Old Highway 395, Part 14: US 395/US 91 from Riverside to San Bernardino County via Market St/Riverside Fwy

By the mid 1950s a tremendous amount of traffic was passing through the Inland Empire, not only from US 91 and southern Los Angeles bound for Las Vegas and points north, but US 60 was also becoming a major east-west arterial between Phoenix and Los Angeles, and increasing population in San Diego started putting even more pressure on US 395. Initial steps were taken in 1949 to rectify the situation with the opening of the La Cadena Freeway, connecting Riverside to Colton, but the first real relief did not come until this section of the Riverside Freeway was built from 1957 to 1959 (US 91 and US 91/US 395).

In 1961, the other portion of the equation was built in the form of the Moreno Valley Freeway, its first segment from Orange St east to the 8th St/University Avenue deviation, and subsequently extended further west to Sunnyslope as the continuation of the Pomona Fwy in 1963. The thumbnail at right shows the Moreno Valley Freeway as it existed in 1963; click for a 119K enlargment with 8th St (University Avenue, Part 13), US 91 (then the Riverside Fwy) and the young University of California Riverside marked on the image. The groves and groves of oranges everywhere seem incongruous to those of us who routinely travel through the modern city.

The centrepiece of the new freeway was its new intersection with the Riverside Freeway, appropriately named the Riverside Interchange. Today the junction of Interstate 215, CA 91 and CA 60 (with its outputs running, starting west and going clockwise, WB CA 60, NB I-215, SB I-215/EB CA 60, and "WB" [actually SB in this stretch] CA 91), this humble cloverleaf, as depicted in the 1963 photograph at right, rapidly became the gridlocked focus of every southern IE commuter and the interchange drivers loved to hate as long backups and traffic snarls resulting from overcapacity ramps and drivers unable to understand the meaning of the word 'merge' conspired to make it one of the most congested junctions in the entire state.

In 2002, the first set of "targeted improvements" to certain high traffic areas and to facilitate further upgrades were started by Caltrans District 8, completed at a cost of $16 million by 2004. This upgrade rebuilt the Spruce Street bridge, changed the EB CA 60 onramp from Orange Street to Main Street and widened the undercrossing bridges at University Avenue, Mission Inn Avenue and Third Street along CA 91. We saw one of these widened bridges in Part 13 when we crossed under it on University.

In 2004, Caltrans District 8, the Riverside County Transportation Commission and the Federal Highway Administration started work on what as of this writing is the largest and most complex public works project ever in the Inland Empire. With an estimated price tag of $317 million, the project will construct four miles of new HOV lanes plus widened regular traffic lanes on all three freeways (with new bridges at Linden Ave, Iowa St and Blaine Ave to accommodate the wider alignments), add new soundwalls and retaining walls, add a new Martin Luther King Blvd interchange, add a truck bypass to the Moreno Valley Interchange, reconstruct the Moreno Valley Interchange flyover, and improve the Blaine, University Ave, Central Ave and (CA 60) Day St interchanges. The upgrades also completely and permanently removed the CA 91 Poplar Street interchange, and the I-215 El Cerrito Drive interchange (Part 13).

However, the biggest news is that the project also intends to significantly improve the Riverside Interchange and replace the two most congested movements with flyovers, finally gutting the much maligned and underdesigned cloverleaf, as shown in the Caltrans artist's impression at left. A towering flyover ramp ("NW Connector") will connect NB I-215/WB CA 60 with "WB" CA 91, over a mile long with a peak vertical clearance of 72', and a second flyover ("SE Connector") will connect SB I-215 to SB I-215/EB CA 60, approximately 2/3 mile long and a peak vertical clearance of 65', leaving a "quarter leaf and diamond" on the lesser movements from "EB" CA 91 to WB CA 60 and SB I-215 to WB CA 60. Due to the massive support requirements for the NW Connector, it is supported by 26 columns reaching up to 135' in depth through 12' pile shafts, while the SE Connector is "only" supported by 16 such columns down to 115'. New signage will be erected at the new interchanges, and the alignments leading to and leaving the Interchange will be widened with extra lanes. As of this writing (fall 2008), both flyovers are built and in operation and have already greatly improved commute times through the Interchange. Although no official date is given, it is probable that most of the major work should be complete by 2009-10. For road closure information and public inquiry, please see the official Caltrans District 8 60/91/215 Improvement Project Home Page.