LOS ANGELES:CA-60 Truck Toll Lanes Look Positive

Meanwhile sections of that report on existing conditions on CA-60 and Caltrans’ cost estimates indicate the vast scale of this project, which is one of four to be considered in the LA area. CA-60 as it now operates is a basic 10-lane freeway with the inside lanes HOV. It has 36 interchanges of which six are fwy/fwy. Under consideration is 61km (38mi) of the road from the I-710 interchange in East Los Angeles to I-15 near Ontario in San Bernardino co.

The study has already established a justification based on traffic numbers for two-dedicated heavy truck lanes in each direction. These will be implemented by a mix of widening to a 2T/5/5/2T lane configuration with the truck lanes (T) on the outside. Where there is no widening proposed, the scheme would make room for the pair of trucks-only lanes on the outside by elevating 2x2 mixed flow lanes on T-section piers for a 2T/3/2El/2El/3/2T arrangement.

Cost of the project is estimated at $3,860m all at-grade and $6,280m all double-deck. This amounts to $16m/lane-km ($25.5m/lane-mi) at-grade and $26m/lane-km ($41.5m/lane-mi) all-elevated. The double-deck costing is likely to be more complete since they have accounted for right-of-way, construction and engineering support, but omit utility relocation and environmental mitigation costs – which are likely to be more severe for the at-grade version. The at-grade widening would involve substantial property acquisition: 723 houses, 48 businesses, 28 industrial establishments, 7 schools and bits of golf courses. The double-deck arrangement would require little extra real estate.

The existing CA-60 right-of-way varies between 45m (148') and 55m (180'), the latter being where there are auxiliary lanes to make a total of 14-lanes for the 5km (3mi) segment where CA-57 and CA-60 run together. There are serious weaving problems in this Brea Canyon 14-lane segment which is also the steepest part, crossing through the Chino Hills. It is also the one section with some undeveloped land alongside.

23km elevated, 38km widened?

Amatya says his guess is that a bit over a third of the roadway length makes sense as double-deck, and the remainder widened – a tentative and personal opinion. For costing, Caltrans broke the 61km (38mi) project into eight segments. The premium cost of doubledecking over widening cost varies between 27% and 110%. Taking three segments with the least doubledecking premium over widened right-of-way, which total 23km (14mi), you get a $4,570m ($19m/lane-km, $30m/lane-mi) project which takes 411 houses, 8 businesses, 17 industrials and two schools.

A major challenge for the doubledecking scheme will be assuring local residents that the 4-lane elevated section will not be too great an intrusion and source of noise. It might be reserved for light vehicles.

There are more underpasses of CA-60 than overpasses. Still, many of 44 overpassing bridges would need to be raised to accommodate any elevated CA-60 lanes underneath, or those elevated lanes would have to soar over the top of the overpasses.

The CA-60 analysis is concerned with heavy trucks defined as 3-axles or more. Average daily traffic of all vehicles on CA-60 presently ranges between 144k veh/day and 287k veh/day but about two-thirds of the length of the route is running over 200k veh/day. Peak hour traffic loads overall range between 12k and 20k. Heavy truck traffic on a daily basis varies between 12k

v/d and 27k v/d with a lot in the mid-teens k/day. Peak hour flows for trucks (which are 10am to 1pm) range between 2.4k and 4.5k trucks/hr. Lead consultant for the study is Kaku Assoc, where project manager Paul Taylor says they assumed truck lanes need to be kept to 800 to 1,000 trucks/lane/hour to maintain free flow conditions as needed for toll paying trucks.

TTX optional

By the design year 2020 they expect heavy truck flows to be in the range 4.4k to 8k trucks/hr through the peak hours, close to double present volumes. The study is assuming that heavy trucks will have the option of staying in the mixed flow lanes for free, or paying a time-varying toll by transponder to travel in the truck toll express (TTX) lanes. Moreover it is assumed that the TTX lanes will have fewer access and egress points than the mixed lanes so for some truck trips the TTX lanes will be unsuitable.

