Riverside Freeway Adds a Lane

Another lane improvement on the Riverside Freeway is easing commute times during the morning rush hour for motorists from the Inland Empire, Orange County transportation officials said Monday.

The $350,000 restriping project added a westbound lane along 2.1 miles of pavement from the Corona Expressway in Corona to the Orange County line.

The lane, which opened just before the weekend, connects with a $6.7-million lane addition that opened on the Riverside Freeway in late February.

Together, the improvements span 3.3 miles of the westbound Riverside Freeway between the Corona Expressway and the Foothill-Eastern toll road in northeastern Orange County.

“We’re already starting to hear from our constituents that the lane addition is saving them time,” said Gregory T. Winterbottom, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority board of directors. “People are calling in and thanking us.”

Motorists make more than 260,000 trips a day on the Riverside Freeway, making it one of the Southland’s most congested. Most of the drivers live in the Inland Empire and commute to jobs in Orange County.

Preliminary reports from Corona indicate that the lane addition has almost doubled highway speeds through the area from 19 mph to 35 mph at the peak of the morning commute. OCTA officials say the lane has reduced the amount of weaving, which can slow traffic.

The new lanes represent the first improvements to the Riverside Freeway since the transportation authority bought the 91 Express Lanes from a private company in January 2002. The toll lanes run for 10 miles along the highway’s median.

Immediately after the purchase, OCTA lifted a troublesome noncompetition agreement between Caltrans and the previous owner that prevented widenings and other major improvements to public portions of the highway.

“The message we have to get out is that we have gotten rid of the non-compete clause,” Winterbottom said. “If it was still in place, it would have not allowed us to do these simple improvements.”

Over the next 30 years, Caltrans, OCTA and the Riverside County Transportation Commission plan to make $1.6 billion in improvements to the Riverside Freeway on both sides of the county line. The projects include interchanges, widenings and more carpool lanes.