EARTHQUAKE / LIFELINES OF L.A. : Quake Shatters Concrete and Shakes Confidence in our Freeways

Los Angeles and its 500 miles of freeways are intertwined in life and lore. The eight-lane expressways and swooping interchanges are engineering marvels, icons for a region that grew to the horizon and kept on going. For millions, they are conduits for commerce, as much a part of the day’s routine as eating and sleeping. But then the earth shook on Jan. 17, ripping some of these lifelines of concrete and steel. Confidence in the freeways was shaken. Even as rebuilding begins, questions linger: How safe are they in a a major earthquake?

This special section examines the political and engineering decisions that determined how strongly our freeways were built. It gauges how swiftly our most vulnerable and heavily travelled roads are being safeguarded. It looks inside the state contracting used to expedite repairs on damaged roadways. It charts the pace of retrofitting on hundreds of vital city and county bridges. And it compares the seismic features of California’s vaunted freeway system to Japan’s.