Nearly 300 homes were torn down for multi-year 5 Freeway widening project

Nearly all of the people relocated because of highway expansion projects completed in California between 2018 and 2023 were based in Los Angeles County. Those projects and more also ushered in the highest amount of new vehicle lanes compared to other counties in the state.

Those are the findings in a first-of-its-kind Caltrans report published at the end of February.

“ It's the first time we've ever had this level of transparency from Caltrans,” Carter Rubin, who leads state transportation policy advocacy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told LAist. “It marks an exciting shift where we can really have an open conversation about the whole entire picture of the kinds of investments we're making on the state highway system.”

More on the L.A. relocations

Statewide, 13 projects completed between 2018 and 2023 resulted in more than 620 home and business relocations. Approximately 96% of those were in L.A. County, and most were due to widening Interstate 5.

Nearly 290 homes and 280 businesses, mostly in Norwalk, were relocated to add increased capacity along the 7-mile stretch of the 5 freeway between the Orange County line and the 605 freeway.

A relocation refers to when Caltrans purchases or acquires property to build a project. In the case of a freeway widening project, Caltrans will demolish the properties to make room for the lane additions or other facilities, such as a soundwall, interchange or on- and off-ramps.

“This highlights the substantial impact of the I-5 realignment project, which required significant rights-of-way acquisitions to accommodate the widened and realigned corridor,” Caltrans wrote in the report.

Construction on the $2-billion 5 freeway expansion started in 2011 and was completed in 2023.

Wilifido Gonzales told the L.A. Times it was “devastating” to lose his Norwalk home to the project in 2012.

“To lose our place where we raised our kids, it just hurts her to talk about it,” Gonzales told the Times for its 2021 investigation into how highway expansion disproportionately affects communities of color in the United States.

More findings from the report

Between 2018 and 2023, the state added more than 550 lane miles to its highway system, resulting in an average rate of annual growth of .2%. Lane miles represent the total length of an affected highway multiplied by the number of lanes.

L.A. County saw the largest expansion of lane miles, followed by San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Most of the additions were for general purpose lanes, which don’t have the same restrictions as high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

The report also covers the number of bike lanes and sidewalk miles added to state roads that you can see here.

The reason for the report

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach who did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, authored a bill that mandates increased transparency about the state’s highway investments.

Starting in 2026, Caltrans will be required to release an annual report covering roadway additions completed in the prior fiscal year. In those reports, Caltrans will also have to detail how greenhouse gas emissions and miles traveled changed along corridors that were expanded.

The report released in February will also serve as a baseline that Caltrans can use to measure how new infrastructure policies affect future projects, including adding crosswalks and bus lanes, when state highways are repaired or expanded.