California State Route 22

SR 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 3 miles (4.8 km) until terminating at the Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55).

SR 22 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System,[2] and is part of the National Highway System,[3] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.[4] SR 22 from I-405 to SR 55 is known as the Garden Grove Freeway, as named by the State Highway Commission on October 22, 1957.[5] An 8-mile (13 km) stretch of Route 22 is named the Garden Grove Police Officers Memorial Highway to honor police officers killed in the line of duty.[6]

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).[7]

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.

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 reconfiguring and upgrading on and off ramps to contemporary standards at several interchanges, all funded by Measure M, the half-cent tax of Orange County, CA. This $700 million Design-Build projected completed in a record 2 year time frame in 2007 was led by consortium composed of Granite Construction and URS Corp. as the lead designer along with several sub-consultants. A second phase to add HOV lane interchanges at the I-605 junction and at the split with I-405 was recently completed.

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, and T indicates postmiles classified as temporary (for a full list of prefixes, see the list of postmile definitions).[1] Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The numbers reset at county lines; the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column.

County	Location	Postmile [1][8][9]	Exit [10]	Destinations	Notes
Los Angeles LA 0.00-1.47	Long Beach	0.00		SR 1 north (Pacific Coast Highway)	Western terminus; no left turn to SR 1 south; 7th Street continues beyond SR 1; former US 101 Alt.
		0.08		Bellflower Boulevard to SR 1 south (Pacific Coast Highway)
		1.14	1	Studebaker Road	West end of freeway
		1.42– 1.47	San Gabriel River
Orange ORA 0.00-R13.16	Seal Beach	R0.37	2	I-605 north (San Gabriel River Freeway) to I-405 north (San Diego Freeway) – Santa Monica	Southern terminus of I-605; eastbound exit and westbound entrance; I-605 south exit 1A
		R0.65 23.28[N 1]	—	I-405 north (San Diego Freeway) – Santa Monica	West end of I-405 overlap; westbound left exit and eastbound left entrance; former SR 7; I-405 exit 23; I-605 south exit 1B
		22.64[N 1]	22	Seal Beach Boulevard, Los Alamitos Boulevard	Exit number follows I-405; former SR 35
	Seal Beach–Garden Grove– Westminster tripoint	20.75[N 1] R0.66	—	I-405 south (San Diego Freeway) – Irvine, San Diego	East end of I-405 overlap; eastbound left exit and westbound left entrance; I-405 south exit 21
	Garden Grove–Westminster line	R0.92	5	Garden Grove Boulevard, Valley View Street, Bolsa Chica Road to I-405 south	Eastbound signage omits I-405/Bolsa Chica Road, westbound signage omits Garden Grove Boulevard; I-405 north exit 21
		R2.65	7	Knott Street, Goldenwest Street
		R3.59	8	SR 39 (Beach Boulevard) – Huntington Beach, La Habra
	Garden Grove	R4.81	9	Magnolia Street
		R5.82	10	Brookhurst Street – Garden Grove
		R6.81	11	Euclid Street
		R7.83	12	Harbor Boulevard	Signed as exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) eastbound
		R8.82	13	Fairview Street	Eastbound signage
				Haster Street	Westbound signage
	Orange	R9.73	14A	The City Drive
	Santa Ana	R10.01	14B	Bristol Street	No westbound exit
	Orange–Santa Ana line	R10.48	14C	I-5 south (Santa Ana Freeway) – Santa Ana, San Diego	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; I-5 north exit 106, south exit 107A-B
		R10.48	14D	I-5 north (Santa Ana Freeway) / SR 57 north (Orange Freeway) – Los Angeles, Pomona, Glendora	Signed as exit 14B westbound; provides direct exit ramp onto Chapman Avenue; I-5 north exit 107A, SR 57 south exits 1A-B
	Orange	R10.99	15	Main Street	Former SR 51
		R11.83	16	Glassell Street, Grand Avenue
		R12.87	17A	Tustin Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		R13.16	17B-C	SR 55 (Costa Mesa Freeway) – Anaheim, Riverside, Newport Beach	Eastern terminus; signed as exits 17B (south) and 17C (north); SR 55 exit 13
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to California State Route 22.

• California @ AARoads.com - State Route 22
• Caltrans: Route 22 highway conditions
• California 22 @ Asphaltplanet.ca
• California Highways: SR 22