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Drivers no longer have to merge on the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway before the Palmdale Boulevard exit, as a project to widen the freeway and provide a continuous lane recently opened, after nearly 16 months of construction.
Drivers no longer have to merge on the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway before the Palmdale Boulevard exit, as a project to widen the freeway and provide a continuous lane recently opened, after nearly 16 months of construction.
A nearly 16-month project to widen the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway to alleviate congestion has been completed. This overpass near the Palmdale Auto Mall shows where a continuous lane was added.
PALMDALE — Drivers on the Antelope Valley Freeway through Palmdale may have noticed the trek has become a little smoother recently, as a nearly 16-month construction project to improve traffic flow has been completed.
The southbound freeway was widened to add a continuous lane be-ginning about where it crosses Technology Drive (Avenue P-8) and ex-tend-ing nearly to the Palm-dale Boulevard exit, removing the bottleneck that can occur where the road narrows by one lane.
In addition, the off-ramp from the northbound freeway at Rancho Vista Boulevard was widened to accommodate more vehicles for left- and right-turning traffic. This is intended to eliminate the back-up of vehicles onto the freeway traffic lanes.
“The traffic improvements alone will benefit commuters and truckers who use the routes daily by reducing travel time, congestion and pollution,” Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer said. “It was also an economic boost, bringing over 100 good paying jobs to our region. The staff and contractors worked diligently to finish the first Measure R project in the region under budget which is amazing.”
Acting Economic and Community Development director Mike Behen said they’re really trying to pay attention to the needs of commuters and the needs of the Valley.
The $25 million project was designed by Caltrans and construction was completed by contractor C.A. Ras-mus-sen, under the oversight of Palmdale officials.
Construction and design costs were $15.2 million. The savings from this project will be reallocated to other Measure R projects, officials said.
The next phase will address capacity on the south and northbound off-ramps to Palmdale Boulevard. These improvements are intended to alleviate the problems with exiting traffic backing up onto the freeway lanes.
The combined project is the first of 11 along the Highway 138/14 corridor in the works, to help alleviate congestion on the busy freeway, using funds from Measure R, a county sales tax approved by voters in 2008. Five of these projects are in Palmdale.
In 2011, the North County Transportation Coalition was allocated $200 million through Measure R to help design and construct portions of State Route 138 within the county.
“I’m very proud to see how all these different agencies — the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster, North County Transportation Commission, LA County, LA Metro, Caltrans — and companies in the private sector like CA Rasmussen and Psomas, combined forces to make real improvements for our community,” Palmdale City Manager J.J. Murphy said. “Great things really do happen when people and agencies work together for the common good.”
Additional Measure R projects in development include im-prove-ments to the Avenue N in-ter-change, widening 10th Street West from Ran-cho Vista Boulevard to Avenue O-8 and off--ramp improvements and widening Palmdale Boul-evard from Fifth to 10th streets east.
In Lancaster, the projects include improvements to the interchanges at Avenues G, J, K and L, and Columbia Way (Avenue M).
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