As I came home from the business trip with a headache, this collection of highway related articles for the last half of January will have to suffice for today:
- L.A. transit officials release analysis for closing ‘710 gap’. The analysis by the county MTA focuses on five options for reducing traffic and providing better transportation access between the end of the 710 Freeway in Alhambra and the 210 Freeway in Pasadena. Here’s the article from Metro, and a link to the actual report (PDF).
- Ed Lee talks of tearing down end of I-280. Mayor Ed Lee is floating the idea of tearing down the stub end of Interstate 280 in San Francisco in hopes of creating a new neighborhood and speeding up the arrival of high-speed rail service downtown.
- Caltrans Making Moves to Ease 10 Freeway Gridlock. Efforts by state and county officials to prevent — or at least lessen the impact of — traffic jams on Interstate 10 between Beaumont and Blythe are moving ahead, with Caltrans announcing the installation of new electronic message signs on the heavily traveled corridor.
- Razing I-280 stub only part of vision. San Francisco’s vision for the South of Market area near AT&T Park and Mission Bay involves more than just taking a wrecking ball to the stub end of Interstate 280, though that image has drawn much attention in a city known for demolishing freeways.
- Residents draw battle lines over $143 million Greenbrae interchange project. Residents draw battle lines over $143 million Greenbrae interchange project.
- Wider I-405 expansion may get another look. The question that motorists stuck in idle might ask themselves during any given rush hour – What the heck would it take to fix the 405? – does have an answer, at least for now: About $1.3 billion in new lanes.
- Caltrans finishes widening another stretch of Highway 46. Efforts to widen Highway 46, one of the most dangerous two-lane roads in Kern County, have succeeded in turning a nearly 30-mile section of the well-traveled asphalt between the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast into a four-lane expressway.
- 405 widening: OCTA board talks options. A hitch in the planning process for a beyond-billion-dollar expansion of I-405 has given Orange County transportation officials more time to discuss how best to break up the freeway’s grinding traffic. For now, the plan calls for adding one lane to each side of the freeway, at a cost of around $1.3 billion. But some cities have pushed for two lanes in each direction, which would bring the total cost to $1.4 billion – a difference of $100 million.
- Malibu Receives $14 Million For Pacific Coast Highway Projects. The city of Malibu has been awarded more than $14 million in Measure R funds for improvements to Pacific Coast Highway and several intersections.
- Metro: Toll lanes to begin on 10 Freeway on Feb. 23. In less than a month, solo riders will be allowed to ride the carpool lanes 24 hours a day on the 10 Freeway between the 605 Freeway and Alameda Street for a toll. Metro has announced the express lanes program will begin Feb. 23 along an 14-mile stretch of the 10 Freeway between El Monte and Los Angeles.
- 710 Freeway Coalition faces growing efforts against linking the route to 210. Just as Los Angeles County transportation officials embark on an environmental study of options for closing the freeway gap between Alhambra and Pasadena, the lobbying group that supports the controversial tunnel option finds itself trying to regain its footing in an uphill public relations battle.
- Imperial Highway on-ramps are. A project to alleviate congestion on the 57 Freeway is on track to be completed in late 2014, officials from the Orange County Transportation Authority said. The next phase of the project includes work to reconstruct northbound on-ramps to the freeway from Imperial Highway.
