Santa Ana Freeway

Santa Ana Freeway
Santa Ana Freeway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Caltrans
Component highways	I-5 from Irvine to Boyle Heights, Los Angeles[1] US 101 from Boyle Heights to Downtown Los Angeles
Major junctions
South end	I-5 / I-405 (El Toro Y) in Irvine
Major intersections	SR 133 in Irvine SR 261 Toll in Irvine SR 55 in Tustin SR 22 / SR 57 (Orange Crush) in Orange SR 91 in Buena Park I-605 in Downey I-710 in Vernon I-5 / I-10 / US 101 (East LA Int.) / SR 60 in Boyle Heights[1]
North end	US 101 / SR 110 (4 Level Int.) in Downtown Los Angeles
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Counties	Orange, Los Angeles
Highway system
State highways in California Interstate US State Scenic History Pre‑1964 Unconstructed Deleted Freeways
Southern California freeways

The Santa Ana Freeway is one of the principal freeways in Southern California, connecting Los Angeles and its southeastern suburbs including the freeway's namesake, the city of Santa Ana. The freeway begins at its junction with the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405, I-405), called the El Toro Y, in Irvine, signed as I-5. From there, it generally goes southeast to northwest to the East Los Angeles Interchange, where it takes the designation of U.S. Route 101 (US 101). It then proceeds 2.95 miles (4.75 km) northwest to the Four Level Interchange (also known as the Bill Keene Memorial Interchange) in downtown Los Angeles. Formerly, the entirety of the route was marked as US 101 until the 1964 highway renumbering, which truncated US 101 to the East Los Angeles Interchange and designated the rest of the freeway as I-5.

North of the East Los Angeles Interchange complex, I-5 follows the Golden State Freeway. South of the El Toro Y, I-5 takes on the San Diego Freeway name from I-405.

An abundance of landmarks, most importantly Disneyland and Angel Stadium of Anaheim, along the Orange County portion of its route combines with a severe bottleneck beginning at the Los Angeles County line (shrinking from 10 to 6 lanes) to make it one of the most congested freeways in Southern California. The infamously busy intersection of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Orange freeways in southwestern Orange is nicknamed the Orange Crush.

The freeway is officially defined as Routes 101 and 5 from Route 110 (Four Level Interchange) to Route 405.^[2]