Supervisors Expected To Approve New Interchange

KESQ.com News Services

RIVERSIDE -The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is expected today to approve a contractor’s bid to reconfigure a frequently clogged freeway interchange in the Coachella Valley.

Skanska USA, the North American subsidiary of a Stockholm-based construction company, was chosen from a total of nine firms that bid on the Palm Drive/Gene Autry Trail Interchange Improvement project.

Skanska estimates it can complete the interchange overhaul for roughly $17 million — half of what transportation officials originally predicted it would cost.

A mix of federal stimulus funds, mitigation fees paid by developers and appropriations from the city of Palm Springs and county Redevelopment Agency will cover the project’s costs.

The interchange, located near Cathedral City, has become a notorious bottleneck for rush-hour traffic.

Plans call for widening the Palm Drive/North Gene Autry Trail overpass at Interstate 10, as well as constructing loop ramps in a partial cloverleaf configuration to ease traffic flow.

Crews will also expand the nearby bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, according to county Transportation Department documents, which state the modifications will “increase capacity and improve the daily operation for current and future traffic volumes.”

“It’s going to be an enormous benefit to the traveling public,” said Transportation Department Director Juan Perez.

Work on the two-year project is slated to start next month and create some 350 construction jobs, he said.

Skanska USA is also working on a multi-phase project in San Bernardino that involves adding lanes along a 7.5-mile stretch of Interstate 215.

Riverside County endorsed that project and urged federal funding because of the hundreds of construction jobs it has created in the Inland Empire.