Who Is Marilyn Reece And Why Is The Interchange At The 10 And 405 Interchange Named After Her?

Millions of LA drivers trek through the notoriously bad LA traffic on a daily basis, and many of them travel over the multi-level stack interchange connecting the Santa Monica and San Diego freeways daily, whether for work or errands, without giving the interchange a second thought. The official name of that interchange, likely unknown to many LA residents, is the Marilyn Jorgenson Reece Memorial Interchange, and the story behind it is worth knowing.

Born in 1926, Marilyn Jorgenson Reece earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Minnesota in 1948. She moved to LA soon after, taking a position with the California State Division of Highways — the agency that eventually became Caltrans. Reese spent most of her career as the only woman in the room.

In 1954, Reese sat for the Professional Engineer examination after completing the six years of required field experience. She passed and became the first woman in California history to hold a full civil engineering license. The Division of Highways also eventually made her its first female resident engineer for construction projects — another title with no precedent. Marilyn Reece's most significant assignment was the design of the I-10 and I-405 interchange, which opened in 1964. Not only was it a massive project, but it was also the first interchange in California designed by a female engineer. What's more, the project was far from straightforward. It required handling one of the most congested junctions in a city already defined by its freeways, while accommodating vehicles moving at sustained high speeds.

Reece's design philosophy for the project was deliberate. She built in long, sweeping curves specifically so drivers wouldn't need to brake sharply through the interchange — thus keeping traffic moving more smoothly. She described the result in a 1995 Los Angeles Times interview as "very airy," contrasting it with interchanges she considered cluttered and loop-heavy. Governor Pat Brown awarded her the Governor's Design Excellence Award in 1962 for the work.

Reece died in May 2004 at 77. Four years later, in 2008, Caltrans dedicated the interchange in her name — the Marilyn Jorgenson Reece Memorial Interchange. The American Society of Civil Engineers had recognized her as a life member.

Her colleague Carol Schumaker, who worked alongside her on the I-10/405 project, went on to design the I-405/I-605/SR-22 complex, another one of LA's large interchanges. The interchange she built handles hundreds of thousands of vehicles a day. LA residents, like the people who live in lots of other major cities, lose hours of their day in traffic, but with successful interchanges, that time can decrease, and when the roads aren't as congested, it can help things flow much better.