One of California's toughest commutes getting relief with 91 Freeway widening

One of Southern California’s toughest commutes is about to get somewhat easier.

Officials Tuesday will break ground on a $59.5-million project to widen the eastbound 91 Freeway with the hopes of easing congestion for commuters along the heavily traveled stretch between Orange and Riverside counties.

The section through the Santa Ana Canyon has long been considered one of the worst freeway bottlenecks in the nation, connecting bedroom communities in the Inland Empire to job centers in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

The roughly 6-mile-long project will run from the 241 Freeway, a toll road, to the 71 Freeway and will add one lane to the four existing eastbound lanes, excluding two express lanes.

“The 91 corridor, that’s been one of the toughest puzzles to solve,” said Peter Buffa, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority. “There’s 300,000 cars traveling that route each day.”

He said the agency also hopes to eventually widen the freeway in both directions from the 55 Freeway to the 241 toll road. Commuters in that area got another boost this week with today's grand opening of new lanes on the 241 toll road, another route channeling Inland Empire commuters into Orange County.

The “Fast Trak” toll lanes run through the Windy Ridge toll plaza. Some 50,000 commuters pass through that plaza each weekday and the new lanes on the 241 Freeway are supposed to ease traffic flow to and from the 91 Freeway, said Jennifer Seaton of the Transportation Corridor Agencies. Seaton said that stretch of the 91 Freeway east of the 241 Freeway can be “very, very congested” and that the backup affects commuters using the toll road.

Transportation officials have been talking for decades about how to ease the commute between the Inland Empire and Orange County.

More than a decade ago, officials opened toll lanes along a portion of the 91 Freeway, offering less congestion for commuters willing to pay the price. The 241 toll road, which runs from the 91 into South Orange County, was also designed to improve the commute.

The 91 runs through a narrow canyon amid several mountain ranges, making it hard to build additional freeways between the Inland Empire and Orange County. In recent years, planners have talked about tunneling 11.5 miles through the Cleveland National Forest to build a new route, but those plans are still very much in the conceptual stages.

Orange County transportation officials said the bulk of the 91 widening project, $47.9 million, is being funded with federal stimulus dollars and local agencies.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Warren]

It is time for less roads and more trains.

[eddie]

if the state open the toll roads around orange county it will open up the 91, 5, 55 and other freeways. then again how they would ask driver to pay,, they rather have pollution and congestion then lose that revenue!

[Mark]

Spitting in the wind.

[Sudhir]

A tunnel through the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest is sorely needed. Extend the Cajalco Expressway west and connect it to the 241. I'd be willing to pay $20 each way as a toll. But I'm afraid it will never happen in our lifetime, with all the environmentalists and NIMBY protesters out there.

[Jas]

Although I don't have to drive this stretch, I recognize how ridiculously congested ALL of 91 is. I'd like to know why the hell it will cost $59.5 million of our hard-earned tax dollars - an ungodly amount - to build a measly 6-mile stretch... for that amount of money the expansion should go as far as the 405. We all know that there will never be more than a dozen workers on this project on the roads at any given time. So who, pray tell, is making all this money and for what???

[Anna]

This is a HORRIBLE idea. Freeway expansion is an ineffective tool of the past.

Instead, one of these lanes should be designated for express bus service. You would be able to travel more passengers at faster speeds with less detriment to our environment.

We need to get our heads out of the sand and start thinking out of the box; before its too late.

[Leo Mellon]

I'm sorry, but your headline is rather ridiculous. How is road construction supposed to be "relief" for commuters? Road widening almost never benefits current users. They face daily delays during construction that will take years of driving on the finally completed wider road to recoup. And by then, there will be more cars on the road, usually neutralizing any gains. This project will be another monumental waste of resources (including land) that will make congestion worse in the short term, and improve it only slightly, if at all, in the long term.
Our traffic departments need to quit increasing infrastructure for cars, of which the overuse of is not and will never be financially, environmentally, medically, or socially rational.

[J Sandoval]

When did widening a freeway ever exponentially relieve traffic in the long run?

[Bill Stone]

Bus lanes are what is needed! More car lanes is short-sighted and a waste of money. Where will be room for light rail?

