Car-pool lanes get under way on 60 Freeway

Officials broke ground Wednesday on a $125 million car-pool project on the 60 Freeway, part of a broader effort to relieve congestion on the region's major east-west arteries. The project, which will add a car-pool lane in each direction of the 60 between the 605 and 57 freeways, is expected to be completed by 2010 and will shave time off car-poolers' commutes, said Caltrans District 7 Director Doug Failing. About 211,000 commuters use the stretch of the 60 between the 605 and 57 every day, according to Caltrans estimates.

"This is one of many (high occupancy vehicle) lane projects Caltrans is working on," said Failing, standing in the parking lot of the Puente Hills Mall as truck traffic buzzed behind him on the 60. "But few routes are as important to goods movement as the 60 Freeway." The first phase of the 60 freeway project is set to start May 21 with workers putting concrete barriers along the outside shoulder of the freeway between Azusa Avenue and Crossroads Parkway, said Tim Wilson, project executive for Skanska, Caltrans' contractor on the project.

"Traffic won't get affected;

they won't even lose a lane," said Wilson, adding that the first phase will last about a year while the roadway is widened and sound walls and landscaping are put in place. The addition of the new car-pool lanes and reconstruction of the median are not expected to take place until 2009, Wilson said. Failing said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is contributing the bulk of the project's costs - about $76 million.

The federal government is pitching in another $19 million, and the L.A. County Sanitation District is contributing about $250,000 for landscaping improvements.

The freeway's car-pool lane is a vital component of plans meant to reduce congestion, said Duarte City Councilman John Fasana, a member of the MTA board of directors. "We are moving forward with plans for (extending) car-pool lanes on the 10 Freeway," said Fasana, referring to the MTA board's March decision to authorize $356.5 million to extend carpool lanes on the 10 from the 605 to the 57 freeways.

"These are vital links from Los Angeles to points east and west." The 210 Freeway already has car-pool lanes along its length, said Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. "With this project and as we move ahead on the 10 car-pool extension, we will be able to close the car-pool gap," Antonovich said.

He added that new car-pool lanes, in conjunction with freight rail projects like the Alameda Corridor, are part of a forward-looking vision to handle the increased cargo coming into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Antonovich said those two ports are expected to handle 70 to 80 percent of all goods coming to the United States within the next two decades.