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How do you build a freeway in a residential neighborhood? Sound like a joke? Well, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) crews have taken that question very seriously on the State Route 15/40th Street project.
Basically, the idea is to build sound walls to reduce construction noise in the area, dig a big ditch, build or modify bridges, and pave the bottom of the ditch. Sound simple? It isn’t.
The goal is to build a freeway that is rarely seen and barely heard by residents in the area. To do this, Caltrans has designed the project to construct the freeway 25 feet below the existing ground level, with widened bridges over the freeway that will be able to hold several two-story lightweight buildings. Extra-wide sidewalks and sound walls also are being built throughout the project. The image is one of motorists driving along El Cajon Boulevard, passing business after business, and with the exception of seeing the on and off ramps, never knowing they crossed a freeway.
The residents in the area can look forward to much quieter neighborhoods when the project is completed. Many streets that were once used by tens of thousands of motorists, will be cul-de-sacs, eliminating all but local residential traffic.
Aesthetics have played a major role in the construction of sound walls, bridges, sidewalks, fences, light posts, bridges and parks. Cobblestone features are used around the project, as are decorative railings and street lamps. Architectural consistency is important. Three community parks, including one on top of the freeway, will be built or improved, and four landscape projects will begin along the freeway even before the final pieces of the construction project are completed.
By the time the project ends in the summer 2000, 1.9 million cubic yards of dirt will have been moved — enough to completely fill Qualcomm Stadium three times — and more than 10 million pounds of steel used to reinforce 120,000 cubic yards of concrete. What else? How about the placement of 12 miles pipe for water, sewer and storm drain facilities all within the 2.2-mile construction area.
This $71.3 million project is the last section of route 15 in the nation to be brought up to freeway or highway standards. The need is, and has been, intense. About 40,000 vehicles per day used State Route 15 (SR-15), also known as 40th Street, before construction began. Compare that number with the 210,000 motorists per day who use the congested Interstate 805 just a few miles away, many of whom will switch to this new section of I-15 when it is completed. This project will help improve traffic flow around the region on I-805, Interstate-8, SR-94 as well as in the immediate neighborhood.
One of the biggest challenges on this project in particular is building a new freeway while accommodating the existing traffic flow. Recently, traffic was moved onto a newly-paved section of the freeway to help motorists move throughout the area more easily as well as make the neighborhood quieter.
Caltrans engineers started meeting with community groups early in the design phase to discuss the community's vision of the project. Those meetings continue today with construction engineers. The Citizen Oversight Committee, made up of representatives from local planning groups, civic organizations, and business districts, has met four times a year. Other groups also are taken on tours of the work to see first hand what it takes to build this freeway.
Several recent events have made a significant change in traffic patterns and life in general for residents along the project. Allowing traffic to use a portion of the new freeway has greatly reduced the traffic volume on some parts of 40th Street. Also, the recent completion of some earthwork now will allow most of the construction traffic to move throughout the project without using city streets, reducing congestion and noise.
The project design provides for transit and pedestrian traffic in some new and creative ways. Two pedestrian bridges will be constructed: one at Monroe Avenue, leading to a new community park, and the other at Landis Street giving access to the YMCA. For transit use, new bus pads will be constructed at the El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue interchanges. The pads are a separate lane exclusively for buses at the top of each off ramp that will allow them to exit the freeway, allow passengers on and off the bus, then immediately get back on the freeway.
Can a community and engineers work together to build a freeway? Absolutely. The I-15/40th Street project is proof.
Gary Gallegos is District 11 director for the state Department of Transportation. A registered civil engineer with more than 15 years of experience, he heads a workforce of 1,200 state transportation employees.
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