EXTENSION 91-Express goin

EXTENSION

91-Express goin’ west?

Express lanes on SR-91 in Orange County Calif may be extended from the end of the California Private Transportn Company’s (CPTC) 91-Express facility near the SR-55 interchange 17km westward all the way to the Los Angeles Co line near Buena Park. John Standiford of the Orange Co Transp Authority told us he is currently looking for an engineering consultant to study how express lanes might be fitted into this stretch of the highway which is the major east-west link across the north of the county and provides the major link between Riverside Co and Los Angeles proper.

The county has just begun $180m of upgrades to this stretch of highway using county tax funds. This the first rebuild of the highway since it was constructed in the early 1960s, and consists of rebuilding interchanges and the addition of a pair of HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes to the existing 8-lane profile of the roadway (in places the 8-lanes include a pair of ‘auxiliary’or merge/diverge lanes).

Unlike the easterly portion of SR-91 where CPTC was able to build its 4-lane tolled express lanes facility in a 12m wide grass median area, the westerly portion has no median space upon which to encroach and any construction involves roadway widening. And whereas the CPTC is located in a stretch of the highway with few interchanges (because much of it is traverses the Santa Ana canyon through a mountain range), this new westerly section is in an intensely developed area with 14 interchanges (one every 1300m), which raises questions about how much access and egress is to be provided to the express lanes in the center. The study is supposed to look at questions like (1) whether there could be 2 express lanes through simply opening the planned HOV lanes as express lanes in a 4/1/1/4 profile or whether special measures would be needed to segregate such lanes from the mixed vehicle lanes (2) if 4 express lanes might be justified as a continuation of the easterly facility and if so whether that will require further widening and a 4/2/2/4 section (3) the possibility of taking over a pair of mixed-vehicle lanes to produce a 3/2/2/3 arrangement. (The eastern CPTC part is a 4/2/2/4 road.) The Authority’s Standiford says that although the western express lanes might not need much capital funding (because of the tax financed work underway already that could support a 3/1/1/3 scheme) they could generate good revenues for the county to support transport improvements elsewhere by being spun off as a toll concession.

“It’s up to the engineers now” An opinion survey completed

recently showed close to 2/1 local support for more express lanes and the Authority director Stan Oftelie recently declared the political support exists and “It’s up to the engineers now.” Following the success of 91-Express (East) a number of former critics have turned. Local state assemblyman Bill Campbell who was a critic of the eastern toll concession now says he thinks the people are prepared to “pay some premium to get to work faster” and he is

sponsoring a bill to allow tolling on the western portion. (Contact John Standiford 714 560 6282)