The model numbers show the TTX lanes as carrying 42% to 55% of eligible heavy trucks in different segments. Skeptics about the value of this scheme to commuters in cars will seize on the fact that the number of heavy trucks in the mixed-flow lanes in 2020 is projected to be not much different from volumes now! Essentially the TTX lanes will cater to the projected increase to 2020 levels in heavy truck traffic in the corridor. TTX volumes during three midday peak hours will be in the range 570 to 840 trucks/lane/hr by different segments of the road.

In the present roadway the all-vehicles AM peak goes from 5am to 9am and the PM from 3pm to 8pm. Average peakhour speeds currently range between 22mph (35km/hr) and 34mph (54km/hr) in the morning and 28mph (45km/hr) and 43mph (69km/hr) in the evening peak.

If current levels of congestion were maintained on the free lanes, the TTX lanes would see the route traversed by trucks (assuming 65mph) in 32mins versus anywhere between 55mins and 105mins in peak hours now, for time savings between 23mins and 73mins. If truck time is worth $75/hour trucks should be prepared to pay tolls up to $25 for a 23min timesaving and up to $90/trip for the 73min timesaving.

Spreading peaks

Of course many of the trucks are already avoiding the worst of the peak by concentrating in the midday period 10am to 1pm, when fewer light vehicles are on the road. But the peaks keep spreading and squeezing that midday period. There are no plans to increase capacity in CA-60 for light vehicles.

CA-60 is a major truck route between the Long Beach ports area in San Pedro Bay via I-110 (Harbor Fwy) or I-710 (Long Beach Fwy) to Salt Lake City and Denver via I-15, and to Phoenix AZ and Texas via I-10. Lousy railroad service associated with reduced competition – unreliable delivery times, slow turnaround, lost cargo – has thrown substantial new business to the trucking companies in the past several years. Just-in-time business thinking will dictate increased reliance on smaller-unit, direct trucking. Rail’s share will decrease. The study says the ports of Los Angeles are the best equipped to gain substantial new west coast business – as compared to Oakland, Portland and Seattle – because of larger LA ports investments in channel deepening and docks, and better connections to major markets in California itself and eastward.

Much short-distance trafffic

As with other heavy truck routes it turns out CA-60 serves a great diversity of origin-destination pairs, including very substantial much shorter-distance trips. 31% of the San Gabriel Valley’s jobs are classified as being in industry that is relatively dependent on trucking. At the eastern end I-15/northward is the dominant feeder, but at the western end a surprise was that several north-south routes feed heavily into CA-60 and indeed I-605, the San Gabriel River Fwy, east of the I-710, is by a small margin the largest connector for truck traffic to CA-60, not I-710 from the ports, as assumed.

The report finds the truck accident rate is not elevated when measured relative to vehicle-miles traveled on the CA-60, but reports that many car drivers are intimidated by the ‘moving walls’ of trucks in the rightside lanes when they try to enter and exit, and that the growth of heavy truck traffic in the mixed lanes seems likely to increase the hazards for light vehicles.

The feasibility study says: “The complete separation of passenger cars and trucks would be ideal to minimize safety issues... the addition of (truck lanes) capacity would improve (CA-60’s) operations considerably.”

I-10, the San Bernardino Fwy parallels the CA-60 just 6km (4mi) to the north but it is difficult to access from the ports area and is less of a truck route than CA-60. Further north again, a third east-west route I-210/CA-30 (Foothill Fwy) along the foothills of the rugged San Gabriel Mountains is currently being completed to I-15, but the much fought over ‘missing gap’ I-210/I-710 in South Pasadena limits the value of that route to heavy trucks. (Shown dashed in map)

Truck toll express (TTX) lanes are part of a major investment study (MIS) planned for I-710 from CA-60 to the ports. On I-15 the San Bernardino Association of Governments (SANBAG) is looking at segregation of trucks and RVs from light vehicles. This has many hilly and windy sections.

Those routes are on either end of the CA-60 truck route.

The main northwest/southeast-running I-5 or Golden State/Santa Ana freeway through the center of Los Angeles may also be studied for truck toll lanes as part of examination of options for reconstruction of the old narrow freeway sections in LA and Orange counties. Narrow in LA seems to be 8-lanes or less! (Naresh Amatya amatya@scag.ca.gov tel 213 236 1885, Paul Taylor, Kaku kakuinc@pacbell.net 310 458 9916)