The Riverside County agency teamed up with the Orange County Transportation Authority, Caltrans, the Transportation Corridor Agencies and the city of Corona to build the new lane. “You cannot build yourself out of congestion,” he said. Perhaps there will be some relief early on, Hague said, but not in the long term. “And you’re back to where you started from,” he said. George Hague, conservation chair for the Moreno Valley Group of the Sierra Club, said that in a widely documented pattern called “induced demand,” motorists in large metropolitan areas tend to bounce from other freeways to those that have just been widened. 91 Freeway toll, carpool lanes in Corona now days away from opening.Did $1.4 billion 91 Freeway toll lanes project make traffic worse in Corona?.Transportation panel OKs fixes for Corona’s gridlocked Green River Road and nearby freeways.New westbound 91 Freeway lane from Corona into Orange County to arrive in 2021.Construction of new westbound 91 Freeway lane in Corona to start in October.Not everyone believes the improvement will improve traffic flow. Ibrahim said the addition, called an auxiliary lane, will help by minimizing conflict between general freeway traffic bound for the 241 and drivers entering at Green River with the goal of keeping to the right and hopping on the toll road. “The better the freeway functions, the more people are going to stay off city streets,” he added. Speake said he is confident the lane addition will make traffic flow a little better on the 91. Looking back, Speake said it is amazing to think that, in a little over four years, the idea has gone “from a sketch on a napkin” to a completed project. Anyway, If you get a 91 Express Lanes transponder (40, though the transponder is 'free' as those 40 get added to your account, which you can use on other toll roads like the 73), and ask them for a switchable transponder instead of a normal one, you can use it on your Tesla to get free access to the 91/110/10 express lanes, and any future. “And RCTC picked it up and ran with it,” said Speake, who voted along with colleagues at his first commission meeting - following his election to the city council - to authorize the project in December 2018. But, as I have always said, it is a critical piece.”Ĭorona activists lobbied forcefully - and continuously - for going back out and adding that westbound lane at Green River. “It’s really actually a small piece of a bigger puzzle. “I’m really glad that it’s getting done finally,” Ibrahim said. On a napkin, Ibrahim drew a rough picture of the westbound lane now under construction, noting it was originally to be part of the 91 makeover but was eliminated - along with other features - because of cost concerns. Speake, elected in 2018 to the Corona City Council on a platform of confronting traffic, said he sat down with Ned Ibrahim, a civil engineer and former Corona assistant public works director, to talk about a potential solution over lunch in fall 2017. As the right lane of California 91 east becomes exit only for Exit 34, California 55 (Costa Mesa Freeway) south, the left lane becomes exit only for the 91 Express Lanes. In fact, he said, things seemed to get worse after that massive earlier project was finished as commuters snaked their way through city neighborhoods on quests to avoid the paralysis of the highway. Suggested detours are Santiago Canyon and Green River roads.Speake was one of many Corona residents who lobbied for the project after the commission’s $1.4 billion makeover of the 91 Freeway, completed in March 2017, didn’t solve traffic congestion. all nights but Saturday, when it will close at 10 p.m., reopening in the morning at 5 a.m. It’s annoying, it’s rude, and it can cause collisions, so over the next six days, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which operate the 241 toll road, will install about 800 “channelizers,” vertical posts made of plastic polyurethane, that officials hope will “improve traffic flow and promote good driving habits by preventing queue-jumpers,” a news release said.įrom Thursday evening until next Tuesday morning, the northbound 241 will be reduced at night to one lane, and the connector to the westbound 91 will completely closed. 10, is intended to deter drivers going from the 241 toll road to the eastbound 91 freeway from jumping the queue at the last minute when traffic is backed up.ĭuring the afternoon rush, cars on the northbound 241 often back up on the ramp to the 91 heading east toward Corona – and some of them try to skip the line by staying in faster-moving lanes that connect to the westbound 91 and then cutting over before the lanes split. It is expected to cost $250 million.Ī construction project that begins Thursday, Feb. Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the cost of a future bridge project connecting the 241 toll road with the 91 express lanes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |