Uncorking the bottleneck

This week marked the beginning of a 3-year, $317M overhaul of the 60/91/I-215 interchange in downtown Riverside — an overhaul which many in these parts of Southern California agree is long overdue. Without a doubt, the interchange has been a severe thorn in the side of Inland commuters for a number of years.

The project is funded by local and state money, including the half-cent sales tax that Riverside County voters approved in 1998.

A recent study by the American Highway Users Alliance concluded that motorists collectively waste more than 2 million hours in delay each year on the interchange.

The bottleneck ranked 27th worst in California and 116th in the nation, the study said.

Riverside Press-Enterprise – March 11, 2004

Although not an entire rebuild, the 60/91/215 project — the state’s second-largest transportation project on tap behind the rebuilding of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco-Oakland — will tackle the two most-important current bottlenecks: NB I-215 transition to WB SR-91 and SB I-215 transition to EB SR-60/SB I-215 (yes, it is a confusing interchange). Both transitions will be replaced with freeway-to-freeway flyover connectors which will greatly increase the overall flow of traffic thru the interchange.

(State officials say that due to excessive costs and neighborhood impacts, flyover connectors from NB/EB SR-91 to WB SR-60 and from the EB SR-60 to NB I-215 are not part of the current project and may have to be addressed at a later date.)

Yet, even without a full rebuild, the scope of the project encompasses significant improvements beyond the bungled interchange which will help mitigate the need for a full rebuild. These improvements, both leading into and out of the interchange itself, include six miles worth of widening, bridge/on/off ramp reconstructions, carpool lanes, and truck climbing lanes all on the EB SR-60 / SB I-215 portion that heads from downtown Riverside into Moreno Valley.

Of significant importance in the ancillary improvements, is the construction of a separate flyover connector for slow-moving trucks and vehicles at the SR-60 / I-215 interchange in eastern Riverside/western Moreno Valley. Such an addition will help smooth the growing number of truck/cargo carriers heading to and from areas surrounding the up-and-coming March Field Global Port.

So, after nearly 10 years in postponements, the day has finally arrived in which the much-despised Riverside interchange begins its transformation from mangled beast into elegant servant. Now all we have to do is survive the next 3 years of construction headaches.

Related

• Riverside Press-Enterprise – Three-year highway upgrade has begun (March 11)

Sources: Riverside Press-Enterprise (PE-20040311); NOTE: Published dates for some online versions of newspaper articles cited may not match their archival source date.

2024 PAGE UPDATE: Added newspaper citation/insert; removed outdated links to newspaper article.