The above video was recently released by the High Desert Corridor [HDC] study team. For those new to the project, the HDC proposes to construct a new 63-mile east-west freeway between the 14 freeway and State Route 18 in the Antelope Valley.
A rail link parallel to the new road is also being studied as a way to connect California’s bullet train project to the proposed XpressWest, a private venture seeking to build a high-speed train between Victorville and Las Vegas. It should be noted that XpressWest needs a multi-billion dollar federal loan in order to be built and the U.S. Department of Transportation recently decided to stop processing that loan.
As for the High Desert Corridor, the idea behind the project is to relieve traffic on the 138 (the Pearblossom Highway), which is partially two lanes, often congested and can be very dangerous. A lot of truck traffic from the San Joaquin Valley area uses the 138 (and other roads) to reach the 15 and 40 freeways, the two big eastbound links for freight traffic headed from California to other parts of the U.S.
The ongoing environmental studies for the HDC were funded by the Measure R half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008. The project, however, remains unfunded. One possibility to help pay for the project is to use a public-private partnership to fund part of the corridor as a toll road to help pay for construction.
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[…] High Desert Corridor Construction Authority Makes Video Touting Themself (The Source) […]
If Metro and Caltrans really want to make the HDC to pick up the maximum of traffic away from the L.A. Basin Freeway. It really needs to link the I-5 to the 15/40 Junction. All the roads (5, 14, 15, 215, 40, etc.) lead up to the HDC must be widen to six lanes in each direction so that there will be no stop-and-go traffic when people are driving in the mountain areas. Speed and Air Quality improvement purposes will be defeated there are bottlenecks on these roads.
In the same token, making the HDC as a toll road will defeat the project purpose as well because very few people will pay a toll to exchange a privilege to drive through the mountains in a less populated area. It makes more sense to build a freight rail corridor and solar panel farms along the HDC to generate the revenue to build and operate the HDC divert precious founds away from other transit projects.