57/60 Confluence Project Breaks Ground in Los Angeles County |
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Federal Highway Administration
10 November 2015
FHWA 70-15
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Contact: Nancy Singer
(202) 366-0660
Project to bring congestion relief to one of California's worst bottlenecks
DIAMOND BAR, Calif. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) helped break ground today on the first phase of the SR 57/60 Confluence Project in Los Angeles County. At a cost of $256 million, the project – when completed – will increase capacity, relieve congestion, and enhance safety in the cities of Diamond Bar and Industry. A $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant was awarded to the town of Industry last year for the project.
“This project is a win for businesses and people living in Los Angeles County,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “Not only will it improve the efficient movement of freight, which is an important priority for the economy, it will also improve the quality of life for people who have experienced the frustration of waiting in rush hour traffic.”
The project is named after the two-mile stretch where the 57 and 60 freeways converge into one highway creating severe bottlenecks. More than 356,000 trucks and cars use that segment each day, and drivers attempt to weave across multiple lanes at the 57/60 bottleneck where 17 lanes of traffic merge sharply into only 14, which results in frequent traffic delays and accidents.
A three-phase improvement project, the 57/60 Confluence Project includes ramp and interchange reconfigurations and the addition of mainline and bypass lanes to reduce weaving. The $10 million TIGER grant will be used for construction of a westbound freeway off-ramp at Grand Avenue in the project’s second phase. Similar projects nationwide are not moving forward due to the lack of funding. Funding for the third and largest phase of the 57/60 Confluence Project, which includes the mainline improvements, has yet to be identified.
“We applaud Los Angeles County for moving this project forward,” Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau said. “It is tremendously important to the economy of California and, by extension, to the nation as a whole.”
The 57/60 Confluence is a critical regional route for the movement of goods from the Southern California ports. More than 10 percent of the traffic traveling through the 57/60 Confluence consists of commercial vehicles carrying goods through the two ports, which both combined handle $375 billion worth of goods.