SOUTH PASADENA : U.S. Gives Support to Freeway Extension

Federal highway officials Monday gave approval to a court-ordered environmental study on the extension of the Long Beach Freeway through South Pasadena, pushing the long-delayed project a step closer to completion.

Roger Borg, head of the Federal Highway Administration’s California division, said that John Bates, head of engineering for the federal agency’s regional office in San Francisco, signed the environmental impact statement, which was required in a 1973 federal court injunction that stopped the project.

Borg said federal highway officials, including the top administrator of his agency, Thomas D. Larson, fully approve of the state’s plans to complete the 6.2-mile gap between the San Bernardino Freeway in Los Angeles and the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley.