I’m finally getting around to working on the highway pages, and that means incorporation of headlines and articles. This post captures those headlines from May that are going in the update; subsequent headlines will be included with the June batch.
- Cosumnes River Blvd Extension and Interchange at Interstate 5. Project pages for a project that will construct a new interchange at Cosumnes River Boulevard at I-5 located 1 mile south of Meadowview Road and construct a new 4 to 6 lane road extension of Cosumnes River Boulevard from Franklin Boulevard west to Freeport Boulevard.
- OCTA Takes Lead on I-405 Project. At its meeting on April 27, the OCTA Board of Directors voted to take the lead on the Interstate 405 (I-405) Improvement Project. The $1.7 billion project will improve the San Diego (I-405) Freeway between Costa Mesa and the Los Angeles county line, an area traveled by more than 370,000 vehicles a day, making it the busiest stretch of highway in the nation. Set to begin construction in 2018, the project will deliver express lanes between State Route 73 (SR-73) and Interstate 605 (I-605) in addition to one, regular general-purpose lane in each direction from Euclid Street to I-605.
- Highway 68 plan receives grant from Caltrans. Caltrans has awarded $9.8 million in Sustainable Transportation Planning Grants to support cities, counties, agencies and transit operators including to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. TAMC received the funds for its State Route 68 Corridor Plan.
- I-280 near Mission Bay would be razed in Caltrain tunnel plan. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is quietly shopping plans to tear down Interstate 280 at Mission Bay and build an underground rail tunnel through the area — complete with a station between the proposed Warriors arena and AT&T Park. It’s all part of a revised effort to bring Caltrain — and, one day, high-speed rail — into downtown and the new Transbay Terminal while opening up a whole new area of the city for development.
- MID COUNTY PARKWAY: Lawsuit aims to stop freeway construction. Environmental groups have gone to court to fight a proposed $1.7 billion freeway they say would cut through low-income neighborhoods, threaten wildlife areas and worsen air pollution. A lawsuit filed last week seeks to block construction of the Mid County Parkway, a 16-mile, six-lane freeway from the 215 in Perris east to the 79 in San Jacinto.
- Doyle Drive to finally reopen, construction closure planned . The saga of Doyle Drive is nearing its end. After a closure scheduled for the end of this month, the rebuilt road will finally reopen safer and greener for motorists. The section of Doyle Drive between the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marina will close to traffic 10 p.m. May 28, as construction crews place finishing touches on the roadway and tunnels. The closure will end 5 a.m. June 1. Following the construction, all of the roadways connecting Park Presidio-19th Avenue to the Marina, and the Marina to the Golden Gate Bridge, will reopen for the first time in years.
- Lindero overpass complete, open to bikes and cars . With two added traffic lanes, a protected bike and pedestrian path and decorative motifs showcasing the Westlake Village lifestyle, the new Lindero Canyon bridge is a model gateway for Los Angeles County, Mayor Ned Davis said during a ribboncutting ceremony Tuesday. About three dozen city and county transportation officials and other stakeholders gathered on the bridge to mark the end of a reconstruction project that began in October 2013.
- Roadshow: Why isn’t Los Gatos complaining about Highway 85 widening?. The Highway 85 suit is on the Town Council agenda for Tuesday. Don’t be surprised if Los Gatos joins the fray over widening the freeway from Highway 87 to Interstate 280, using the median for double carpool lanes. The plan is to convert the diamond lane on the entire length of 85 into an express lane that solo drivers can jump into for a toll.
- Roadshow: Razing of I-280 in San Francisco has drivers concerned. What is San Francisco thinking? The plan to tear down Interstate 280 is plain insanity. Highway 101 already backs up deep, and even on Saturday nights, one can sit in that traffic for nearly a half-hour to get from Cesar Chavez Street to downtown. Take 280 away, and going up to San Francisco for any social nights is pretty much no longer something that I would consider. If San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the rest of San Francisco are not careful, they’ll drive the city right back to the isolated, suburb-abandoned crime alley that plagued downtown throughout the 1980s, making it unwelcoming to the rest of the Bay Area. Then again, maybe this is the best plan possible to help revitalize Oakland.
- Caltrans replaces deadly I-680 off-ramp in Martinez. An infamous East Bay off-ramp that was the scene of a horrible accident 39 years ago is now gone. Caltrans is replacing the Marina Vista exit on southbound Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County to make it seismically safe. But for those who remember the crash that killed 29 people, one of the worst bus accidents in U.S. history, it has come not a moment too soon.
- 215 FREEWAY: Two-county carpool lane project to open this week. Caltrans is preparing to open a carpool lane on Interstate 215 between Riverside and San Bernardino that will complete a missing link along a busy commuter route that’s more than 70 miles long. After about three years of construction, motorists soon will have access to a 7.5-mile carpool lane between the 60/91/215 interchange in Riverside and Orange Show Road in San Bernardino.
