Progress at the 60-57 interchange

One step forward at the busy 60-57 interchange in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, but CNS also forecasts for delays:

Caltrans plans to open the carpool-lane direct connector between the Pomona (60) and Orange (57) freeways in Diamond Bar in time for this morning’s commute. "The direct connector will provide safer and more efficient movement of traffic ... by allowing motorists to transition between routes without leaving the (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane, thus reducing weaving necessary in the former configuration," said Dave White of Caltrans. White noted that other construction work in the area will continue until spring on the $78 million improvement project, and motorists should expect lane closures during that time.

Comments

[Eric Becker]

I commute this way regularly as I live in Covina and go to school at U.C. Irvine, meaning that I tend to live and die by the volume of traffic on the 57 freeway going to and from school. This project may wind up working well, but motorists transitioning from 60 West to 57 South in the mainline lanes appear confused by modification to the transition caused by the widening of the freeway. The lanes have been reconfigured in a way that motorists who regularly use this interchange aren't used to. For as long as I can remember, there were two lanes dedicated to enter southbound 57 on the right-hand side, and then a third lane, just to the left, where motorists had an option of south 57 or west 60. Due to this project, there are now three dedicated lanes for south 57, which logic would dictate would be more clear to motorists. However, since this change was made, a backup is caused at the interchange that did not exist before in the lefthand lane of the dedicated 57 lanes (I believe it would be the #5 lane) and the #4 lane of the mainline 60 as motorists not used to the new alignment cut in to the lanes for the 57 South at the last moment. Before this change was made, the #4 lane could be used for both continuing on 60 west or transitioning to 57 south, and this is no longer the case. I'm worried that this change in the freeway alignment might wind up creating more problems than it solves for people travelling west 60 or south 57.