The El Toro "Y" is a freeway interchange in southern Orange County, California where the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5, and the San Diego Freeway, Interstate 405 merge. South of that point, it retains the name "San Diego Freeway" but the highway designation "Interstate 5." The junction, located in southeastern Irvine, is named for the El Toro region, itself named after the nearby Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. (The base closed in 1999 and much of the area incorporated as the City of Lake Forest).

The "Y" is one of the busiest interchanges in the world; from 1975 to 2002, daily traffic surged from from 102,000 to 356,000 vehicles a day.¹ By the early 1990s it had also become one of the most congested, its severe overcrowding fed by a housing boom in southern Orange County.

In November 1990, Orange County voters approved Measure M , a half-cent increase in the county sales tax to finance transportation improvements. In 1993, the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) began a massive expansion project, adding a new interchange at Bake Parkway , new collector/distributor lanes, and new carpool lanes and connectors. The $166-million project also vastly increased regular traffic lanes. After the project was completed in 1997, the El Toro Y stood as the widest roads in the world, at 26 traffic lanes wide.

The traffic delays at the interchange sparked the construction of several parallel bypass toll roads. The San Joaquin Hills Toll Road, designated California State Highway 73, opened in November 1996 and connects San Juan Capistrano and Costa Mesa. An extension to California State Highway 241, the Foothill Toll Road, is under development. It would bypass the El Toro Y to the east and connect to I-5 in northern San Diego County.

Reference

1. Weikel, Dan. "The Road More Heavily Traveled," Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2004.

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