The Draft Environmental Impact Report/ Environmental Assessment (EIR/EA), Project Report, Concept of Operations, and Traffic and Revenue Study for the I-105 ExpressLanes Project will be available for public review and comment on the project website beginning Friday, May 22, 2020, through Monday, July 6, 2020.
The supporting Draft EIR/EA and Project Report technical studies as well as printed copies of the aforementioned reports are available upon request.
The I-105 corridor experiences heavy demand during peak commute hours that exceeds its capacity. As a result, Metro and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) are studying the possible implementation of ExpressLanes on the 105 freeway between the 405 and Studebaker Road, which is just east of the 605. The project will also study the 105 west of the 405 to Sepulveda Boulevard to identify potential signage locations and access points into the ExpressLanes.
This corridor traverses the cities of El Segundo, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Los Angeles, Lynwood, South Gate, Paramount, Downey, Norwalk and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.
Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, in-person public hearings will not be held in order to maintain social distancing requirements. However, a virtual open house is available (105virtualforum.com) that contains maps, narrated presentations, and other supporting material the public can review. In addition, a live presentation with Q&A will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2020, 6pm and the public can participate via the web or phone. For details, please visit the I-105 Expresslanes Project website at (metro.net/105ExpressLanes) or 105virtualforum.com.
In January 2017, the ExpressLanes Strategic Plan was presented to the Metro Board. The Strategic Plan identified three tiers of ExpressLanes projects, with Tier 1 projects showing the highest potential benefits. Tier 1 projects include the I-105, sections of the I-405 and I-605, and extensions of the existing I-10 and I-110 ExpressLanes. The PSR/PDS and ExpressLanes Strategic Plan can be found in the Reports tab at metro.net/105expresslanes.
Metro and Caltrans began the preparation of the Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment to evaluate the environmental effects of this project pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). As part of this effort, Metro hosted public scoping meetings along the corridor in March 2018 to get input from the community on the proposed alternatives and project. Formal public comments were accepted during the scoping period.
Metro encourages the community to stay involved and sign-up to receive project updates. The I-105 ExpressLanes are included in Measure M, the local sales tax passed by Los Angeles County voters in 2016. Measure M provides $175 million for this project.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
So this becomes an even better reason why I use the Fly-A- Way bus to LAX and hopefully others will use Green and Crenshaw lines to LAX. The carpool, now toll lanes, are becoming nothing more than the Cadillac lanes for those who can pay for a responder or their business. But what I want to know is how are you going to keep people jumping in and out of these lane, short of putting some kind of divider.
Caltrans / Metro are already putting candle-stick dividers on the I-10 Express Lanes between I-710 and I-605. These dividers appear to be the California standard for express lanes. This would likely be the treatment for the I-105 Express Lanes as well.
As a recent commuter on the 105 from the 110 to El Segundo, Alternate 2 isn’t worth the original $175M. Alternate 3 is probably worth something like $250M, but nowhere near the $750M. Better bang for your buck is fast-tracking the Green Line Extension to Norwalk Metrolink or the Vermont Train. I supposed if the extra money was raised with a bond against future toll revenue, I could get behind this project.
A turn out was constructed so as the Green Line could have gone into LAX. Money from various sources , bribes disguised as political contributions, stopped that. The art space jobs had nothing to do with the LAX turn out since the line meanders thru former aerospace locations.
It is pretty ridiculous that Caltrans and Metro are changing many lanes of our freeways in to express toll lanes. For one thing if the Metro Green Line that runs along part of the I-105 Freeway was better planned it would have served a larger amount of people. The Metro Green Line never was connected to LAX, which was a mistake of our life time. It currently runs from Norwalk to the Redondo Beach Station (which is not near the beach) so essentially it runs from no where to no where. The only positive aspect that it connects up with the Metro Blue Line. The I-105 Freeway is ridiculous in the fact it was never connected to the I-5 Freeway like it should have been to begin with. It is becoming impossible to drive almost anywhere without having to pay toll. It is starting to remind me of other highways in the east. The current Harbor Transit/Tollway on the I-110 Harbor Freeway does not relieve traffic. Most people still use the regular lanes because the transit/tollway was never finished in to Downtown Los Angeles, which makes no sense what so ever. There are so many of our freeways that were never connected and do not serve the purpose it should have. Just like the Terminal Island Freeway which was never connected up the I-405 Freeway. All you are doing is making people pay toll for a system which does not work. Even when you make the current HOV lanes on the I-105 freeway into express toll lanes; most people will still use the regular lanes and the traffic will still be congested. Other than the new Crenshaw Line which has not yet opened and the new LAX people mover; I personally feel most of our tax money is wasted in this state, by your planning department which constantly comes up with plans that are inefficient for the LA Area.
In a perfect, easy-flowing traffic world, the 105 would have connected with the 5. However, when the 105 was in final planning stages, the Santa Ana Freeway was already stretched to capacity and could not handle The extra traffic of another feeder freeway.
On the other end, the 105 could have become they primary access route into LAX, relieving pressure off of Century Blvd. the weird stub after Sepulveda relates to the long-shelved Pacific Coast Freeway.
And yes, the Green Line should have hit LAX, but when initially planned, there were still thousands of aerospace jobs in the South Bay.
It’s equally wrong that the Green Line was not extended eastward to the Norwalk Metrolink Station, a logically terminus.
You are right on most of this. Today, I-5 could probably have handled the I-105 extension since it is about to be 8+2 lanes. The bigger reason it was not extended, however, is that Norwalk objected to it. This is also the primary reason that the Green Line was not extended east to Norwalk Metrolink Station. One thing I would hope that freeway and transit advocates can agree upon (if this is possible) is that logically planned improvements should not be stopped if all required environmental studies and other studies are complete. Eminent domain makes sense when used for publicly useful infrastructure projects. Note on the I-105 west of Sepulveda: I think this was meant to be more of a easy transition onto Imperial Highway. By the time the I-105 was built (late 1980s / early 1990s), the Pacific Coast Freeway had long been shelved. The expressway-line elements of California 1 in and around the LAX / Westchester area were indeed eventually meant to be incorporated into a Pacific Coast Freeway.