Part of Damaged Interchange to Reopen Friday : Roads: Contractor earns $3.5-million bonus for work on Golden State and Antelope Valley freeway connectors.

Part of the earthquake-damaged interchange between the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways will reopen Friday ahead of schedule, state officials announced Tuesday.

A key link between the desert communities of Lancaster and Palmdale and the San Fernando Valley and Downtown Los Angeles, new bridges will connect the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway (California 14) to the southbound Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) and the northbound Golden State Freeway to the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway.

The bridges will open shortly after the the Friday morning rush-hour, officials said.

Work on the connectors from the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway to the northbound Golden State and from the southbound Golden State to the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway--the route for travel between the Antelope Valley and points north such as San Francisco--is not expected to be completed until the end of the year.

A legislator hopes to post a sign on the interchange dedicating it to the memory of the Los Angeles motorcycle officer who plummeted to his death when it broke apart in the Jan. 17 temblor. Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) has proposed that the interchange be called the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange.

Spurred by the promise of an extra $100,000 a day for each day work is completed ahead of schedule, contractor Kasler Corp. of San Bernardino will finish the project 35 days ahead of schedule and rack up a $3.5-million bonus, officials said. The contract was awarded March 18.

About 250 round-the-clock workers used more than 6.7 million pounds of steel and 16,700 cubic yards of concrete to rebuild the bridges, which are taller than a 12-story building, according to an aide to Gov. Pete Wilson. Total cost of the project was $19.6 million plus the $3.5-million bonus.

Caltrans officials said the new bridges were built to modern seismic safety standards.

Katz said the reopening will be a “relief to the neighborhoods.”

Reconstruction of the interchange is expected to ease the pressure on Santa Clarita’s main streets. Before the Northridge quake, the interchange carried about 40,000 vehicles a day, according to Caltrans.

The Sierra Highway parallels the Antelope Valley Freeway and was the only southbound road out of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys for weeks after the quake. Vehicles clogged the mostly two-lane Sierra Highway, and drivers lined up for hours along San Fernando Road through downtown Santa Clarita.

The two thoroughfares have taken a pounding from the thousands--sometimes tens of thousands--of additional cars driving over them each day, said Bahman Janka, Santa Clarita’s traffic engineer.

“I think we’re going to get relief now on both of those roads,” Janka said. “This will take care of much of that (pressure).”

FEMA has acknowledged the damage by approving $545,000 to repave Sierra Highway, from its intersection with Placerita Canyon Road south to the city boundary, and Soledad Canyon Road between Langside Drive and Sierra Highway.

One of the few benefits of the quake came in increased ridership for Metrolink. The north county commuter line jumped from about 1,000 per month to more than 12,000 passengers at its peak.

“We had a silver lining in the earthquake,” said Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman. “It forced people to take another look at how they get to work.”

Daily average ridership for June was 4,600, and Metrolink officials expect to lose about 7% of their passengers when repairs to the interchange are finished.

A similar drop-off occurred when the Golden State Freeway reopened, and the commuter rail line is considered in greater competition with the Antelope Freeway because they parallel one another, Hidalgo said.

Metrolink hopes to prevent some losses by wooing more first-time riders now. About 180,000 flyers were mailed to Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley residents last month, offering four free rides on Metrolink, and recent ad campaigns are stressing shorter commute times along the Antelope Valley leg of the Santa Clarita route.

The interchange will be the third major quake-damaged freeway artery opened ahead of schedule. The Santa Monica Freeway reopened April 11, and the Golden State Freeway in the Santa Clarita Valley reopened May 17. In both cases, the government paid hefty bonuses to the contractors.

Simon is a staff writer. Alger is a special correspondent.