california

The I-15 Express Lanes north of San Diego CA are now 20 miles, 32km long. With little fanfare they opened a new 4 mile section today at the northern end this week (2012-01-16) extending 16 miles in operation since 2009. An original 8 miles was built initially as a reversible high occupancy (HOV) lane in the 1980s.

Sale of the South Bay Expressway tollroad (CA125) to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) went to financial close at the multi-city/county agency offices December 21 and SANDAG officially became the owner and operator of the facility today (Dec 22). Purchase price was $341.5m and SANDAG bought from the financial institutions left with its residual value after a bankruptcy last year.

Completion of the blocked 241 tollroad of Orange County California looks just a little closer following an okay from the City of San Juan Capistrano in the path of the planned final leg to I-5.

"What has happened to my adopted home state of over last decade is a tragedy, both for Californians and for America. For most of the past century, California has been 'golden' not only in name but in every kind of superlative—a global leader in agriculture, energy, entertainment, technology, and most important of all, human aspiration.

"In its modern origins California was paean to progress in the best sense of the word. In 1872, the second president of the University of California, Daniel Coit Gilman, said science was "the mother of California."

Thomas J Umberg, the chairman of the state of California High Speed Rail Authority recently claimed in the Wall Street Journal that the proposed LA-San Francisco HSR line could cover its costs "just as every high-speed rail system around the world does." (WSJ 2011-06-06)

Rarely has a state official provoked a more crushing response.

Excerpts from transport economists Alain Entoven, William Grindley and William Warren (WSJ 2011-06-13):

With the San Joaquin Hills (CA73) under financial pressure, bondholders have agreed to terms that  stretch out the bonds life by six years from  2036 to 2042, reduce required debt coverage, and lower annual debt service payments for the next 12 years. The SHJ73 tollroad that parallels I-405 and I-5 in Orange County south of Los Angeles has never had the traffic or revenue projected for it when financed in the early 1990s.

Atkinson Construction got their notice-to-proceed from Los Angeles Metro in January on detailed design of a toll Express Lanes project on the I-10 and the I-110 - two of the busiest highways in the LA metro area. Actual construction is due to begin mid-year for an opening of 25 miles, 41km of 2x2 toll lanes late 2012.

South Bay Expressway (SBX) or CA125 in the San Diego area has now creditcard machines operating at all their toll points. The self-swipe card machines, unusual on American tollroads, were all working by last weekend. And SBX have recently announced toll changes, both increases and promotional 3-month decreases.

We've been taken to task for our comments on Title 21 in the cellphone piece by a California official who emails:

The California 241 Toll Road in Orange Co will remain closed at least through Wednesday Dec 29 in the section from the 133 Toll Road junction to Santiago Canyon Rd. The pike was closed by mudslides in the Loma Ridge section Dec 22 after nearly a week of heavy rains.