[Extra capacity]

All adding lanes does is increase capacity, capacity for developers in the inland "Empire". Drivers now show what they will put up with in terms of congestion, nothing will change. Added lanes will relieve congestion temporarily, but they will ultimately reach the level of congestion that occurs now. Rethink the process. Maybe its time to start land-use zoning by region instead of by City. Alternatives like increased train service, bus lanes (like the I-10), will do more. But again for every 100 cares you get off the freeway by say a bus line, 100 more will be willing to take their places. Not that I'm a big fan of it, but differing and shorter routes through the Santa Ana Mountains and the Cleveland National forest would do more by letting people get to where they need to more directly rather than going around the horn on the 91 now. A well designed throughway through the CNF could be done well (with large animal corridors and bridges like on Fullerton Pass Road) and would provide many drivers with a serene drive to/from work. What is wrong with that?

[Ken Theisen]

Until the 91 is widened through Corona, OC can add as many lanes as they want and it will do nothing except make the crunch to get through Corona worse. Going from 6 lanes down to 3 and a car pool lane, is bad enough. Going from 8 lanes down to 3 and a car pool lane will add another hour to the east bound commute. Where is Riverside County? Looking into building a tunnel for several Billion. You could do a double decker freeway through Corona for that much. But I would hate to live anywhere near that toxic parking lot, that is 91 during most of the day.

[DJB]

This is a waste of money.

1) It will only reduce driving delay temporarily. In the long run it will cause more suburban automobile-dependent development which will fill the road back up. Also, people who avoided the route because of traffic will start to use it once it's wider.

2) This is bad for the environment. The long-run effect will be more cars driving at the same low speeds and more suburban automobile-dependent development in the Inland Empire. That adds up to habitat loss and air pollution (including climate change).

We need to make dense cities that mix land uses. That's the only way to ensure that people can walk to things and that public transit is a viable option. California law says that we're supposed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (AB 32), this moves us in the opposite direction.

[Ed C.]

No widening will ever solve the parking lot that is the 91.

What this area needs is a tunnel through Cleveland National Forest...but given the environmentalists' attitude toward that option that will not happen at all.

Those who really care about cutting down the carbon footprint (I don't)... well, they need to start considering about living in dense-use developments in the OC.

[George Ousley]

This will ease the traffic from the 241 to the 71 freeway where it will jam even worse than now with the oncoming traffic from the 71. Until a lane is added through the 15 freeway, Corona will be a disaster. The only stopgap answer is to remove the commuter lane from the 71 to McKinley. The temporary answer is a four-day, 10 hour work week.

[jim]

Why are "any" funds coming from OCTA for this project? It will only benefit people who live in the Inland Empire......The Inland Empire transportation authorities should be footing the bill for this and any other transportation improvements which occur between Orange and Riverside/SB counties. Why should Measure M dollars go towards facilitating the Inland Empire's commute? This is a waste of stimulus dollars, and Measure M tax dollars. This money should be used in areas which will benefit those who represent the tax base who contributed these dollars.

[NM]

Road widening does not relieve congestion. All it does is lead to more cars on the road. Evidence of past experience confirms this, so why do we continue to pursue these types of projects?

Check out the transportation planning theory of "triple convergence." 3 factors will act in concert to re-congest the newly widened freeway:
1) Spatial convergence - some of those who take alternate routes will be attracted to new capacity on the 91 and begin to use it again.
2) Time convergence - some of those driving earlier or later to avoid congestion will travel more at the peak hours.
3) Modal convergence - some of those who are choosing to take Metrolink or use other modes will switch back to driving.

All of these forces will collectively act to re-congest the new lanes shortly after they are added. Road widening increases capacity for driving, but does not relieve congestion.

[LAofAnaheim]

Expect the same headline again in 2018.........

[James Otto]

They need to remove the 2 toll lanes off the 91 in order to relieve this bottleneck.
I'm currently living through the nightmare of the project at the 5 FWY at Beach Blvd. I wouldn't wish this lane expansion on my worst ememy!

[bill]

This might be a dead thread but I thought I would post something from someone who drives it every day. I commute from south Corona to Irvine every day and my now that construction has started my drive home is 30 minutes longer per day. In trying to make a new lane they have actually closed an existing lane which now causes the merge from the 241 to the 91 to be much worse than it already was. The new lane will never allow me to recover the time I am currently loosing. They should be doing this construction 24/7 until it is done instead of stretching it out so long.
For those of you that think we should give up our cars and just take public transportation this will never happen until public transportation becomes more efficient. Even with the added delays of construction my commute would be 40-60 minutes longer and limit my flexibility.

[Eddie Barker]

Get rid of fasttrack! It's ridiculous that there are two fasttrack lanes causing all of this traffic. How could California be broke when they are earning millions of dollars from these extortion attempts disguised as "fastrack toll roads"?