State Hopes to Revive High Desert Freeway

State transportation officials said Thursday that they hope to revive long-delayed plans to build an east-west freeway through the Antelope Valley within 20 years, serving local commuters and long-distance travelers looking for a road around Los Angeles.

The proposal for the six-lane freeway got a boost this week when Antelope Valley government and business leaders endorsed a route. Caltrans officials said they plan to launch an environmental study of it early next year and hope to win approval for the project within several years.

The freeway would run about 70 miles east from the Golden State Freeway near Gorman across the Antelope Valley to California 18 at the Los Angeles-San Bernardino county line. The project would cost billions of dollars, but state officials do not have a precise estimate.

“Building a freeway in a growing area can provide a lot more benefit than in an urban, congested area,” said Wally Rothbart, a Caltrans official in Los Angeles. “Within 20 years, I think we can see the freeway will be in place.”

The proposed freeway would be designated California 138. It would replace both the Metropolitan Bypass route across the Antelope Valley adopted by Caltrans in the 1960s that was never built and the current California 138 that is mostly a collection of two- and four-lane roads.

At the regional level, transportation officials said the new freeway would offer north-south travelers an alternative to the Golden State Freeway through Los Angeles. In the Antelope Valley, it would relieve congestion on Palmdale Boulevard, which is part of the current California 138.

The route endorsed this week by Antelope Valley officials would run from the Golden State Freeway to the Antelope Valley Freeway near Lancaster along a line south of Avenue E. It would join the Antelope Valley Freeway south to Avenue P-8 in Palmdale and head southeast to the county line.

The Avenue P-8 segment through Palmdale would route the freeway past the new Antelope Valley Mall, the major aerospace employers at Air Force Plant 42, and the adjoining 17,000-acre area to the east where the city of Los Angeles still plans to build a major regional airport someday.

Caltrans had to abandon the old Metropolitan Bypass route in part because housing development has encroached on the right of way since its designation in 1966. Caltrans officials said the new route’s right of way is mostly clear and urged local officials to keep it open for future use.

The new freeway route had been suggested by a 16-month, $175,000 study sponsored by the Southern California Assn. of Governments. Ultimately, the state Transportation Commission would have to designate the new route, possibly in 1992 or 1994, officials said.