the report, Caltrans reports relocating 317 homes and 306 businesses.

Caltrans notes that the widening of the 5 Freeway in L.A. County accounted for over 90 percent of demolitions between 2018-2023. Streetsblog L.A. has reported on that I-5 widening mega-project (and its demolitions totals.) Note that the harmful widening is not done; Caltrans local partner Metro just approved proceeding with environmental clearance on widening the adjacent stretch of the 5, as part of a $5+ billion mega-project to expand multiple connecting freeways.

Caltrans Directors have repeatedly stated that their department isn’t really massively expanding freeways, including statements that “In urban areas: Yes, we should be done with building new lane miles” and “Caltrans in the past was very focused on dealing with congestion primarily… We have since pivoted, completely done a 180.” This report provides some of the receipts that Caltrans continues to tear down communities that get in the way of their ongoing freeway expansion.