Yesterday Metro announced that, in January, the agency's board is expected to approve moving forward with Metro's 57/60 Freeway expansion project, located in Diamond Bar in east L.A. County.
At yesterday's meeting of the Measure M Independent Taxpayer Oversight Committee, staff announced that the board is scheduled to approve the LOP - the life of project budget - basically a go-ahead to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yesterday's Metro 57/60 Freeway widening slide - via Metro presentation (Note: Metro's slide claims that this project includes "bicycle facilities" but SBLA was unable to find any mention of any bicycle components in the project's 2013 environmental documentation)
Streetsblog profiled the 57/60 widening mega-project earlier this year. Metro and Caltrans note that the intersection of the two freeways creates a “severe bottleneck,” “weaving conflicts,” “truck accidents,” and delays to commuters and freight. Metro and Caltrans assert that the widening project there will result in “Cleaner Air,” “Healthier Local Environment,” and “reducing traffic congestion.”
The 57/60 freeway widening project scope was approved in 2013, with a design tailored to serve the now-defunct NFL Grand Crossing Stadium proposed in the city of Industry.
Metro will soon help more drivers get to the site of canceled NFL Grand Crossing NFL stadium site - by widening the Grand Avenue bridge shown on the left. Rendering via MEIS
add one new eastbound general purpose driving lane
add new flyover on- and off-ramps, including a new offramp through L.A. County’s Diamond Bar Golf Course.
widen the existing Grand Avenue bridge over the freeway (currently 72 feet wide, would be 118 feet)
Early construction activities are currently underway, including:
a $91 million shrinking of the public golf course, which looses five percent of its area
a $16.8 million expansion of Diamond Bar surface streets leading to the freeway
Those pre-construction phases are funded by Metro, but managed by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments. The SGVCOG will also manage the next phase of construction, which they put out to bid in October. According to the COG's notice to bidders, the next construction phase is anticipated to cost $270-275 million.
Transit ridership and freeway funding are up. $14 million for MicroTransit was postponed. South Bay C Line extension draws both controversy and support. Law enforcement, Taylor Swift, bus lanes, and more!