Road Work Ahead

Concerned about the growing number of big rigs on Southern California’s freeways and fearing an increase in truck-related accidents, a regional task force Thursday discussed options such as trucks-only routes and elevated lanes to ease traffic congestion and make the roads safer.

“You have to recognize that the status quo isn’t going to work in 20 years,” Stan Randolph of the California Trucking Assn. told members of the Southern California Assn. of Governments’ truck-lane task force. Ironically, the group’s meeting in Los Angeles started about 15 minutes late because several task-force members were delayed by a truck accident on the Pomona Freeway, a main concern of the group.

Trucks are involved in a disproportionately high number of fatal accidents, and the number of big rigs on the road is growing steadily in the region as the population increases, according to regional and national transportation groups.

Among possibilities are segregating trucks in existing freeway lanes, building trucks-only lanes at ground level or elevated, and routing trucks into existing carpool lanes, said Paul Taylor of Kaku Associates, a Santa Monica transportation consulting firm hired by SCAG.

The company is preparing cost projections, to be released this fall, for implementing each of those options on 35 miles of the Pomona Freeway in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Studies of the Long Beach and Santa Ana freeways in Los Angeles County and the Ontario Freeway in San Bernardino County are also in the works.

Orange County’s roads, particularly the San Diego and San Gabriel River freeways, face the same problems, said Ronald Bates, a task-force member and a Los Alamitos city councilman.

Truck traffic in Orange County is projected to increase by about 20% by 2015, according to a study by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Routing trucks to existing carpool lanes during off-peak hours would be the least expensive solution, according to SCAG documents, but might prove annoying or dangerous to motorists because trucks have lower speed limits than cars. “You’re either going to speed up the trucks or slow down the [carpool] lane,” said Temecula Councilman Ron Roberts, chairman of the task force.

Designating one or two existing lanes for trucks only would also be cheaper but would not add traffic capacity, SCAG documents said.

Another possibility would be reversible lanes in which traffic could change directions on designated stretches of road during certain hours, but that option raises safety concerns and is not feasible over long stretches of road.

The most obvious solution--building new lanes and access ramps--would cost millions, if not billions, of dollars, officials agreed.

Raja J. Mitwasi, division chief for Caltrans District 7, which comprises Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said elevated lanes could cost as much as $60 million a mile.

Consultant Taylor said that no single solution would apply to all situations.

Also, because most of the projects being considered will take 20 years or more to complete, different solutions may be appropriate for different stages of construction, Taylor said.

“You can do things in the short term, like perhaps opening [carpool] lanes in off-peak hours, and work your way up to the very high-cost portions of the project,” he said.

Improvements will be slow in coming because each city and county affected by a project must approve it, environmental reports and engineering studies must be done, and a package of federal and state funding must be assembled.

“The way out of our transportation dilemma is not going to be quick or cheap,” Taylor said.