Makeover to Untangle Interchange

A $317-million overhaul of the interchange between the Riverside and Pomona freeways will eventually unsnarl traffic, but not before construction creates more nightmares for commuters, authorities said Monday.

“Remember, patience is a virtue,” Anne Mayer, director of Caltrans District 8, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said at the groundbreaking. “It’s going to take us several years to get this done, but when it’s done, it’s going to be great.”

The project, in the works for a decade, is critical to relieving congestion in the growing Inland Empire.

The project will expand State Routes 60 and 91 and Interstate 215 to five lanes in each direction, adding carpool and auxiliary lanes and a truck bypass. The interchange will be rebuilt to ease transitions.

The improvements will allow the freeways to accommodate 250,000 vehicles a day by 2020, more than doubling today’s 100,000 figure.

The project is being funded by local and state dollars. But with the state’s budget crises, it’s unlikely that it would have moved forward without the local money, which will come from Measure A, a half-cent sales tax county voters approved in 1998 and reauthorized in 2002.

“It’s critically necessary,” said Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Palm Desert). “Thank God the people of this county had the sense to pass Measure A.”

Scores of elected officials, transportation agency staff members and others gathered at the Mission Inn on Monday to kick off the project, and urged residents to cope with the short-term hassles. Brochures about the project warn that commuters should start 20 to 30 minutes earlier, carpool, telecommute or shift their drive times.

“All too often, when we begin a new construction project, we think of the negatives,” said Roy Wilson, chairman of the Riverside County Transportation Commission and a county supervisor. “Yes, the construction will be inconvenient. But let’s remember that things don’t improve by ignoring them.”

Construction is expected to be completed in 2008.