The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) in California is set to receive a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of up to $225 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the I-10 Corridor Express Lanes project.
U.S. DOT says the loan will help finance construction costs associated with the 10-mile widening of I-10 between the Los Angeles county line and I-15 in San Bernardino County.
I-10 is one of three national coast-to-coast interstate routes, providing east-west access from California to Florida. As part of the primary freight network, I-10 is also an important route for facilitating goods movement between Southern California and the rest of the nation, U.S. DOT says.
According to SBCTA, the project includes two tolled express lanes in each direction. In addition, lanes to assist drivers getting on and off the freeway (auxiliary lanes) will be constructed in selected locations. Eighteen bridges throughout the corridor will either be replaced, widened, or improved to accommodate the widening of the freeway.
The goal of the project is to provide numerous benefits including reduction in peak time congestion and emissions, improved access to transit, safety improvements, job creation, and accommodation of future growth in the area and at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. More specifically, it aims to improve transit access via Omnitrans bus service with connections to Metrolink at San Bernardino and Montclair Transit Centers.
This TIFIA loan will replace the current loan that the Build America Bureau provided to SBCTA for the project in April 2019.
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SOURCE: U.S. DOT / San Bernardino County Transportation Authority
